Prayer Study Part 3

Notes on Richard Foster's book - Prayer.
The book we are studying in my sunday School class.

The Prayer of Examen

Examen- Similar to examination without the academic context. From Latin and refers to the tongue or weight indicator on a balance scale, conveying the idea of an accurate assessment of the true situation.

Lost to most modern church services.

Biblical examples e.g. Psalms “Yahweh, you examine me and know me” (Ps 139:1) King David (1 Chron 28:9) Paul (1 Cor 2:10)

The examen of God is something of immeasurable strength and empowerment.

What is It?

Like two sides of a door it has two aspects.

Examen of Consciousness – How God has been present to us throughout the day and how we have responded

Examen of Conscience- Where we discover the areas that need cleansing, purifying and healing

• 
  Examen of Consciousness- The Remembrance of Love
  
  Prayerful reflection on the thoughts, feelings and actions of our days to see how God has been at work among us and how we have responded (e.g. was the boisterous neighbor merely a rude interruption that ruined a quiet evening or was it the voice of God urging us to be attentive to the pain and loneliness of those around us.)
  
  The examen of consciousness is the means God uses to make us more aware of our surroundings.
  
  There is nothing complicated or unusual here, only that God seeks to be where we are and for us to see and hear what is around us and through it all to discern the footprints of the Holy.
  
  It is one way to recall the mighty deeds of God. For us to remember. Scripture is filled with such examples: remember the covenant God made with Abraham, remember how he delivered us from Egypt, remember the Ten Commandments…remember, remember remember. Remember Calvalry.
  
  The examen of consciousness allows us to raise our own Ebenezer (1 Sam 7:12) and declaring, “Here is where God met me and helped me.” We are remembering.
  
  Examen of Conscience- The Scrutiny of Love
  
  We invite God to to search our hearts to the depths. Psalmist, “Search me oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts…(Ps 139:23-24)
  
  We ask to see what is truly in us, without apology or defense and God goes with us. The purpose of this journey is for our good and for our healing.
  
  

God goes with us:

• If we are the lone examiners we will justify and rationalize to declare our innocence. We will “call evil good and good evil,” (Isa 5:20)
  Since God is with us we are listening more and defending less. He will show us what we need to see and when we need to see it.
  
• Self-flagellation. Left on our own it is easy to think of ourselves as unredeemable. With God along side, we are protected and comforted. God knows that too much introspection can do more harm than good and He will never show us more than we can handle.
  
  Madam Guyon (French mystic 17th century) “If the examen is solely a self-examination, we will always end up with excessive praise or blame. But under the searchlight of the great Physician we can expect only good always.”
  
  It is not without pain but can be likened to a purifying fire and we can welcome its cleansing.
  
  
  The Purpose of the Examen-
  
  It produces within us the priceless gift of self-knowledge. A gift modern man has not found particularly useful, though even the pagans knew its worth: “Know thyself.” – Socrates
  
  “Along this path of prayer, self knowledge and the thought of one’s sins is the bread
  with which all palates must be fed no matter how delicate they may be; they cannot be
  sustained without this bread.” Teresa of Avila
  
  Paul, urges us to offer our bodies, our very selves as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1). This offering cannot be made in some abstract way with pious words or religious acts. No, it must be rooted in the acceptance of the concrete details of who we are and the way we live. We must come to accept and even honor our creatureliness. The offering of ourselves can only be the offering of our lived experience, because this alone is who we are. And who we are not who we want to be is the only offering we have to give. We give God therefore not just our strengths but also our weaknesses, not just our giftedness but also our brokenness. Our duplicity, our lust, our narcissism, our sloth all are laid on the altar of sacrifice..
  
  We must not deny or ignore the depth of our evil, even the truth about our shadow side sets us free (John 8:32)
  
  
  How To Practice the Prayer of Examen
  
  Turn inward, not to become more introspective, or to find within some inner strength or an inner savior. Vain search!
  
  This journey inward does not stop within ourselves, but drives us through ourselves to find God. These are ideas and not a a perfect fit for everyone. There are other ways not mentioned. If you have an idea and would like to share it please do.
  
• Keeping a spiritual journal
• Meditating on the Ten Commandments or the Lord’s Prayer

Prayer Study-Part 2

Chapter 2

Prayer of the Forsaken

To come to the pleasure you have not you must go by a way in which you enjoy not. –St John of the Cross

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matt 27:46b)

Times of seeming desertion and absence and abandonment appear to be universal among those who have walked this path of faith before us.
Sooner or later we will know hat it is like to feel forsaken by God.

Sometimes it just seems that God is hidden from us., like “we are beating on Heaven’s door with bruised knuckles in the dark.” (George Buttrick)

When we speak of the absence of God we do not speak of actual absence but rather a sense of absence. God is with us always but at times he withdraws from our consciousness of his presence.

We question, we doubt, we struggle. We feel abandoned by friends, spouse and God. We pray and the words echo in a hollow shell, we turn to the bible and the words swim before us. Music fails to inspire and Christian fellowship is filled with egoism, backbiting and selfishness.

The biblical metaphor is the desert; dry, barren parched. “I call all day, my God and you never answer.” Ps 22:2)

What good can we say?

Encouragement –
Many have come this way before us: Moses, Psalmist, Elijah, Jeremiah lowered into the well, Mary alone on Golgotha. “My God, why…why…why?”
Saint John of the Cross- named it the dark night of the soul. An anonymous
English writer described it as “the cloud of unknowing”. Jean-Pierre de Caussade
“the dark night of faith.” George Fox, “When it was day I wished of r night and
when it was night I wished for day.” (P18-19)
We are in good company.

It does not mean that God is displeased with you or that you have committed some offense against God or there is something wrong with you
Darkness is a definite experience of prayer. It should be expected, even embraced.

Every experience is unique to the individual. It does not occur on any timetable but God’s. We may enter these dark canyons and barren places at any number of points on our journey. We do not move from set stage to set stage . if we did we would not be in a living relationship but rather in a mechanical one.

In prayer we are entering into a living relationship that begins and develops in mutual freedom. God gives us freedom because he seeks creatures who freely seek his love and relationship. We must learn to give God the same freedom. Though unlike us He will never abandon.

a. If we could make God appear at our beck and call we would not be worshipping the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. We would be worshipping an object, an idol.

Like Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, god is wild and free and comes at will. By refusing to be a puppet on our string or a genie in our bottle God is freeing us from our false idolatrous images.

b. Besides we might not be able to endure such a command performance. e.g. Exod 20:39 “Do not let God speak to us or we will die.”


Have you been there? The death of a spouse or child, a crisis I marriage or vocation or a failure in business. Or just a simple slipping away from the warm glow of intimate communion.

St John of the Cross says two purifications occur during the dark night of the soul.

1. Stripping us of dependence on external results.
a. Less impressed with the religion of the “big deal”- buildings, productions, budgets, miracles. Neither praise or adulation (kind and gracious remarks) Though nothing is wrong with them THEY are no longer what impresses. Or moves us.
b. Likewise liturgical practices, sacramental symbols, prayer aids, books on self fulfillment, private devotional exercises. Though nothing is wrong with them THEY are no longer what fascinate us.
c. We become less in control of our destiny e.g. Peter in John 21:18-19. The realization that I can not conquer God , but God will conquer me

2. Stripping us of dependence on internal results.
a. Most disturbing and painful for we we begin to wonder, not if we believe in God but what kind of God we believe in. Faith hope and love become subject to doubt. Our own motivations become suspect. P 22 (is prayer a psychological trick, does the universe have meaning, does God really love me)
b. God is producing detachment, humility, patience, perseverance.
Our thirst can lead to the habit of prayer. Can because it can also lead us to give up


What to do during the desert times

Prayer of Complaint- Praying the Lament Psalms. They teach us to pray our inner conflicts and contradictions. They give us permission to shake our fist at God in one moment and praise him the next.

Short Darts of Longing Prayer bet upon the cloud of unknowing “with a short dart of longing love.

We may not see the end from the beginning, but we can keep on doing what we know to do: pray, listen, worship, carry out the duty of the moment.

What we learned to do in the light we do in the dark. Constant longing love produces a firmness of life orientation. We love God more than the gifts God brings. Like Job, we serve God even if he slays us. (see also Mary Luke 1:38)

How to Wait

Trust precedes faith.
Trust in the character of God.
“I do not understand what God is doing or even where God is, but I know that he is out there to do me good.” That is trust. That is how to wait.

“O my god, deep calls unto deep (Ps 42:7). The deep of my profound misery calls to the deep of your infinite mercy.”- Bernard of Clairvaux

Prayer-
God, Where re You!? What have I done to make you hide from me? Are you playing cat and mouse with me, or are your purposes larger than my perceptions? I feel alone, lost, forsaken.

Your are not the God who majors in revealing yourself. You showed yourself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Moses asked to know what you looked liked you obliged him. Why them and not me?

I am tired of praying. I am tired of asking. I am tired of waiting. But I will keep on praying and asking and waiting because I have nowhere else to go.

Jesus, you too, knew the loneliness of the desert and the isolation of the cross. And it is through your forsaken prayer that I speak these words- amen