Friday Prayer/ Prayer of Examine

By ben | July 24, 2020 |

Today’s Text: Prayer of Examine

Today’s Song: Create in Me a Clean heart 

Notes: 

Today we learn from a medieval knight about prayer! 

One of the great challenges of the modern world is taking time to pause and reflect. Today we will learn from Ignatius of Loyola and his prayer of examine. 

The best way to use this guided time of meditation would be to carve out an hour, find a quiet place, and slowly work through each of these questions. 

Prayer of Examine 

1. Recall

• Recall that you are in the presence of God
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you look at your life with love this day

2. Rejoice

• Is there one moment today for which you are most grateful? What was said or done that made that moment special?
• How else has God freely given life and love to you today?
• Give thanks for whatever you have experienced.

3. Review

• Review your day, hour by hour   

  • Notice your thoughts, motives, and feelings     
  • Notice your words and actions     
  • Notice where there was energy or life, and where there was fatigue and weakness 

• Where were you most conscious of God’s presence and action in your life?     

  • Have I learned anything about God and his ways today, in ordinary moments?   
  • Did I meet him in fears, joys, work, misunderstandings, weariness, suffering?   
  • Did his Word come alive in prayer, scripture, or worship?     
  • Did I bring Christ to my community? Did they bring Christ to me?

• Where was there a barrier to God’s presence?     

  • Is there some part of my life still untouched by Jesus Christ and where he is calling me to a deeper change of heart?     
  • Where has this day revealed fears and shortcomings, sins and struggles, in the midst of my effort to keep company with God?
  • Where have I spoken or acted compulsively out of old hurts rather than out of love?

• What has God been saying and doing in my life today that I might have missed? How has he been working? What has he been asking of me?

4. Repent

• Thank God for the awareness of sin as a gift of his own love as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• Express sorrow for failing to respond to his love at work in you
• Acknowledge the forgiveness and the victory of Christ in which you share as a beloved child of God
• Seek honestly to accept the love of God as you are presently, with all your weaknesses
• Wonder at the way God constantly brings you home

5. Resolve

• In the light of this reflection on the past, how do I feel about the future?
• Is there something precise to which the Holy Spirit is drawing my attention? A new resolve? Awareness of specific needs?
• Where do I feel fear or despondency about the future? How can I pray now for God’s healing, protection, and guidance about these things?
• Trust God to lead you from weakness to the hope and joy of Christ’s resurrection
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