I spent some time this last summer at Creighton University. Creighton is a Jesuit University and devoted to Jesuit faith and practice.
One of the central practices in Jesuit devotion — the one that Ignatius of Loyola considered indispensable — was the prayer of Examen. Ignatius felt that the key to spiritual growth was to cultivate an awareness of when and where God had been present in the course of the day. It was so important, in fact, that he urged his followers to do the Examen, even if it cost them the little time that they might have for prayer.
One writer calls it “rummaging for God” in our lives — a wonderful, commonplace activity we have all done with far less to show for it when we have rummaged around for something we have lost.
The Examen is a practice that tells us something important about the spiritual life: Spiritual practice is preeminently about cultivating a sense of God’s presence.
It isn’t about devotional practice or about the number of hours we spend in overtly religious activity. It isn’t an anxious, endless effort to earn the love of God. The spiritual life is about cultivating a habitual awareness of God’s presence that shapes and informs the lives we live.
Rummaging around in our lives for God can be the source of inspiration, encouragement, strength, and gratitude. Not a bad result for an activity that any other time in life leads to the discovery of dust bunnies and old newspapers.