Two Weeks with the Daily Examen
Two Weeks with the Daily Examen
A few weeks ago, I was introduced to the Daily Examen while attending a worship service. The service focused on prayer, silence, and the Daily Examen, a five-step process to awaken our awareness of God in our lives while reflecting on the last 24 hours.
The five steps are:
· Pray and seek God’s Presence
· Give thanks for the day, be specific
· Review the day and your feelings throughout
· Acknowledge your shortcomings
· Seek Gods help for the day to come
At the end of the service, the pastor challenged the congregation to practice the Daily Examen for a week. My normal practice is to begin my day with prayer, reading, journaling, and thinking of what I want to accomplish that day. This is where I decided to implement this practice.
Developed by Ignatius of Loyola who later became the founder of the Jesuit Order of Priests, the Daily Examen is a way we can discern God around us and His direction for our lives.
This is what I learned from two-weeks engaging in this exercise:
1. This was hard – Taking time to think about the last 24 hours was a challenge. It was hard to remember events of the day and I got bored, quickly. But I was committed. Each day, I begin to think of each step of my day - the drive to work, arriving at work, working out, etc. The more I stayed with it, the more I remembered. This practice was intentional and required work.
2. The Daily Examen is powerful – Beginning this practice, I knew God and His presence. However, this intentional practice of seeing God in everyday ways is powerful. Many ways, I take for granted knowing that God is all around me. Traveling safe to and from work in crazy traffic, creative ways to process grief with a smile, seeing leaves change from green to warm colors, a gentle breeze, building healthy relationships with people you meet when you are a transplant, etc. I see God’s hand in, on, and around me, and I am grateful.
3. Awareness is important - One of the steps of the Daily Examen is to review your feelings throughout the day. What was I feeling driving to work with the sunroof open? How did I feel when I saw my late mother’s picture on Facebook? Why was I irritated when a co-worker didn’t come to work on mandatory Mondays? Do I feel lonely at certain times of the day than others as I live alone? This step required vulnerability and honesty, even though I am acknowledging the emotions to myself. Taking note of feelings can help us see how and why we respond to those feelings.
4. God is all around us – I believe God is a big God who can do small things to show how big He is. I heard an account of a woman on her way to the Tops Friendly Grocery Store in Buffalo, New York on March 14, 2022. That is the day, 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron carried out a mass shooting killing 10 people at that store. The woman, who frequents that store found herself missing the turn three times to the street to get there. By the time she got there, the shooting was over, hysteria was in the parking lot. “I was supposed to be in there.” She said on the podcast. This is God conducting small acts on our behalf for larger life changing events.
This practice reminds me to look for God when I least expect Him to show up, while understanding that God is all around me, just waiting for me to see Him.
