Day 61: 3/2/13- Use the Ignatian Examen of Consciousness To "Pray a Decade"

Day 61: 3/2/13- Use the Ignatian Examen of Consciousness To "Pray a Decade"  
New Thing- Use the Ignatian Examen of Consciousness To "Pray a Decade" & the Women's Lenten Retreat Day Two
Inspiration: The Women's Lenten Retreat, St. Ignatius of Loyola 
Time: An Hour 
Bottom Line: Very Illuminating 

If you know his story, you're laughing.

Reflection: As I mentioned yesterday, this weekend is St. David's Women's Ministry Lenten Retreat and we focused on the life, ministry, and theology of St. Ignatius of Loyola. One of the many prayer techniques that he is credited with is the Daily Examen of Consciousness. Here is a description of that process found here: 

   The Daily Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and discern his direction for us.  The Examen is an ancient practice in the Church that can help us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience.

 This is a version of the five-step Daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced.  
1. Become aware of God’s presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
5. Look toward tomorrow. 

I have used this process many times and have always found it beneficial. However, I was very much intrigued when our leader, Val, suggested that we try using the Examen to pray about other periods of time in our life--a week, year, or decade, for example. Since I turned 30 this year, I thought it would be a good idea to look over the last 10 years of my life. 

While it is to personal to outline all the details, I did see some very interesting patterns. I started by making a timeline of all the events and noticed that I tend to go though years of extreme change followed by about 2 years of normalcy. For example, the first cycle including graduating college, getting married, moving twice, and starting seminary all in a 3 months time. Then it was calm for about 2 years and then it started up again--D. was born, I was ordained a deacon, I graduated from seminary, bought a house, moved, started a new job and was ordained a priest in a matter of 6 months. And then calm for 2 years. Then I stared a DMin, we moved, and started a new job. So, this might be a calm period. 

However, I was not able to discern if I grew closer to God more during those times change or stability. Do I do better with calm or chaos? One thing I could tell, God was with me through it all as a rock, and that it didn't matter to Him what else was going on. He was the firm foundation that made it all possible. And I was left with a heart full of gratitude.