Saturday 14 September 2024

Welcome to the Saturday Examen. As you begin your time of prayer, look around the space in which you are praying… try to feel at home in yourself and ready to welcome the Lord during this prayer time. Now imagine that Jesus comes to join you in your prayer space. How do you greet one another? Picture where does he sits or stands? Now begin reviewing your week together. Perhaps Jesus asks you, “How has your week been?” What do you reply? This past week, we have already spent time in the presence of Jesus as we’ve heard readings from Luke’s Gospel. The following sentences serve as a reminder of the reading from each day. Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?’ After looking around at all of them, he said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored. Now during those days, he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? Now, as you reflect on the past week, share with the Lord anything that was challenging or perhaps difficult, asking how this might bring some kind of change out of challenge. Recall a moment when you felt consoled or enlivened in your faith and give thanks to the Lord for this gift to you. Spend a while with Jesus in your prayer space, together as one friend with another, perhaps in quietness, or maybe by letting your conversation continue for as long as you wish. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.