Midday Meditation:  Spend some time with God with a gratitude examen prayer. The prayer of examen is a way of considering where God is at work in the events of our day. It typically begins with gratitude and then moves on to notice when one felt drawn towards God (consolation) and where one forgot or turned away from God (desolation). In a gratitude examen, you spend the entire time focusing on the gifts in your day and/or your life and thanking God for them. This practice can be especially helpful when you are feeling down, having a bad day, or wrestling with self-criticism, self-blame, or shame.  Find a comfortable position to quiet and relax your body and mind. Take a few deep breaths and ask God to show you the gifts of your life, both big and small. Ask yourself, “What am I most grateful for today?” And allow the answer to rise up within you. It may be a person, place, object, event, or thing. Name this gift and thank God for it, repeating this a few times, letting the gratitude you feel sink deep in your soul. Use your imagination and picture the person, place, or thing in your mind’s eye. Use your imaginative senses to see, hear, taste, touch, or smell the object of your gratitude. Let yourself linger here and be filled with God’s love for you, expressed personally and uniquely in this gift. Quietly whisper your thanks to God for this gift. After you’ve spent time with this one gift, shift to allowing all the gifts of your life, big and small, to float before your mind’s eye, thanking God as each one emerges.  As you close this prayer, notice anything that arises in you that you want to express to God and express it to him.

Posted by Kate Laymon at 2022-11-22 19:57:11 UTC