The particular event of this day that I most want healed is… – March 3, 2018

This past week we started two small-group “Walking with Christ” guided prayer sessions (one on Tuesday evenings, the other on Wednesday mornings).  We are using Jacqueline Syrup Bergan and Marie Schwan’s book Love: A Guide for Prayer, based on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola.  Bergan and Schwan include an “Examen of Consciousness” in the book.  They describe this centuries-old practice as one “by which we discover how God has been present to us and how we have responded to his presence through the day.”  There are lots of different versions of The Examen.  There’s even an app for that.

I have some practice in this way of reviewing my day, looking for the graces, looking for the places where I have failed to respond to Grace.  Thanking God.  Asking for help.  But I am especially touched by the way Bergan and Schwan guide us through The Examen.  They suggest we pray this way: “[God] You have been present in my life today.  Be near, now, as I reflect on your presence in the events of today…your presence in the feelings I experience today…your call to me…my response to you.  I ask for your loving forgiveness and healing.”  And then they invite us to “fill in the blank”:  “The particular event of this day that I most want healed is ___________.” 

In a world so in need of healing, I know I need to start by asking for God’s healing in my own life.  Only then will I be able to be of service to others.