How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People

I liked it even better this THIRD time of reading. This time, I listened to Pete reading the audiobook, and it was worth the third read. 

I just felt so edified. So built up. 

Here is my first review: 

Pete does it again. This is my fourth (or maybe fifth) book by Pete, and he does such an excellent job at making things so simple. I really love Dallas Willard's book, Hearing God, but it is theologically and philosophically very thick whereas Pete's book is very down-to-earth (thus why it is called a "simple guide for normal people"). Maybe we can call it "Dallas for Dummies"! (Both are wonderful men of God.) He does recommend Dallas' book at the end of one of the later chapters too. https://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com/2022/07/how-to-hear-god-by-pete-grieg.html 

What makes Pete so extraordinary as a writer is his storytelling. I loved the audiobook because he imitated the accents of the people he was telling stories about, and it was so endearing and funny. He apologized for his readers putting up with his "terrible accents" at the end of his narration, and I think he had nothing to apologize for! It made this third reading so delightful. 

So, here I sit. I have always believed with all my heart that I could hear the voice of God. I was not raised in the church. So, I wasn't biased to believe that you could not. (Reading Surprised by the Power of the Spirit many years ago I was struck by Jack Deere's comment that you could put a new believer in a room with a Bible and they would come out believing all the gifts are relative for today. Deere had to resign from his position from Dallas Theological Seminary because he became convinced of this himself, but they did not believe that. So he had to go.)  I still wholeheartedly believe in the Bible as the authoritative Word of God, but there is too much Biblical evidence that sees God reaching out to people through dreams, visions, prophecy, direct words, etc. I don't think you can deny that. 

I wrote a lot about this after this paragraph, but I don't want to offend people. So I deleted it (or will put it in my person Penzu journal). I am so thoroughly Biblical in everything. (See the Bible Book Club that I started in January 2008. Has it really been 18 years?) I have always gone off the premise that hearing God does not negate the Bible.

For that reason, I love that Pete has some tests for prophecy:

Exercising a prophetic gift: Since all believers can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2: 4; 19: 6; Eph. 5: 18), we can (and should) all receive and exercise his gifts, including prophecy. But our first attempts at prophecy can be scary, so it’s helpful to ask yourself, “Will the thing I think I’m seeing, hearing, or sensing bring encouragement if I share it? Will it be edifying?” And most important of all, “Does it sound like Jesus?” A simple, memorable rule of thumb is therefore to apply the ABC filter:

• Affirming: Does this word fulfil the criteria of 1 Corinthians 14, by being strengthening, encouraging, comforting, edifying, and upbuilding? 

• Biblical: Is this word consistent with the broad teaching and witness of Scripture (not just a specific verse taken out of context— see chapter 2)? 

• Christlike: Is this word consistent with the character, mission, and message of Jesus?

Greig, Pete. How to Hear God (Kindle Locations 2220-2224). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.  

I get it. There are some who abuse prophecy as we are seeing in some of the prominent charismatic churches, but I like Pete's biblical and balanced approach. It is a both end situation. We can be adhering to the Word of God and still hear His gentle whisper! 

I could say more, but I have friends on both extreme ends of the spectrum. I am solidly in Pete's camp on this one.

Here is my notebook of things I highlighted from my second time (or maybe my first too) through this book. (It is hard to take notes when you are listening to it:

How to Pray by Pete Greig Notebook

How to Read This Book In Five Minutes

 172 The Bible says that you were created to enjoy a real, conversational relationship with God. Hearing his voice is therefore the most natural thing in the world.

 180 Jesus is what God sounds like. He’s literally the “living Word of God.” Hearing his voice is not so much a skill we must master, therefore, as a master we must meet.

 188 When it comes to hearing God, the Bible is the language of his heart. Nothing he says in any other way in any other context will ever override, undermine, or contradict what he has said in the Scriptures.

1. Hearing God’s Word In Jesus

 339 magnificence.” Human beings are hardwired to worship. You have been meticulously made with an extraordinary ability to walk and talk with God.

 340 In fact, the Bible says that your primary purpose— the reason for which you were born— is to enjoy a real, conversational relationship with an infinitely loving divinity, which is why you almost certainly hear him already, more than you realize.

 640 Thus grace, for the most part, acts slowly. He works little by little.” 19

 646 Hawaiian word haoles, ‘without breath,’ or those who failed to breathe life into their prayers. 20

 649 I am terrible at tarrying on the other side of asking to slowly breathe life into the embers I have spread before the altar of the Lord.

 675 “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” [John 5: 39– 40]).

Part 1: God’s Word: Vox Externa

Hearing God’s Word In the Bible

981 “We present you with this book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is wisdom, this is the royal law, these are the lively oracles of God.” 11

1006 If I understand what the Bible means but never hear what it says to me personally, I have information without revelation. But conversely, if I disregard its original context and ignore the bits I don’t like or don’t understand, I will be in grave danger of abusing God’s Word by confusing it with my own feelings, preferences, and prejudices.

1053 Some people view exegesis with suspicion, worrying that it stops us taking the Bible at face value (which it does) and that it therefore undermines the authority of Scripture (which it does not) and detracts from our ability to engage with the Bible devotionally (which it can actually enhance). In fact, reading the Bible with our heads, so that we understand it intellectually, only strengthens our ability to receive the Bible as God’s Word with our hearts. Let me give you an example.

1196 survey of forty thousand people aged between eight and eighty discovered that reading the Bible has a profound effect on both our mental health and our spiritual growth, but only if it is done at least four times a week. Once or twice a week provides a negligible benefit, and three times results in only a slight improvement. But among those who study the Bible at least four times a week, there is a dramatic inflection point, a sharp uplift in their mental and spiritual well-being. In fact, these regular Bible readers are 30 percent less likely to feel lonely, 32 percent less prone to anger issues, 60 percent less likely to report feelings of spiritual stagnation, and 228 percent more likely to be active in sharing their faith. 35

3. Hearing God’s Word In Prayer: Lectio Divina

1256 Scripture is, in some sense, the music of God, which we hear; in another sense, it is the instrument of God, which we play. —Origen of Alexandria (185– 254)

1326 we learn how to approach the Bible as a window frame as well as a picture frame, not just looking at it but also through it to the world, and the Word, beyond.

1552 “Don’t swallow it in a big lump,” Bernard of Clairvaux said of the Bible in the twelfth century. 11 Chew over each word. Savor its flavor and sample its depths.

1565 But meditation is cyclical, not linear. It’s a labyrinth in a world of ladders, more concerned with discoveries made than distance traveled.

1568 Cistercian Order.

1578 Some bunny trails take you down dark holes, but others lead out into the light.

1583 As it did for the couple on the road to Emmaus, whose conversation about God was interrupted and redirected by a stranger, the living Word will sometimes interrupt the written Word.

1586 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls. —Psalm 42: 7

1592 Don’t try to make sense of your reaction or analyze why it’s speaking to you. Just acknowledge it and ask the Lord to show you why it’s captured your attention.

1597 But an insight that exceeds the bounds of sound biblical interpretation does not need to lead to heresy, provided it reflects the word, character, and example of Jesus.

1654 How on earth are we to know the difference between God’s thoughts and our thoughts, things imagined and things imaginary? These are important questions because our imaginations are indeed both powerful and impure, but the answer is not to switch them off (even if this were possible), but rather to use them wisely and enthusiastically for God’s glory. We don’t need to be afraid of doing so, provided we apply the usual tools of discernment.

1662 life researching such things, concludes, “The devotional masters of nearly all persuasions counsel us that we can descend with the mind into the heart most easily through the imagination.” 15 Conversely, conservative Bible teacher A. W. Tozer warned starkly of the dangers of ignoring our imaginations when it comes to the Bible, saying, “The weakness of the Pharisee in days of old was his lack of imagination, or what amounted to the same thing, his refusal to let it enter the field of religion. He saw the text with its carefully guarded theological definition and he saw nothing beyond.” 16

1742 In this chapter I have talked about the essential role that Benedict of Nursia played in the development of lectio divina, but not yet about a character almost equally influential in popularity: Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Arising in sixteenth-century Europe, the Jesuits championed a practical spirituality that sought to find God in all things. They became the great popularizers of such ancient practices for spiritual formation as the examen, the Spiritual Exercises, and, of course, lectio divina. Armed with these powerful tools, Jesuits went out and truly changed the world. It was Jesuits, for instance, who located the source of the Blue Nile, discovered quinine, invented the humble trapdoor, founded the Brazilian city of São Paulo, championed Baroque architecture, wrote the first dictionaries of North America’s native languages (enabling cross-cultural communication), gave their names to thirty-five craters on the moon, and provided education for leaders from Descartes and Voltaire to Bill Clinton and Denzel Washington. 19 The Jesuits embody the intrinsic link between spiritual formation (prayer, listening, meditating on the Scriptures, etc.) and social transformation. “Saint Ignatius was a mystic,” wrote William James, the American philosopher, “but his mysticism made him one of the most powerfully practical human engines that ever lived.” 20

1788 embracing interruption, exercising intuition, and engaging imagination— we are, in fact, training ourselves by these very means to hear God’s word in all of God’s world. We start to make secular places sacred, simply by the way we listen to them. And, of course, wherever in the world God’s word is received by faith, his kingdom has already come. In the words of the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “The world has little by little caught fire in my sight until, aflame all around me, it has become almost luminous from within.” 23

1819 dreams and visions will pass away, prophetic utterance speaks for a season, “the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Pet. 1: 24– 5).

1829 There’s an old joke about a Franciscan, a Dominican, and a Jesuit who were praying, when the lights went out. The Franciscan said, “Oh, this is a wonderful opportunity to live more simply.” The Dominican launched into a sermon about the significance of darkness and light. And the Jesuit went off to change the fuse.

1836 These tools include the Spiritual Exercises— a four-week, in-depth journey of spiritual

1837 It is not only 4 weeks. Pete should correct this or clarify that it is four phases or weeks.

1865 Anima Christi (A Prayer from the Start

1932 No one should feel any pressure to use icons in prayer. But if you are visual and find it helpful to focus on something physical in a time of prayer, an icon can be helpful and is arguably more meaningful than, say, staring at a candle or a sunset or lyrics on a screen.

1942 Recommends David G. Benner, Opening to God:

4. Hearing God’s Word In Prophecy

2035 In both Old and New Testaments, prophecy is predominantly a means of declaring God’s will and powerfully communicating his heart. 4

2042 There were no chapter divisions in Paul’s original letter. He is urging us to “eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy” (1 Cor. 14: 1) precisely because we love other people and therefore want them to be strengthened, encouraged, comforted, and edified by God’s Word. And he is also telling us that spiritual gifts are useless—“ only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13: 1)— unless they are administered with love.

2061 “Does God really speak today? If so, how does he speak? And how do you know it’s him?” For three months, he says, no one anywhere could answer him.

2068 “I began to discover,” he says, with his eyes twinkling, “that in everything God has a voice.” I would go about my day talking to him, asking, “What are you saying in this situation? Where are you at work in this place? What was that encounter all about?”

2090 Kermit predicted all those years ago. In fact, I was with him the day he heard the news that his song “Raise a Hallelujah” had reached number 1 on the airplay charts. 5 And as for his award-winning anthem “No Longer Slaves,” it contains some especially poignant lines: From my mother’s womb You have chosen me Love has called my name I’ve been born again Into Your family Your blood flows through my veins I’m no longer a slave to fear I am a child of God6

2119 ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’

2142 But also because our Creator understands that we are seasonal beings, living in a seasonal world, and we don’t thrive and mature in a mode of continual harvest. 8

2216 Exercising a prophetic gift: Since all believers can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2: 4; 19: 6; Eph. 5: 18), we can (and should) all receive and exercise his gifts, including prophecy. But our first attempts at prophecy can be scary, so it’s helpful to ask yourself, “Will the thing I think I’m seeing, hearing, or sensing bring encouragement if I share it? Will it be edifying?” And most important of all, “Does it sound like Jesus?” A simple, memorable rule of thumb is therefore to apply the ABC filter:

4. Hearing God’s Word In Prophecy

2220

·       Affirming: Does this word fulfil the criteria of 1 Corinthians 14, by being strengthening, encouraging, comforting, edifying, and upbuilding?

·       Biblical: Is this word consistent with the broad teaching and witness of Scripture (not just a specific verse taken out of context— see chapter 2)?

·       Christlike: Is this word consistent with the character, mission, and message of Jesus?

Part 2: God’s Whisper: Vox Interna

5. Hearing God’s Whisper

 2551 Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind— 1

2588 of course, is that his presence is manifest in the dullness after the drama. The Great Elemental Force shows himself gentle and makes himself personal in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19: 12 KJV) or, as a more literal translation of the original Hebrew says, “the sound of gentle silence.”

2602 Breathe through the heat of our desire thy coolness and thy balm; Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire, O still, small voice of calm. 4

2717 There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God. —Brother Lawrence

6. Hearing God’s Whisper In Dreams and the Unconscious >

3062 Millennia before Freud and Jung and psychoanalytic theory, the Bible regarded dreams as a window to the secret motivations and hidden thoughts of the “innermost mind” (or the “unconscious,” as Freud would later describe it).

3229 As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

7. Hearing God’s Whisper In Community, Creation, and Culture

 3313 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who combined being a Jesuit priest with being a scientist, paleontologist, and philosopher, put it like this: “By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us.” 2

3497 Hearing God in the Culture There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. —Wendell Berry

8. The Word, the Whisper, and the Way

3790 Gradually, my neural pathways get realigned by ten

3877 Sometimes he speaks dramatically, but mostly quietly with “words . . . full of the Spirit and life” (John 6: 63). The more we say yes to the things he says, the more familiar and precious his voice becomes, until, ultimately, at the end of the road, at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, we look back with a mixture of wonder and joy and say: Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?

3882 And so we arise, put on our coats, and step out into the night.

Recommendations for Further Reading On Hearing God

 3897 Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012). (My favorite book on the subject)

 3903 David G. Benner, Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer (my favorite book on Lectio Divina)

 3927 Christine Westhoff, ReFraming the Prophetic (online Bible-study), www.reframingtheprophetic.com. (Now a book)

The Other Half of Church by Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks

This is my second time through the book. I have read several books from the "neurotheology" people, and I agree with it all. I wonder how to incorporate it into a group that is in a church.

I have a wonderful group, but we had a group identity to start with because we all came out of the same mindset of TOAG: Training Ordinary Apprentices to Go. I do miss teaching all of that, by the way. It was so much time though. I loved all the people though. So there is that. Either you have people who are ALL on board or you don't. We have had it for almost ten years now, and I am SO grateful! 

But I digress. 

I just wonder how idealistic this book is if you group a bunch of people together from all different backgrounds. How do you force a "group identity" on them? The chapter on narcissism is very idealistic. Have they really seen narcissists change in their midst. The actual author of the book, Michel seemed very new to the whole concept of this type of group.  

This is what I wrote in my other journal. It repeats a bit. 

Bottom line: 

I love the ideology behind it though. So, I was glad to read it again. I am thankful that I do have a community here that is real community. So I guess it does work, but they have never read the book before, and we just have done it pretty naturally. 

I just wonder how to idealistic this all is. I know two families (they didn't know each other) who moved to a church that had incorporated all these principles. I should ask them how it went. I didn't hear rave reviews about the experience though. 

I did take the class that went along with the book the first time I read through this, and it was very helpful. I should go and look at the notes from that class again! I did incorporate a lot of the exercises we did in that class into my spiritual direction sessions (both group and individual), and it has been really helpful. 

My favorite one is the "Joy Activation" Exercise. It is so fun to hear people's memories of joy. I adapted it to be more spiritual direction oriented though. 

I do recommend this book. I am thinking about giving it to our elders to read and dialogue . 

The Cruciform Leader

A good solid book with the bottom line:

Loving God and loving our neighbor - this is the cruciform way, and the world is crying out for leaders formed in this cross-shaped way. p. 10

Christlike character, proven, experience in disciple-making and evidence of spiritual gifting - are pushed down the priority list. p. 21 .

..the level of success any local church should be measured by is their level of faithfulness towards the effective fulfillment of these words of Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20 "go and make disciples of all nations...") p.32

...two key overarching themes which shaped the birth and the growth of the early church - kingdom family and apostolic movement. pm 35

I agree! But isn't this obvious? 

I have an online place that I journal whatever I am thinking, and this is what I wrote about this book:

I was a bit disappointed by The Cruciform Leader though. It is a solid book, but it added nothing to my understanding of leadership as I have started practicing many of the things he purports before he was even born. But he is the next generation of authors (like John Mark Comer) who are saying the same things that have been said before, but are hitting his generation. I won't recommend it for the elders to read, but I will recommend The Other Half of Church by Jim Wilder that I am currently rereading. It is a good book for church leaders to get!

With that said, I want to reiterate that it is a solid book. I agree with it wholeheartedly, and if you want to hear from someone in his 40s who is deeply involved with the church, this is the book for you. It was very expensive for a paperback book though. 

And the funny thing is I almost lost it. We had gone hiking, and I brought it with me for the drive over to the trailhead. When we came back, I gathered all my gear and put the book on top of the roof. It rained over night, and we were going to church (the early service with no many cars on the road). We made our second right turn onto the main road, and we heard a thump. We didn't know what it was, but all of a sudden, I remembered that I had put the book on top of the roof. I said, "That might have been my book! Could we go back and see?" Low and behold, there it was on the main road: water damaged from a night out in the rain and beat up from being tossed onto the road. I snatched it up before the next batch of cars came racing down Walnut Blvd. 

I AM glad I saved it. It is a solid book. It was recommended to me by our outreach pastor, and she was blown away by it. I guess I just assume people know these things, but there have been many books that have come out over the years where I say, like my mentors of 30 years, "Don't people already know this, Carol. Why is it so popular?" I am getting up there in age, and I want to encourage the next generation to read it. And then live it! 

The Holy Spirit's Presence: Accessing God's Power by Acknowledging Our Weakness

This is from my freewrite about this book that I wrote yesterday on my private journaling site:

I just finished the AW Tozer Book called The Holy Spirit's Presence: Accessing God's Power by Acknowledging our Weakness by Caleb Sinclair, and A.W. Tozer.

I have no idea where I got this book from, but it has been sitting in my Kindle queue for a bit (since December 15), and I wanted something to listen to on a part of my walk. So, yesterday, I walked from the fairgrounds parking lot down Midge Cramer Path (RIP. He is my old landlord.) around the meadow and back to the path and down the SW Campus Way Path through the covered bridge and into campus. I turned off at 23rd to have a look at the Alpha Delta Pi house (my sorority house from 1978-1981 and now a Christian women's coop). Then I got to the Boys and Girl's Club where George picked me up and took me home from there. I did about 8 miles. It was lovely, and I got to within 30 pages of finishing this book. So, I finished it this morning.

The Holy Spirit was a perfect subject for me. I just read through the whole Bible, and the Spirit is mentioned quite a bit. Jesus was "led by the Spirit" to the temptation. The book of Acts is all about the Holy Spirit. 

I loved Tozer's take. I think we are afraid of the Holy Spirit and have relegated it to an inferior member of the Trinity, but it is equally important in the whole scheme of things. God is ONE. And part of that ONE is the Holy Spirit. 

I loved his strong scriptural stand, and I only underlined one thing:

Then I would say, 
cultivate the art of recognizing
the presence of the Spirit, 
every place, all the time.
The Holy Spirit of the Lord fills the world. p.120

Amen. So, as I walked outside for 2+ hours, I cultivated that art of recognizing that the Holy Spirit was present the whole time. 

It is a simple thing, but I think we are enticed by other ways of being. 

The One Year Chronological Bible NIV

I wanted to see how long it would take to read through the Bible if I took every free minute I could to read! So, it took me 21 days, 6 hours, and 19 minutes. 

I never get tired of reading through the Bible.

This is maybe my 15th time through, but I'm not sure.

The Women by Kristen Hannah

I can totally see why this was the 2024 best novel of the year on Goodreads. I think I am about the same age as this author (yes, just looked it up - I am a year older), and the main character is from the beaches of Southern California (I was Manhattan, and she was Coranado Island in Sand Diego). 

I sobbed at the end. It is so well-written and so sad! Vietnam was such a horrible war, and why did we get involved?  

I have also been to the Vietnam War Memorial and sobbed the whole early morning I spent there by myself before the summer crowds came. 

I highly recommend this book. It begs to be made into a movie. 

2025 Reading Wrap Up

My Year in Books Here

· How many books did you read and did you meet your own personal goal?  

My personal goal was 52 books, but I read 85.

My other personal goal was to get to over 500 in the 1000 Books to Read Before You Die. I made it to 506 (509 on my list because List Challenge omits some) and decided to quit. I am top of the List Challenge List. I found many of the books pretty depressing this last year. So, I decided to read spiritually enriching books for the end of this year. I also found some new novels and memoirs that I enjoyed more than the "men leading lives of quiet desperation" ones in the 1000 Books List. I started it in 2019, but I have other things I would like to read now. 

· Most thrilling, oh my goodness, I want to read it again, unputdownable book?

I don't know if I would say "thrilling," but Living in Christ's Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God by Dallas Willard is one of my favorite books and is the transcript of a conference Dallas did 77 days before he died.

· Top 5 favorite books (old and new)?

1. Living in Christ's Presence (old)

2. My Friends (Goodreads best novel of 2025)

3. Within This Wilderness

4. God's Voice Within (old)

5. The Invention of Nature

· Least favorite book? 

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter - It was like reading Japanese. I didn't get it!

Something Happened - YUK!

· New author discovery? 

Let God: Spiritual Conversations with Francois Fenelon - I loved what Fenelon had to say!

· What countries or centuries did you explore?

Polynesia, Italy (Naples in more than one book), England (oppression of free speech country), New England (Kennedys and Abigail Adams), Hebrides (on the west coast of Scotland), Antarctica, 1865 Civil War, Sargasso Sea, New York (lots of books were there), Australia, Germany, Russia (1902-World War II), France, Waterloo, all over America, Canadian Coastal Range, Japan, Dominican Republic, New Mexico, Nevada, fictional Central Europe, California

· Share a favorite character, story, quote or cover 

My Friends - the story and cover

· One book that touched you – (I changed it to one book for each category!)

My Friends - friendship love

Into This Wilderness - a mother's love for her son

· Are you ready to do it all over again?

Yes, I feel free from my 1000 Books list now.

           

· Do you have any goals to check out different genres or authors, read translated books or stories in another language for 2026?  

No

Here is the link to my list with brief comments on each book:

2025 Books

The Imitation of Christ

This is a classic that I had never gotten around to reading! So, I have now read it. I liked it, for the most part. I had many things I stopped and pondered. I didn't like the "you are a miserable sinner" part (Book 3, Chapter 55? I think). I noticed he didn't have a lot of verses to back that chapter up. The rest of the book was lovely.

Saturday Freewrite - Christmas and Looking at 2025 through God's Eyes

Lord Jesus, right from the moment of Your birth,

You lived with both the little and the great.

You charmed and challenged and won them all.

Lord, let me feel Your charismatic warmth,

That tremendous welcoming grace that made the simple love You

And their leaders seek You in the night.

Teach me to rest easy where You are,

Easy as hairy shepherd and smooth-shaven savant,

Easy as Mary who bore You gently,

Easy as Joseph who held You, your abba!

Accept the homage of my heart

Along with the shepherds’ adoring gaze

And the gifts of worshipful kings.[1]

So, I am going to write my 750 words for the day here. I usually write on Penzu.com now, but I was in the mood to write here instead. 

This poem is quoted at the end of Week 15 of the manual I wrote guiding people through the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola called Exercises for Everyone. I had such a beautiful time in Weeks 12-15 meditating on the prophecies (Jesus' family history) and activities leading up to Jesus' birth. This poem is at the conclusion of it all. I love that. On Christmas morning, I spent a lot of time in what Ignatius calls the "Application of Senses" to the scenes of the Incarnation (Ignatius' imagining of what it might have been like in heaven), Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. It was a lovely experience and hard to put into words.

I followed that with listening deeply to Handel's Messiah.  So moving since it is all Scripture. 

Now, Week 15, Day 7 is a day to "Gather the Graces" of Weeks 10-15. I did this yesterday. I look at all the "graces" I have prayed for during those weeks:

I seek the grace to. . .

• Respond to Jesus’ invitation of love in my life.
• Not be deaf to Christ’s call but prompt and diligent to accomplish his most holy will.
• Understand God’s perfect plan from Creation to Christ’s Incarnation.
• Have an intimate knowledge of the Lord who became human for me.
• Enter into the mind of the One who chose to be born as I was born. I ask to love this little infant so that my life will fall into his life’s pattern.

Then I did a yearly Examen. I have unlimited usage of a The Great Annual Examen and have sent it to friends and people in the three groups I lead through the Exercises. Someday, I will write my own, but I have been adapting it with the Year Compass that has you draw pictures and ponder some things that The Great Annual Examen does not. One of my directees, not knowing what I was thinking, said I should write my own and lead people through a retreat on the subject. That would be fun. 

I feel like I have more and more bandwidth for something like that. We will see. 

I went for a retreat at Mt. Angel Abbey from November 21-23rd. So, I was able to get through most of my Great Annual Examen during that retreat. and the week of Thanksgiving. The directees I am meeting with have greatly reduced during this time. I have loved the extra time. The directees I have are solid and lovely. Less is MORE!! I love listening to their lives. 

What a difference from last year where I was hoping things would slow down the week of Thanksgiving, but the time from Monday before Thanksgiving to December 17th was full of a friend's visits to the hospital and having that person stay with us after discharge. It was crazy and definitely added more activity to our holiday season. 

This is a shorter version to pray an Examen for the year that I wrote for my manual:

If you are following the liturgical year, it is the end of the year. This is great time to pray through an Examen of the past year and look to the year ahead. You might want to schedule a day of prayer to pray through this.

1. Light – Ask God to shed light on your year to see it through his eyes.

2. Gratitude – Recall two to three top highlights of your year and give him thanks. These are the first two or three things that immediately surface in your heart and mind. You will have more time of gratitude. This is just to light the flame of gratitude in your heart before reviewing the year.

3. Replay the Year and Pay Attention to Feelings – Look through your year with a calendar handy. Pay attention to where you sensed God’s presence and where you might have ignored it. Do this by noting…

·       Consolations – When were times this year when you especially turned toward and felt the life-giving light of God’s presence? (peace, contentment, happiness, joy) Feel free to relive these moments with all of your senses. Also, this may lead you into expressions of gratitude to God. (You’ll also have a time to do this toward the end of the Examen.)

·  Desolations – When were times this year when you especially turned away from and felt the absence of God’s light and presence? (distress, discontentment, disconnectedness, sadness, depression, anxiety, fear) This might lead you into a time of confession and conversation with God. (This isn't in my manual, but over the years, I have learned to make two columns on my paper with consolations on the left and desolations on the right. I go month by month through the year. You can just write top two or three, but the comparisons between the left and the right columns have been helpful for me in so many ways!)

4. Breakthroughs – What were the significant breakthroughs spiritually, emotionally, relationally, vocationally, and physically this year?

5. Summary Words – Think of one word to sum up your year in each area: spiritually, emotionally, relationally, vocationally, and physically.

6. One Word – If you had one word (or phrase) to sum up your year overall, what would it be?

7. Desires – What desires did God stir in your heart through the experiences of this last year?

8. Prayer of Gratitude – Dwell on those times of consolation and offer a prayer of gratefulness.

9. Prayer for Next Year - Talk to him about your year ahead. Invite him to lead and guide you through it. Maybe he has a word for next year. Have a conversation and don’t forget to listen.

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[1] Choosing Christ in the World, p. 53