Welcome to the Saturday Examine.

We've reached the final day of January.

For a lot of us, January can be a difficult month, a bleak month where we feel our way through the darkness,

perhaps even with the sense of crawling into the year.

So today, let's look back at January, at where God has been in the movements of the month.

If that sounds a little daunting, because maybe you can't even remember what happened yesterday,

don't worry.

An examined prayer is designed to do with God, asking God to reveal what's been going on with

the movements of the Holy Spirit, and the counter-movements of what St. Ignatius referred to as the bad spirit.

To begin, settle yourself into a comfortable but alert position wherever you are. Breathe in God's love for you.

Breathe out anything that is weighing you down in this moment.

Thoughts, distractions, to-do lists.

Let them be for a while. At your mind sweep back over this month.

No need to strain your memory.

Just let a few events resurface and notice what catches your attention.

Did anything surprise you? Anything you'd forgotten about? I'm Hold before you a moment where gratitude was unlocked for you.

Let that gratitude come to life again, in its fullness now. The

The Now, Now hold before you a moment when you experienced a weighing down.

Something that made you feel far from God.

Perhaps a spiraling thought.

Or something that caused a feeling friction in your faith you know The

The You might like to hand that experience over to God.

...