Ignatian Guided Prayer - EXAMEN OF CONSCIENCE

Описание: Ignatian Guided Prayer

10 minutes of a short introduction to EXAMEN OF CONSCIENCE - a method of prayer on the basis of your own life. A method that helps you to find and cooperate with God in your real life.

Some helpful guidelines for the prayer:

Examen of Conscience: 15 minutes at the end of a day. (e.g. 8:00 p.m.)

1. Thankfulness (until you are thankful)
a) three kinds of things you can be thankful for:
something that you experienced that day (beauty of nature, positive situations, moments of happiness, meeting friends, etc)
something good in yourself (you discover that you were generous today, helpful to somebody, understanding, patient, etc.)
examine whether your prayers from the yesterdays Examen of Conscience (point 5) were answered by God (i.e. did He help you, did he strengthen you).
b) three steps to follow (in every single thing you want to be thankful for)
search for good things that happened that day
choose the one you feel most happy with, most thankful for
think that it was God who gave it to you, who made you experience this. You may imagine how He inspired the world, how He acted to make you experience that thing. If you do so - you may either search for another positive experience (if you are still not thankful) or move to the second point.

2. Ask God for His light. (with your own words)

3. Review your day again searching for some difficult experiences.
a) three kinds of such a experience:
being hurt, suffering some burdens, pains, difficulties. Things that make you suffer.
being constrained (by fear, anxiety, dislike, feel of guilt, etc). Things that prevent you from being free, acting free and deciding free.
sins
b) three steps to follow (in every single thing you want to offer to God)
search for difficult experiences that happened that day
choose the one you feel most heavy for you
call to mind all that situation. See what happend, how it happened, what do you feel. Try to NAME your feelings. As you made it, move towards the 4th point.

4. Talk to God about your difficult experience. Tell Him your feelings, explain how it happened. (Imagine, that He is listening to you and is very understanding). Ask God for an apropriate grace* (according to the kind of difficult experience)
if you feel hurt or wounded that day - ask for healing of that wound.
if you feel constrained - ask God to set you free, to unchain you, so that you could act, decide and live free, to be yourself.
if you feel the burden of sin - ask for forgiveness, that God forgave you and you forgave yourself.
*you may feel like asking for all of them one by one.
5. Ask God for the Holy Spirit to work with you during the next day (according to the difficult thing from the passing day). Ask Him for one of the:
Gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, fear of the Lord, Reverence.
Fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Charisms of the Holy Spirit: His divine power in your work, conversations, decisions, evangelisation, etc. You ask Him that all you do will be influenced by His divine power which is mighty enough to make miracles and change the world.
You may finish with "Our Father..."

As the explanation is short and rough - please feel free to write us a mail or visit webside of Corpus Christi Church in Brixton.

www.corpuschristibrixton.org
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