SELAH MONTHLY EXAMEN INSTRUCTIONS Please complete the Monthly Examen at the beginning of the month, and email a copy to your Supervisor. [due 6x per program year] There are two parts to this Examen A. The first is a Personal Examen, which is an exercise of prayerful reflection about your personal relationship with the Lord. You may find it will raise matters that might be helpful to explore more fully with your own spiritual director. B. The second part is a Direction Examen, inviting prayerful reflection on your practice of doing spiritual direction with others. This exercise will often bring to light matters to explore further in Supervision. How to do this exercise 1. Schedule at least an hour for the whole process each month. The process is not simply about filling out a form. It s a conversation between you and God in which you attend to the Holy Spirit s work in you as you practice spiritual direction. 2. Begin in silence (around 10 minutes), settling into listening attentively to the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your attention whatever He wants you to notice. 3. Prayerfully consider the questions, pausing frequently to notice what the Spirit continues to bring to your attention, and allowing your written reflections to come out of that ongoing conversation between you and the Holy Spirit. 4. Be mindful that the particular questions in each category are prompts; they do not all need to be answered. Sometimes you will be led to explore something beyond the question itself. Skip questions that do not seem helpful at the time. 5. Write down the highlights or nub of what is coming to your attention. There is no one correct answer, only an honest one! The format for written responses can be a summary paragraph, informal notes or simply bullet points. Please keep this to one page for the Personal Examen, and one page for the Direction Examen. 1
I. PERSONAL EXAMEN INSTRUCTIONS GENERAL OVERVIEW What words describe the current feel of your life with God? Begin with a general awareness of the feel your spiritual life. Jot down words that describe it. Examples might be vibrant, close to God, tired, distracted, fuzzy, distant, graced, rich experientially, confused, sad, cluttered, etc. SCRIPTURE Have any verses or passages or images from the Scriptures been particularly inviting or powerful or engaging for you? If so, which ones, and what s going on between you and God in these encounters? The intention here is to pay attention to how the Word, living and active, is piercing and shaping your heart, your soul, your life (Hebrews 4:12-13). Notice the verses/passages/images themselves; explore with God how they speak directly to your life; reflect on how they are actually shaping you. PRAYER In prayer how have you been aware of God His presence, His character, His ways? How would you describe your experience of communion with Him? These questions are intended to explore and nurture your own prayer life as a place of deepening encounter with the Triune God. Given that so much of our prayer has been about us doing most of the talking, we may at first find these questions challenging. That s fine! Even the longing for more of God comes from God, and He will be at work to meet you in your desire. Remember that this is material you may want to explore more fully in your own spiritual direction. BIG-PICTURE AWARENESS Which of the Selah rhythms help describe this season of your life with God? Think here in terms of the Selah rhythms of Releasing, Resting, Renewing, Rejoicing, although other words or categories are fine! The intention is to stand back from the smaller details and consider if you can discern a bigger overview of God s work in you. It may be helpful to consider this question examining specific areas of your life in your overall current life experience, as well as in the specific areas of your work and ministry, your relationships, your 2
emotional and physical well-being, your soul or whatever category seems relevant to you at the time. Within these rhythms what kind of shaping might God be doing in you? Ask God what He is doing in you. You might consider if you are aware of any pruning going on, or any clarifying of focus; perhaps you re noticing an enriching of the fruit of the Spirit in your life, or character growth. Are there ways in which you are resisting this? (If so, say more.) What feels like joy and life in this? This question directs attention to your response to God s work in your life. SPIRITUAL PRACTICES Are you noticing any changes in what spiritual practices are helpful or not helpful to you in this rhythm of God s work in you? Practices that are helpful in one season of life are not necessarily as rich or fruitful in another. It s important to continually adjust our spiritual practices so that they are places where we meet and cooperate with what God is doing in us. RULE OF LIFE What adjustments to your Rule of Life feel invited by God right now, to reflect how and where he s meeting you, in rhythms and in practices? The Rule of Life is not intended to be a rigid standard requiring better performance from us. It is a marker reflecting our intention to live into the invitation God is giving to us. While certain aspects of one s Rule are more or less permanent, there are other aspects that are shaped in response to what God is doing in us in a particular season. II. DIRECTION EXAMEN INSTRUCTIONS 3
PRAYER As you ve spent time praying for your directees, what has been happening in those prayer times? The essential preparation for offering spiritual direction is prayerfulness. Therefore a reflection on this aspect of your practice is very important. Built into these questions is the assumption that you spend some time praying in a contemplative way for your directees. (Note that this may include intercession, but it s not limited to that. Rather it s a way of holding your directees before God, and deepening your awareness of the ongoing prayer that the Trinity is inviting you into as the Spirit prays in your heart what Jesus is interceding with the Father. Listen.) Additional reflection that may help you explore this question on Prayer might be: As you hold each of your directees before God, do you get a sense of the Triune God s heart for them, and of what He may be doing in them? Also notice what happens in your own heart--what God is doing in you--as you pray for that directee. (This may be about you and the directee; it may be about you and God; it may be about you and your own self-awareness... just notice!) PRACTICE In your direction sessions, what are you noticing about your own sense of free, attentive presence, your emotions, and your reactions to particular directees or particular content, that might need further exploration in Supervision? This question is meant to help you explore how you are interacting with God s Spirit as you listen to Him while you are in a direction session. The following reflections can help you flesh out this category: Looking back over a series of sessions: Is anything getting in the way of your sense of presence to God in direction sessions? How are you dealing with that? What s nurturing your sense of presence? (This may be internal-- you notice that you're consistently tired, or bored, or distracted by your own concerns. It may be external--your phone seems to ring in the background each time you're in direction; the room you're in has things on the walls that keep grabbing your attention. You may notice that you're more attentive if you sit in one chair rather than another (external), or that you do better if you sit quietly in prayer for 5 minutes before the directee arrives (internal). By asking yourself "how aware was I of God's presence?" you can notice "hmm.. what was distracting me? What helped me stay aware?" etc.) Is a particular directee, or any subject matter in the sessions, causing an unusual or significant reaction in you? Are there particular themes that you find yourself responding to, or particular patterns in your responses? Do you notice any ongoing feelings of stagnancy, boredom, annoyance, or concern? What sessions are you finding most life-giving? Why might that be? o Examples of reactions that invite exploration: you're normally relaxed in direction sessions, but with this 4
o o particular directee, or this particular time, you feel tense. You are usually attentive but you feel bored with a particular directee or in the middle of a particular session. You can usually listen objectively but during a particular session you find yourself feeling unduly sad, or angry, or judgmental Examples of themes that resonate: As you look back over a few direction sessions with directees, you notice that the theme of frustrations with marriage has come up a lot, and each time it does, you lean into the conversation with increased interest. Or the theme of frustration with church life has come up, and each time it does you are reminded of your own situation at your church. These then become themes to bring to your Supervision session, for your Supervisor to help you unpack, so that your reactions (which may have to do with your own life situation or experience) don't get in the way of how you listen with your directee. Examples of patterns: The same directee, over a few months of direction, seems to make you feel impatient each time you're together. During a given month several directees, with different stories, each make you want to give a few paragraphs of advice or teaching. By identifying patterns (if they're there; they may not be, which is fine!), you notice things to bring to Supervision, and your Supervisor can help you explore what's going on in them, so that you are freer to be present to the directees and to God. What cultural differences and values are you noticing between you and the directee? How are they coming into play in the content and presence of direction how you each listen, understand, assume, relate, interpret spiritual experience, pray? This question is meant to help you grow in your sensitivity to your own propensity to listen to directees through your own cultural lens, and to grow in your sensitivity to understanding them in their own contexts: noticing differences of gender, race, socio-economics, church tradition, education, family and relational experiences, etc, and listening well in graced humility, trust, and love. FOR SUPERVISION What session or sessions do you feel the Holy Spirit is leading you to spend some time "unpacking" in your next Supervision session? Briefly outline the issue or issues that seem important to discuss in your Supervision One-to- One or your Supervision Peer Group. Please note the dates of your direction sessions since your previous Direction Examen (sessions offered, you as director): Directee#1: Directee#2: Other directees (optional): 5
NAME: DATE: Please indicate: Year 1 / Year 2 Examen # 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 6