Examen at Night

Schmidt: Ignatius, Examen

Guest Writer Frederick W. Schmidt

“The Examen builds on the insight that it’s easier to see God in retrospect rather than in the moment.”—James Martin in The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life (HarperOne, 2010), p. 97.

“Rummaging for God” in our lives.

One of the central practices in Jesuit devotion—the one Ignatius of Loyola considered indispensable—was the prayer of Examen. Ignatius believed that the key to spiritual growth was cultivating awareness of when and where God had been present throughout the day. It was so important, in fact, that he urged his followers to do the Examen, even if it cost them the little time they might have for prayer. 

One writer refers to this as “rummaging for God” in our lives. Rummaging is an excellent, commonplace activity that we often resort to when we have lost something; car keys, phones, and umbrellas have been among my favorites over the years.

The Examen is a practice that tells us something important about the spiritual life: Spiritual practice is preeminently about cultivating a sense of God’s presence. It isn’t about devotional piety or the number of hours we spend in overtly religious activity. It isn’t an anxious, endless effort to earn God’s love. The Spiritual life is about cultivating habitual awareness of God’s presence, which shapes and informs our lives.

Ignatius recommends two questions:

One: What were the events in your life today—the moments, conversations, and choices—that drew you closer to God and others in love?

Two: What were the events in your life today—the moments, conversations, and choices—that drove you away from God and others?

The answers to those simple questions invite us to evaluate our lives from a spiritual center. They are not about what feels good and what doesn’t feel good. Some things—such as addiction—feel good at first, but they invariably isolate us from God and others; by contrast, some things that don’t feel good, like asking for forgiveness, can draw us closer to God and those around us.

Instead, these questions raise our awareness of how patterns, habits, and choices shape our lives and how, armed with that knowledge, we can learn to be more readily available to God and others.

Rummaging around in our lives for God can be a source of inspiration, encouragement, strength, gratitude, and a renewed sense of spiritual purpose. That’s not a bad result for an activity that usually leads to discovering dust bunnies and lost umbrellas.—The Rev’d Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Name Day: June 24 Remembered

Name Day: June 24

“On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name.’ Then, they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed.”—Luke 1:59-63.

If your name is John or a derivative of it, June 24 was your name day. We also celebrated it as the birthday of John the Baptist. In some countries, such as Greece, this is even more important than your regular birthday. When our daughter, Joanna, and her dad were in Greece on this, her name day, their guide Maria did not charge them for taking them around that day. When others heard it was her name day, they gave her gifts.

Just as important as this name day is to our family is the remembrance that June 24 is the birthday of Bob, or “Dede,” my husband’s father, who showed our children and us so much unconditional love and care. Increasingly, in my life, I find it necessary to remember the people who taught us about unconditional love. We can feel the love they brought into our lives as we remember the person.

Consider learning about your name, its origin, and even your name day.

On June 24, I also remembered my grandparents, Joe and Anna, as I was named after them. Again, these were two people who taught me about love without conditions. I was the “apple of their eye.” They loved me no matter what I did. They did not always condone what I did, but still loved the sinner. Through their love, I learned about the unconditional love of God.

Honor and remember those who have brought the presence of love into your life. My experience is that by bringing them back into our memory, we can still feel and experience that love, even if they are no longer with us and are now living in eternal life.

The God of my understanding does not give us this love and then stop it at death. Love lives on. Love never dies.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Buechner: Birds

Buechner: Birds

“Wheeling through the summer sky, perching in the treetops, feeding their young, birds go about their business as generally unconcerned with the human race as the human race is generally unconcerned with them. But every so often, they do something that catches our attention. Canada geese heading south in the shape of a V. A white-throated sparrow grieving over poor Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody. A cardinal darting through the shrubbery like a flame. For a moment or two, even the dullest of us dimly realizes the world would be a poorer place without them. 

One wonders if, from time to time, birds feel the same way about us. A man with an umbrella is walking in the rain. A woman in a bathing suit picking peas. The patter song of a two-year-old in the sandbox. Do birds every once in a while see us as we see them, as basically irrelevant but occasionally worth the cocking of a beady eye, the flicker of a wing, the first few notes of a song?” —Frederick Buechner in Beyond Words.

The birds who visit the feeder just beyond my window save my life. As I write or read, their movement pauses me to look up from my page or computer and see the world outside my window. They call me to stop what I am doing and briefly say a short prayer of thanksgiving or a blessing for the healing of someone I know who is in pain that day. They bring me to a power outside of my world that is consuming me to be greater than myself and any difficulties I might feel that day.

 I also see similarities between our lives and theirs. Some birds don’t like to share. Some are constantly vigilant of their surroundings, seeming to fear constant danger, almost as if they are so nervous that they only feed for a moment.

I try to name them, but most stay for such a brief time that I barely get to know them. So today, I give thanks for the many sparrows, the brown thrasher, the blue jays, the nuthatch, the tufted titmouse, the Carolina chickadee, the male and female cardinals, and especially the downy woodpeckers, the northern flicker, and the red-bellied woodpeckers who change and redeem my life every day.

My husband gave me a clock for my office where I hear a different bird call on each hour. David Kalvelage, a longtime friend and former editor of The Living Church, shared with me his spiritual practice of reciting a prayer at the hour as the clock in his house strikes the hour. I have started following this practice, which keeps me connected to the God of my understanding for brief periods, again as the “real” birds do.  

Joanna Seibert https://www.joannaseibert.com/