Reflection

A daily help to becoming a discerning person. This method has come down from Ignatius and has been used by Mary Ward and many thousands of people in the centuries since Ignatius.

Awareness Examen

Mary Ward Take a few minutes each day to give yourself a little space to reflect.

Begin by thanking God for the good things that have happened: focus on one encounter, experience of nature, moment of peace.
Ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to guide you as you reflect on the day.
Let your day run past your inner eye. If you recall being moved by any event or person ask yourself what was going on: what did I feel? Stay with that feeling and turn it over. what does it say about what matters to you? Why might you feel like that? Where is this feeling of joy, anger, envy, hope, love coming from?
Take a few minutes to talk with God about this aspect of your life. Is this leading you towards your best self or away from what you hope (with God's help) to become?
Ask for God's help to live tomorrow with love.

"I perceived the lesson I was now to learn was to part quietly from all that I saw to be less pleasing to God. This seemed to be very possible for me . I begged this good for everyone, since it seemed so easy with God's grace to be practiced. This seemed the way: that we should first know it; after desire and endeavour for it a little; and that God would do the rest." - Mary Ward