The week’s memory work is Philippians 3:13-14. Shuffle the notecards you made on Monday and practice putting the words in order.

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

It takes courage to allow God to search us, but depth in Him requires that we ask. Let this prayer guide you into His Presence. “The Examen Prayer” is a tool to complete in the evening. It is a time to ask God openly and honestly if His truth is defining who you are as you contemplate your day with Him in love.

The Examen Prayer

Taken from The Examen Prayer - Timothy Gallagher

Introduction to the Examen

• Growth in relationship with God occurs through revelation.

• The Examen is a way of praying that opens our eyes to God’s daily self-revelation and increasingly clarifies our own responses to it.

• The Examen is something we ask God to do. It is not human achievement.

• The Examen is our way of being regularly available to God so that His love can heal our darkness and point the way toward spiritual growth.

• The Examen prayer seeks the awareness of God’s daily leading in our lives.

• The Examen is NOT the self-evaluation of a heart in isolation but rather a conversation and dialogue between our heart and God.

Transition

• Begin the Examen by becoming aware of God’s love. See John 1:48, Mark 2:14, Luke 7:13, Mark 10:21.

Step One-Gratitude

• By starting with gratitude, we open the window into the deepest reality of our spiritual lives: God’s unbounded love for us and desire for our response.

Step Two-Petition (Matthew 7:7 and John 14:13)

• Step one teaches us that all we do and have comes from God.

• Petition is asking for the grace that alone can make our Examen fruitful, recognizing that even the rest of this prayer of the Examen is a gift from God.

• Humbly and sincerely ask for the outpouring of God’s grace and love that enables us to do all things and so empowers us to practice the Examen.

Step Three-Review

• We review our spiritual experience of the day and ask God to shine light on our experience so that we may remember it well.

• When experiencing desolation (heaviness), ask God for the cause.

• When experiencing consolation (energizing joy), ask “what is the Lord desiring me to do?”

• This step contains enormous potential for growth in our capacity to notice, understand, and respond fruitfully to the spiritual movements of our hearts and to increase knowing God’s love.

• Watch for possible invitations from the Lord for moral growth.

Step Four-Forgiveness (Luke 15:20)

• This is the privileged daily space of the deep experience of knowing that we are loved and held by God in all our brokenness.

• In this step we reflect upon the times of our mistakes.

• Our asking for forgiveness is simply the gateway for God to respond with His loving embrace.

Step Five- Renewal

• The first four steps have looked back from the perspective of the present. This step looks ahead.

• In this step look ahead to foresee and plan specifically how to respond to God’s call to growth.

• Which spiritual initiatives will lead most surely to growth?

• What specifically shall we undertake as we prepare for the coming day?

• Will we be able to live concretely the newness that we seek?

• This step will often - though not always - be concerned with seemingly small initiatives. small enough that they would be unnoticed by others.