AUGUST

Week 2. Spiritual Practice Material and Tradition Elements for this Block.
The Ignatian Examen Paying Attention as spiritual practice

COMMUNITY

And in this he showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed to me, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought: What can this be? I was amazed that it could last, for I thought that because of its littleness it would suddenly have fallen into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and always will, because God loves it; and thus everything has being though the love of God. Julian of Norwich, 14th C. Like all other [spiritual] practicespaying attention requires no equipment, no special clothes, no greens fees or personal trainers. You do not even have to be in particularly good shape. All you need is a body on this earth, willing to notice where it is, trusting that even something as small as a hazelnut can become an altar in the world. Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World Objectives.
To make the idea of spiritual practice accessible and inviting. To introduce the Ignatian Examen as a spiritual practice of paying attention.

Background for Facilitator.

This is the first session focused explicitly on spiritual practice for the year. The intention is to make spiritual practice inviting, fun, and accessible. Spiritual practice can be explained as simply paying focused attention to one activity or element. This session introduces the Ignatian Examen, a daily practice of noticing the consolations and desolations of the day, more simply explained as noticing the moments during which you were most and least grateful, or felt closest and farthest from God. There are several different ways of asking the questions, and Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life offers a great introduction to the practice. There are also several helpful websites with descriptions and explanations of the practice, Ignatian Spirituality and The Examen on Wikipedia. This practice is simple and accessible enough to be a daily practice that can be easily inserted into participants daily routine, and the hope is that it will also be a portable practice something that can sustain them through both good and rough days of their year of service. Over time, reflections on this practice can show patterns of consolation and desolation, or reveal which actions and encounters lead an individual to feel closest to God and God's purpose in her life.

For this session, you, the facilitator, will need to walk participants through the process, asking them questions as they journal their responses.

For this session, please plan to spend 75-85 minutes together. Materials You Will Need.
Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn, Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life, (Paulist Press, 1995). Excerpt from An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor (included here). A journal for each volunteer.

Pillar Signature: Journaling. 5-10 min.

Each Spiritual Practice block will include a time for journaling. Some of these practices lend themselves naturally to journaling, and others are more active or focused on other sorts of activities. For each block of spiritual practice, invite volunteers to bring their journals and spend some time in the beginning of the session free-writing about how God has been at work in their lives recently, paying attention to where theyve seen God in their work, in their community life, in the world around them. For this month, the Examen activity is focused on journaling as well, but be sure to offer both times of writing: free-write as well as the focused Examen guided journaling time.

Presentation of the Material. 15 min.

An explanation of paying attention as spiritual practice is the place to start. Excerpts from chapter 2 of An Altar in the World are a great way to get participants to begin thinking in this way. (You can also use the quotes at the beginning of Spiritual Practice unit, in orange above.): The easiest practice of reverence I know is simply to sit down somewhere outside, preferably near a body of water, and pay attention for at least twenty minutes. It is not necessary to take on the whole world at first. Just take the three square feet of earth on which you are sitting, paying close attention to everything that lives within that small estate. You might even decide not to kill anything for twenty minutes, including the saltmarsh mosquito that lands on your arm. Just blow her away and ask her please to go find someone else to eat The practice of paying attention is as simple as looking twice at people and things you might just as easily ignore. To see takes time, like having a friend takes time. It is as simple as turning off the television to learn the song of a single bird. Why should anyone do such things? I cannot imagine unless one is weary of crossing days off the calendar with no sense of what makes the last day different from the next. The practice of paying attention offers no quick fix for such weariness, with guaranteed results printed on the side. Instead, it is one way into a different way of life, full of treasure for those who are willing to pay attention to exactly where they are. After youve discussed spiritual practices and paying attention in general, tell the group that youre now going to try out one way of paying attention. Offer an explanation of the Examen, reading aloud several excerpts from Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life:

During the bombing raids of World War II, thousands of children were orphaned and left to starve. The fortunate ones were rescued and placed in refugee camps where they received food and good care. But many of these children who had lost so much could not sleep at night. They feared waking up to find themselves once again homeless and without food. Nothing seemed to reassure them. Finally, someone hit upon the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold at bedtime. Holding their bread, these children could finally sleep in peace. All through the night the bread reminded them, Today I ate and I will eat again tomorrow. (1) For many years, we have ended each day the same way. We light a candle, become aware of Gods loving presence, and take about five minutes of quiet while we ask ourselves two questions: For what moment today am I most grateful? For what moment today am I least grateful? There are many other ways to ask the same questions: When did I give and receive the most love today? When did I give and receive the least love today? When did I feel most alive today? When did I most feel life draining out of me? When today did I have the greatest sense of belonging to myself, others, God, and the universe? When did I have the least sense of belonging? When was I happiest today? When was I saddest? What was todays high point? What was todays low point? Then we share these two moments with each other. Usually the entire process takes about twenty minutes. When we are very sleepy, we can easily finish in ten. We call this process the examen. (5-8)

Gut Response. 2-5 min.

After youve explained the practice of the Examen and shared excerpts from Sleeping With Bread, ask participants what theyre thinking. Have they done anything similar to this before? Is the idea familiar? Does it sound interesting? Whats their gut reaction?

Engagement of the Material: Group Activity. 20 min.

Ask participants to get out their journals and pens. Explain that youll be guiding them through the process of the Examen, directing them through the 5 steps. Invite them to take a moment to get comfortable, then offer these guiding words with ample time in between each step for fruitful journaling. Become aware of Gods presence. Take a few deep breaths. Notice the world around you, what you see, hear, smell, feel. Pay attention to how alive things are - notice the people near you, remember the person who created the things before you, acknowledge the light that allows you to see, the air that allows you to breathe. Sense the Spirit at work creating and animating all things. Review the day with gratitude. Go through your entire day, moment by moment or hour by hour. Remember and review each of your interactions: With whom did you speak? What did you see or read or hear? Where did you go? What did you eat? What memories surfaced? Walk through your day in your mind. Notice the moment during your day when you felt most grateful. As you reviewed your day, how did you feel? Which moment made you feel most grateful? When did you feel closest to God? Notice the moment during your day when you felt least grateful.

As you reviewed your day, during which of the moments did you feel least grateful? What was your biggest frustration or challenge today? When did you feel farthest away from God? Look toward tomorrow. As you pray, let go of the moments and emotions of the day. Release them and begin to focus on what tomorrow will bring. Remember that God was present during each and every moment of this day both the ones where you felt grateful and the ones where you felt ungrateful. Continue to remember and be aware of God's presence, today and tomorrow.

Group Reflection. 10-15 min.

After the journaling exercise is over, invite the group to reassemble in a circle. Ask them: What did you think of this practice? Was it easy? Comfortable? Difficult? Did you recall things you had already forgotten about the day? After participants share their initial reactions to the practice, invite anyone who is willing to share their moments of consolation and desolation. When this practice is shared, the experience is much richer and deeper some may have had the same moments, some may have experienced the same moments very differently, etc. Invite participants into discussion about how their moments compared or interacted with one anothers.

The Tradition. 5 min.

The Examen is part of a larger set of practices called the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, a four week retreat of meditations and prayers designed by St. Ignatius Loyola in the sixteenth century for his followers. (These followers eventually became known as the Jesuits, a religious order of priests in the Roman Catholic Church who are still vibrant and active today.) Volunteers might be interested in learning more about the Spiritual Exercises, especially since they were written for use by Christians living in intentional community and attempting to connect their work with their prayer. The written Exercises are available in print, and Wikipedia gives a good overview: The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola.

Synthesis. 5 min.
Invite participants to try this practice on for a week (or longer), setting aside time in the evening of each day to go through the Examen. They can continue to journal each day, or might want to simply engage the Examen in a meditative way of silent prayer. If the participants live in community, invite them to share the practice, perhaps over dinner each night. Ask the group to plan, now, how theyll continue to engage this practice together in the coming week.

Prayer.
God of every moment, We thank you for each moment weve encountered this day for the people, places, ideas and situations that weve encountered. Keep us safe this day and remind us that just as you were with us in every moment of this day, you have promised to accompany us in each moment of every tomorrow. Bless this community, its life together, and continue to enable us to pay careful attention to Your world. Amen.

** additional resource materials/web links** http://ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_examen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_Exercises_of_Ignatius_of_Loyola