Rummaging for God (from April 3)

This week, I’ve been thinking about ways to pray. Even though we talk abstractly about prayer in the church a lot, we aren’t always very specific about HOW we pray. In the April issue of our parish newsletter, the Fieldstone Crier, Jonathan Duce has written an excellent article about the Jesus Prayer, a method for focusing attention in prayer at all times. You’ll receive that this week. Another practice I’ve encountered recently is the prayer of “Examen.” It comes to us from the Jesuits, the religious order called the “Society of Jesus” founded by Ignatius of Loyola in the 16^th Century.

Ignatian spirituality is focused on the way that God is present to us in our daily lives. The prayer of examen or, more colloquially, “Rummaging for God,” is a way of reviewing the past 24 hours of your day and looking for the everyday, frequently overlooked, ways that God comes to us. As described by Dennis Hamm, SJ, (who also coined the phrase above), there are 5 steps (handily recalled as LTFFF—light, thanks, feelings, focus, future). It can take 10 minutes or a whole hour—however long you have.

1. Pray for light.

Ask God to be able to remember the last day. More specifically, pray for the grace to understand as well as to remember.

2. Review the day in thanksgiving.

The past 24 hours contain many gifts. What are they? It could be as small as a kind word from a stranger standing in line for coffee.

3. Review the feelings that surfaced in your recollection.

Where was there the most energy? Where was there anger or fear? Where was there joy and happiness? Where was there tension and pain? Peace and rest?

4. Choose one of the strongest moments and pray from it.

A particularly strong feeling is a sign that something important was going on at that time. Feelings aren’t good or bad; feelings are just information. If you felt a strong sense of nervousness or fear, ask God for guidance and for the grace to trust. If you felt intense joy, give thanks. If you felt intense worry over someone, hold them in your heart in prayer.

5. Look toward tomorrow.

How do you feel about the coming day? Are you excited? Are you dreading it? Are you feeling a sense of resolve and organization, or are you overwhelmed and out of control? Whatever comes, use it for prayer—for help, or guidance, or simply ask God to be with you for the day.

This way of prayer helps us not just to know abstractly that God is with us, but to cultivate the awareness of God with us and to bring God deliberately into our focus. Take a moment now and pray your day.

[5 steps from Dennis Hamm, SJ, “Rummaging For God: Praying Backward Through Your Day” published 5/14/94 in the journal America]