How does one begin to develop a spiritual life? It helps to find a community of people doing the same. It helps to seek – give yourself the time and space to sit down and wait for the Divine Mystery. Once you begin looking, you will find communities everywhere; communities of people committed to ‘learning to grow along spiritual lines’. At least, that has been my experience. But the first steps into this process can be daunting, especially if you have no prior experience. So I am experimenting with offering a sanctuary to anyone who would like to come and experience meditation/reflection in community. The first of these is the Examen/Step 10 group.
Evening Examen/Step 10
Mon/Thurs
9:30 PM (EST)
45 Minutes
An Examen, or Step 10, is basically a daily review/gratitude exercise, done in the context of a small group to support and sustain the practice. (Don’t worry – you are not expected to share your reflections with the group unless and until it seems appropriate to YOU.)
The benefit of a daily review might be: It helps to bring you closer to an awareness of God. It fosters a spirit of gratitude. It gives you a chance to recognize and repent for the errors you made so you can heal and let go. It deepens your insight into the patterns of your life and your relationships. It strengthens and informs you of how to move forward into tomorrow, giving you hope.
The basic structure of the meditation is to:
– Become aware of the Divine
– Review the day to find times of goodness and times of struggle
– With kindness, be with any regrets and sorrows – Choose one feature of the day to reflect on – Look toward tomorrow
The practice is substantially taken from Steps 10&11. “Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.” and. “Having has a spiritual awakening as result of these steps, we sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God (as we Understand God), praying only for God’s will for us and the power to carry it out.”
We may also draw on some resources from Jesuit spirituality, and some of what you read here is derived from the website, https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/.
Contact Me
Spiritual Direction
What happens on the meeting? The group is drop-in, so the format is flexible and may be revised. Suggestions for change are welcome. The zoom starts at 9:30pm EST. We greet one another and settle in. One person reads a series of questions aloud, freeing others to sit in contemplation. There is a period of silence. Around 10pm, the bell rings and those who wish to continue their reflection in silence leave the meeting. For those who wish to briefly share, the meeting continues for another 15 minutes, ending at 10:15pm.
Time 9:30pm EST Mondays and Thursdays
Meeting ID: 814 7216 4748
For passcode: e-mail me
Morning S.E.E.D. Group
(This group is currently closed to the public.)
Daily
7:30 AM (EST)
45 Minutes
What we do
7:30am – room is open
7:45am – 7:55am – reflective sharing time
- Participants offer seeds – words, songs or images for reflection.
- Others may ‘water the seeds’ with silence to allow the seed to sink in, or by offering their response/hope/experience with that seed.
- On Tuesdays, one of the group members will lead a meditation
7:55am-8:15am – silence
- Participants share communal contemplative silence.
- We mute our microphones. Many find that staying ‘on camera’ makes it easier to stay still, but you are welcome to turn your video off.
- After the bell rings, we ease out of contemplation by sharing a moment of silence together before opening our mikes to say ‘good bye’.
What happens on the meeting? The period before silence is a time for summoning the spirit of contemplation. To limit the time spent on ‘housekeeping’, participants post offerings in the chat or forward them for circulation.
Initiating the ’sharing’ and ’silent’ time is done by whoever volunteers.
We mail out a collection of ’seeds’ weekly (more or less).
Harken 