The Daily Examen is an ancient spiritual practice credited to St. Ignatius of Loyola. 
It 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 helps us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience.
 
Fr. Dennis Hamm, SJ, a scripture professor at Creighton University, calls the Daily Examen “rummaging for God.” He likens it to “going through a drawer full of stuff, feeling around, looking for something that you are sure must be there.” In other words, we  look back on the previous day, rummaging through all the “stuff,” and finding
God in it.
 
These are the five steps of the Daily Examen, We'd love to hear about your experience with it!
 
1. Ask God for Light: Become aware of God’s presence. Look at your day with God’s eyes, not merely your own. Ask God to bring clarity and understanding.

2. Give Thanks: Review the day with gratitude. The day you have just lived is a gift from God. Be grateful for it. Walk through your day and note its joys and delights. Focus on the day’s gifts. Pay attention to small things.

3. Review the Day: Pay attention to your emotions. Carefully look back on the day just completed, being guided b God. We detect God in the feelings we experience. What feelings did you experience today: Boredom? Elation? Resentment? Compassion? Anger? What was God saying through these feelings?

4. Face Your Shortcomings: Choose one feature of the day and pray from it. Face up to what is wrong in your life and in yourself. Examine an experience or mistake and what you learned from it. Pray about it. Allow the prayer to arise spontaneously from your heart.

5. Look Toward the Day to Come: Look toward tomorrow. Ask where you need God in the day to come. Ask God to give you light for tomorrow’s challenges. Pay attention to the feelings that surface as you survey what’s coming up? Allow these feeling to turn into prayer and ask God for guidance, understanding, and hope.
 
For more details, see:

• http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen#sthash.0dgj52kK.dpuf
• http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen#examen-part-of-your-day

Lent is a holy season of preparation for the renewed life promised by Easter. Lent is also a journey of renewal.

It is an intentional season of actions that takes us out of the ordinary and shakes things up a bit. A journey that leaves behind destructive desires, behaviors and attitudes, and embraces new pathways that can lead us to renewed lives.

Let’s shake things up a bit this Lent. Do things out of the ordinary. Make the season intentional by “doing something” to deepen our spirits and inspire us to act. 

This blog is all about our Lenten journey of contemplation and action. 

Each week, we’ll post the “suggested” homework to encourage further exploration and action during the week. Some of the weekly activities might be: journaling, prayer, reading scripture, and other spiritual practices such as meditation, fasting, and tithing.

Feel free to post comments about how your Lenten journey is progressing!

​As promised here is your homework for the first week of Lent!

Here is a question to think about 

“Is there something in my life - a habit, a grudge, a fear, a prejudice, an addiction, and emotional barrier, a form of excess -  that keeps me from loving God with my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and prevents me from loving my neighbor as myself?  How might I address this over the next 40 days?”

Maybe you would like to keep a journal this Lent. Or perhaps you can share some of your thoughts or inspirations in this blog.

And if you want to do some reading:

• Noah's journey:  Genesis 6, 7 and 8.
• Elijah's story about Meeting God is in, 1 Kings 18 and 19.
• Moses' trek through the desert is in, begins in Exodus 13.

After you read one of these stories ask yourself a few more  questions:

How do I live into God's mission?  For me?  For my community?  For the world?

Feel free to share your thoughts!