400 years ago, Ignatius of Loyola crafted a genius way of prayer. His method, called The Daily Examen, helped a person reflect back upon their day and their life in terms of how one experienced God. It is both a challenging and comforting way to trace the movement of God in one’s life. This Great Annual Examen is based on Ignatius’ way of reflection and prayer.
So instead of making New Year Resolutions, join us for this simple journal exercise where you work through some questions to help you reflect on the past year and anticipate the next year to come. It’s called the “examen” because in this exercise we take an examination of how we’ve “done” in life—on the journey and in different aspects. In some ways, many of us will admit that this past year has “undone” us—we’ve felt spent, done or only surviving and perhaps barely surviving at that! However you reflect upon this past year, it’s our hope that you’ll have a GPS—a sort of marker that will help you discern where you are and how you are and where you want to go this next year.