at grace in january we had a visitor from the london meditation centre who led us in an ignatian examen of the previous year. it really was wonderful. julie dunstan kindly sent us a copy of the examen. adam posted it as his lent blog post and has added it to the zine section of the grace web site. you can adapt it to make it a weekly, daily or occasional examen.
julie says this about it...
St Ignatius, in his teaching of the Examen expected that God would speak through our deepest feelings and yearning, what he called consolation and desolation. Consolation is whatever helps us to connect in love to ourselves, others, God and the universe. In his language - whatever leads to an increase in faith, hope and love. Desolation is whatever blocks that connection...
So what follows is this - if we can reflect upon what in our life connects us to Life, love, faith, hope, peace... the qualities of the spirit... we can track where it is God is most available to us - or, more precisely, where we are most available to God. And the opposite - if we can see where it is we are being drained of life - and then think about how we block God in those areas... This is not the same as feeling merely good or bad.
if you want to know more about the examen a great and easy to read introduction to it is the book sleeping with bread.
Can thoroughly recommend 'Sleeping with Bread'. Its really simple, but really helpful. Although it might look a bit like a kids book, don't be fooled. It is applicable to everyone - that's the beauty of it.
I'm currently reading another book by the same people - 'Healing the Purpose of Your Life'. So far it seems to build on the initial stuff discussed in Sleeping with Bread.
Posted by: Phil Goodacre | February 28, 2005 at 04:05 PM