Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Book Overview: Understanding & Dismantling Racism: The Twenty First Century Challenge to White America, by Joseph Barndt


I wrote this last year for my clergy study group. I find it helpful in understanding systemic racism.    

            Understanding & Dismantling Racism: The Twenty First Century Challenge to White America, by Joseph Barndt is the book I have chosen.  I have offered an overview of the book. This is followed by some of my own (brief) conclusions. Please note that I have not rigorously followed the rules for citation, etc. The bulk of this my attempt to summarize the book. In some places I use quotes from the book, and some are slightly reworded excerpts. One final note of introduction: I am white. And since our study group is made up of people from our majority culture, I am writing from the assumption that the readers of this paper are coming from the perspective of being white.  The author writes with primary address to white people.

Defining Racism:
Racism is race prejudice plus the misuse of power by systems and institutions. Racism is more than race prejudice and more than individual attitudes and action. It is the collective actions of the dominant group. Racial prejudice becomes racism when one group's racial prejudices are reinforced by the systems and institutions of a society, giving power and privilege to the racial group in power and limiting the power and privilege of the racial groups that are not in power.

               Racism is not an individual, relational or attitudinal issue; it is a systemic, institutional issue. People of color are not hurt by white individuals so much as they are hurt by white institutions.

               Systemic racism cannot be measured accurately in terms of how it hurts people of color. The correct measurement is how it helps, benefits and empowers white society. The purpose and result of racism is the creation and preservation of power and privilege for the white society. Hurting people of color is in truth a consequence, not an end goal (p. 83)

               The misuse of power by systems and institutions is the goal of racism. Systems and institutions function to produce, manage, and distribute the resources of a society. Power functions primarily in two ways- through those who control the institution and those who have access to the institution. Racism exists in a society when one racial group acquires the power to control an institution in such a way that they have more access to benefits and privileges, while other groups have less access. (p. 84)
               Three ways in which systemic and institutional power is misused by racism are:
Power: Racism’s destructive power over people of color
Power: Racism’s beneficial power for white people
Power:  Racism’s ultimate power to control and destroy everyone.

Power
Racism’s destruction power over people of color: (pp. 47-48)
·        Economic gap: an enormous economic and poverty gap has formed a permanent underclass in the US, which is the world’s richest society. The odds of economic and social success are stacked against children born into communities weakened by poverty, broken families, substance abuse, violence, unemployment, and sub standard schools.

·        Education gap: the key to increasing income and wealth over a lifetime is higher education. Rates have improved across the board since 1960 but there is still a significant gap.
·        Housing gap: home ownership gap. In 2003 72.1% of whites owned homes, 48.1% of African Americans, and 46.7% of Hispanic/Latinos.

·        Social Service Gap: Between 1985-2005 there was an average 40% decrease in funding for low income housing, low income unemployment services, child care, health care for migrants, and maternal and child health. Military spending went up 37% in the same time period. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that our society’s response systems are much more effective for white people than for people of color.

·        Criminal Justice Gap: The system is weighted against people of color; a disproportionate number go to prison.

Power: Racism’s beneficial power for white people
To white readers: we are not only trying to solve the wrong problem; we are also studying the wrong people. We need to study us. We need to study white power and privilege. To study people of color is study the results, not the problem. Thus the real problem is Power, the structures of our society that are designed to create and preserve power and privilege for the white society.
If we think of institutions using the image of a body, the feet are used to kick communities of color, hurting, controlling, dominating, disempowering, and destroying people of color. This is Power1. The rest of the body of the institution- hands, arms, head, and heart- serve white people. This produces white power and privilege, Power.

Color blindness may have the intention of correcting inequality, but it has the effect of covering it up and making the person of color invisible so that we are unable to see how being a person of color is detrimental. Color blindness is also a way of not seeing our whiteness, our privilege and power.
White power is collective power; white privilege is individually experienced. White power is rooted in our history as a nation and the belief that only white people were human. All of our institutions were built to serve humans (whites). The civil rights movements (the second revolution) brought fundamental changes, but it was a revolution of intentions. White power lives on. The halls of power are still populated by mostly white people. The true revolution has yet to take place- 90% of our history has been dedicated to white power while 10% to the intention to change. We are only now discovering how difficult a challenge this presents.

White power produce white privilege: benefits that accrue only to white people. It is inaccurate for a white person to claim we have what we have because we have worked hard. The truth is we many benefits because of the structure of white power. A definition of privilege: when a right that theoretically should be extended to everyone is still reserved for less than everyone, then a right has become a privilege.

Examples of privilege include the majority of white people earn more than the majority of people color earn, better education, homes, health care, better treatment by criminal justice system, better representation in elected officials. Day to day privileges of smaller scale include easier banking and loan applications, the ability to shop without suspicion, and may have our ideas more readily listened to accepted. White people are featured positively in history books and in the media, and in art and theology whiteness is often assumed and well represented. There are many more examples of privilege, but this is a summary.

Steps in responding include becoming more aware of our privileges (exercises on p.99-106), acknowledging this elephant in the room within our relationships, and exchanging our guilt and shame for anger at racism. We cannot simply walk away from our privilege, but we can use our collective power to change institutions.

Power:  Racism’s ultimate power to control and destroy everyone.
This chapter begins with a quote by C. Eric Lincoln: the same fetters that bind the captive bind the captor. “We who are white are prisoners of our own racism. We hold the power of racism in our hands, but we are unable to let it go. Not only do we receive power and privilege from racism, but in doing so, racism gains power and control over us. All of the good intentions in the world of not being racist do not change the reality of white power and privilege. We have this monkey on our backs, and each of us is made- willingly or unwillingly- into an instrument of daily and ongoing construct of white racism.” (p.111)

At the core of racism is not simply the way it promotes inequality by taking from some and giving to others, but rather its capacity to crush the humanity of everyone it touches, to tear apart the fabric of society. If a living body is cut in half, it dies. White racism has cut the body of human society in half, and now both parts are bleeding to death. This is Power- racism in its most deadly form.

The author tells a personal story of his own experience of being active in the civil rights movement and present when the ‘black power’ movement was born from within it. He and many other white colleagues were told to ‘go home and free your own people.’ At the time he was hurt and angry at being lumped together with other white racists. Looking back, he realized the black power movement had shoved him in the right direction. Having heard Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. say “so long as one person is not free, none of us are free” and initially taken it to mean he should work for the freedom of people of color. “Going home to free my people’ meant facing the truth that my people (whites) are not free.  A people whose privilege, status and privilege are built upon the foundation of the oppression of others and on a belief of their own superiority are a sick people. A society that takes away the freedom of others is not free. The problem is not that white people are not free because people of color are not free; people of color are not free because white people are not free.
This is a challenging concept: that white people are not free. Racism is a prison not only for people of color, but also for white people. This is the premise of the author’s book: individually and corporately, white Americans- all of us- are enslaved in racism and need to be set free.
A racist is any white person who, willingly or unwillingly, participates in and benefits from white power and privilege (Power). Whether you like it or not, you were made into a racist. It should make you angry. The author hopes that it does. (p.115)

Whites are imprisoned by the truth that we have no power to stop being the beneficiary of racism. White people are imprisoned by the fact that we have no power not to be a racist. The prison people of color experience is that they are made into casualties of racism. Understanding racism from this perspective provides a much different framework than guilt and shame. The questions shift from “should I or shouldn’t I feel guilty?” to “how were we misled into becoming someone we don’t want to be?” A far more useful response than guilt is anger at our unwilling captivity, and determination to join the struggle to free our own people, along with everyone else. (p.116)

People of color live in a prison that most Americans are aware of. The prison in which whites live is deceptively warm and comfortable. The walls are comprised of residential, cultural, relational, and institutional boundaries which separate white America from the rest of America. These invisible bars evoke frustration, loneliness, fear and anxiety. Tragically, as inmates of our white prison, we have a desperate need to pretend the prison does not exist.

How is racism able to imprison both whites and people of color? Through a process of systemic socialization, racism perpetuates itself by ensuring that each one of us conforms to our racial identities. The foundation of identity becomes internalized by the age of four. Consciously and unconsciously we absorb the fears, hatreds, prejudices, and unhealthy beliefs of those around us. This happens to individuals and to groups of people in society.  We are taught there are upper and lower classes, superior and inferior genders, greater and lesser nations, true and false religions, beautiful and ugly people. Even if we don’t consciously believe these messages, we learn to fit into a society that does.

To illustrate: In 1968, Iowa school teacher Jane Elliott began an annual experiment with her third grade all white students. She separated her blue eyed and brown eyed students into separate groups. The first day, she taught the students blue eyed children are better. Within the day, the blue eyed children adopted superior and oppressive behavior and the brown eyed children became docile and submissive to their position, and their learning ability plummeted. The next day, she reversed the instruction saying brown eyed children are superior and their behavior patterns flipped. She has run this experiment hundreds of times and the results are the same every time.
Racism is perpetuated by our institutions and culture, which were constructed to produce white power and privilege. Transformation of these systems is what is necessary to dismantle racism. This is different from transactional change that makes modifications to the system, but leaves the overall goals and outcomes in place.

Dismantling Racism
“The walls of racism must be dismantled. Facing up to these realities offers new possibilities, but refusing to face them threatens yet greater dangers. The results of centuries of national and worldwide conquest and racial domination, of military buildups and violent aggression, of over consumption and environmental destruction may be reaching the point of no return. The moment of self-destruction seems to be drawing ever more near, nationally and globally. A small and predominantly white minority of the global population derives its power and privilege from the sufferings of the vast majority of peoples of color. For the sake of the world and ourselves we dare not allow it to continue.” (p.220)

Dismantling racism means building something new- new structures of power and justice. Building communities of anti-racist resistance and dismantling institutional racism are the steps the author puts forward as the way forward. Here the author shifts audience. Previous chapters were addressing primarily white people. This chapter also addresses people of color.


The journey to freedom begins while still in chains. Freedom has a dualistic nature that has been attested to through the ages; it may be held onto even while behind prison walls. St. Paul wrote about freedom while in a jail cell. Mahatma Gandhi and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. demonstrated that being in prison can be a means of promoting freedom. Nelson Mandela emerged from twenty one years in prison with a strengthened identity as a free person. Enslaved Africans in this country never lost sight of freedom; this informed many spirituals they composed. Slave masters could “kill the body, not the soul.” It is possible to be simultaneously imprisoned and free. This requires community.
Antiracism describes the work of dismantling racism and antiracist describes a person or people who are committed to the task of bringing racism to an end. For white people, we can admit that we are racist by virtue of being born and raised in a racist society but this is not the sum of our identity. We can also be antiracists, committed to the dismantling of racism.

An antiracist community of resistance can form in a range of settings- in a school, church, business, neighborhood, city, social service agency, governmental agency, etc for mutual support, with a goal of growing into the identity of antiracist and becoming a group that then takes action together. Antiracist communities of resistance are multiracial and multicultural. Building these support groups has been practiced for centuries by people of color, but will likely be new for white people.
Crossroads Ministry and People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond are two organizations that have established hundreds of these communities throughout the U.S.

To develop such a community requires hard work. The steps are
1.      Developing a common analysis of racism

2.      Undoing internalized socialization by developing cross-racial relationships that lead to deprogramming and new self understanding

3.      Learning to be accountable by building new relationships of power and accountability with white people learning to follow the leadership of people of color

4.      Maintaining spiritual roots

5.      Learning to organize

To plan a jailbreak and dismantle the walls of racism is work in community to destroy the imprisoning and dehumanizing power of systemic and institutional racism. In order for change to happen, an institution must develop a long range plan of implementation.

This process begins by developing an institutional sense of antiracist identity, then making a commitment to become an antiracist institution committed to antiracist transformation. This will happen only when an institution realizes this is not a sacrifice for the sake of others, but a necessary step that serves the self-interest of the institution itself. Often, institutions will try making changes that are superficial within the personnel, programs and services, and community constituency to address racism. Real change must happen where the power resides in an institution: in its organizational structure of its mission, purpose, and identity. (p.233). Attached is a chart outlining what this can look like in an institution.

“Don’t mourn, organize. Yearning, praying, studying and talking about issues of injustice are all important, but unless these things are done in the context of intentional collective organizing for action that actually make change happen, they can be a waste of time.”

To organize:

1.      There must be a crisis, creating opportunity to organize
2.      There must be a common analysis
3.       This is an inside job: identify the inside leaders and stake holders who can make change
4.      Establish trained organizing teams to guide the change who
a.      Analyze systemic racism
b.      Research and analyze based on context
c.      Educate, provide tools and strategies
d.      Organize and implement change
5.      Recognize this is a step by step long term change
a.      Institute programs of antiracism training to create common analysis of systemic racism
b.      A consciousness of white power and privilege emerges in the institution
c.      Cross racial relationships deepen and white people begin to develop accountability to communities of color
d.      Analyze all levels of institution through auditing and evaluation
e.      Critical mass leadership develops antiracist identity and vision for antiracist institution
6.      Structural transformation
a.      Redesigning, restructuring and institutionalizing antiracism identity
b.      The restructuring ensures full participation of communities of color in decision making and other forms of power sharing at all levels
c.      Ensure inclusion of worldviews, values, and lifestyle of communities of color
d.      Establish authentic and mutually accountable antiracist relationships at all levels
e.      Similar changes toward other oppressed groups (women, LGBTQ, immigrants, etc)
f.       There is within the community a sense of restored relationships
7.      Changes must then begin in affiliated institutions so the change can spread.

Conclusion
Now that I have summarized the book, I offer a few thoughts. I appreciate the definition of racism presented by this author. I especially appreciate his emphasis that guilt is useless and anger at the current state of our institutions is a more helpful response. Just as I find original sin freeing in the knowledge that I am sin sick by virtue of being human, I find this definition freeing in that I am born and raised racist and rather than deny this truth, it is helpful to acknowledge the sin and then work toward repentance. I also appreciate the focus upon racism as being primarily systemic, and not about the state of someone’s heart. I did not find his argument about the harm racism causes white people as persuasive as I would like for the argument to be, because at a visceral level it make sense to me. Hopefully, additional study, reflection, and dialogue will lead me to a deeper understanding of this point.

The chart from the book is also helpful.
Use the second image to read the bottom of the longer columns... I couldn't get it all in one image.




Sunday, September 09, 2018

If you want to follow up on today's sermon and deepen your interior life of prayer of reflection, here is the manuscript of the message. Scroll through to find the steps I listed and use those for your journaling.


James 2:1-17
2My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?5Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 


Mark 7:24-37
24From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 28But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” 30So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
31Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” 35And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”






Sept. 9

In reading the passage from James,
   one of the first questions that comes to my mind is
     what was it like to be one of the poor people
   who was told "sit at my feet"
How painful was that? 

Perhaps if they had experienced plenty of love..
   and lots of acceptance, affection, attention, and appreciation
     throughout their lives
    they would be able to shrug that off
My bet is, though, that is was painful. 
    If it is comparable to how homeless folks feel today,
      then there was a lot of pain and discouragement
    being experienced by the poor people who were routinely told
    "sit at my feet"

The most obvious point that James is making here
   is that we are treat the poor well
     we are to recognize that they are the richest if faith
     and heirs to the Kingdom of God...

I am reminded of a man I met many years ago...
  he was an onsite supervisor for a homeless shelter in Earleville MD called Meeting Ground
Bobby was older, and had lost his vision because of diabetes..
   he himself had been homeless at one time,
     and had become such an integral part of the Meeting Ground community
   that he was a respected leader when I met him
People respected him and listened to him..
   he was a man of deep, abiding faith
    who walked the talk every day
He was one of the people who I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit
    just flowing through him...
He showed me what it looks like to see that
     "God has chosen the poor in the world
        to be rich in faith and to heirs to the kingdom" (v.5)

 Bobby was no stranger to pain..
   he has lived through a lot of it in his life...
Being at Meeting Ground was a place of healing for him
   and he lived there until he died several years later. 

The truth is,
    none of us are strangers to pain...
    all of us had the equivalent experience of being told "sit at my feet"
All of us have experienced being excluded rather than accepted..
     rejected rather than receiving affection and appreciation
      we all know what it is to be ignored rather than given attention..

Many of you know that I am completing my certification to be a yoga teacher 
   yesterday was our final class day...
   Yoga is about connecting with God
      and it is about what we Christians call sanctifying grace...
Opening ourselves to God's grace
    and walking the walk in ways
     that honor God and ourselves and our neighbors
So my time in this training has led me to reflect upon Scriptural truths
    that have also been a vital part of Yoga teacher training. 
Today's reading from James
   leads me think about the source of our pain...
    and it is rooted in the times when we don't receive
     Acceptance 
        Affection 
         Appreciation
           Attention

When we are rejected, ignored, unappreciated, and unloved
    part of our human condition is to form habits
     which are intended to keep us from being in that position again

Unfortunately, 
    these habits can also keep us in a place of suffering..
     perhaps a different kind of suffering than the one we are avoiding..
      but still in pain

Let's take the Syrophenician woman from the gospel..
    isn't her boldness and courage impressive? 
She is not going to let anyone, not even Jesus,
    set her aside...
Yet she is clearly an outsider..
    she knows what it's like not to be accepted..
          she knows what it's like not to be loved
So in this exchange with Jesus
    her boldness serves her well...

But what if she takes that combative pattern
   into every aspect of her life? 
What if everything is a fight? 

Then life is pretty painful...
    and she probably feels like everything in life is always a fight
Do you know anyone like this? 
    where everything is always a battle for that person? 
Even if the situation doesn't start out that way,
     it always turns into a struggle? 

 I wonder if she is able to feel any peace...
    I wonder if the syrophenecian woman
        was able to accept love and affection and attention
     where it is offered? 

Understanding our own places where we have not experienced
Acceptance 
Affection 
Appreciation
Attention
is the first step on the path to healing...
because knowing where these places are
    means understanding what it is we need to be healed of...
it means knowing ourselves, whom God created, 
   in the fullness of God's creation..
       in the truth that we are created in the image of God

Listening to the Show On Being I heard 
Marilyn Nelson, a famouscontemplative teacher, being interviewed

Story of pastor on retreat who spent time in group talking and then went to room to pray...heard "shut up and let me love you"

Marilyn had vision of the universe
      in which everything was dark
     and the only source is light was people who were open to God...
          Jesus teaches that we are the light of the world

So how do we let that light shine through us? 
    how do we open ourselves to the light of Christ? 

This is what a prayer life is all about...
   this is what saints through the ages have called our "inner life"
This is where we LISTEN for God
   this is where we are LOVED by God
     our inner life is where the light of God is poured into us...
And as we enter deeper and deeper inside of ourselves
    we will also come to see our scars, our hurts, our pain...
and the first step is to recognize these...
    the next step is to begin inviting the Spirit
      to teach us more fully how to walk in the light..
    how to open ourselves up to healing
But if we do not recognize where we are in pain and why
   if we don't reflect upon where we did not experience
Acceptance 
Affection 
Appreciation
Attention 
    and what coping mechanisms we developed because of these experiences,
     then we will stay in our same patterns 
    and live in the same pain...

So how do we examine ourselves in this way? 
   how do we live the interior life? 
The most effective way I have found is through journaling
   and what St. Ignatious calls the Examen

Have you noticed that it is easier to see the presence of God 
  in hindsight? 
We are much better able to recognize God at work
   when we look back than when we are in the midst of something...

This is the beauty of doing journaling
    in the form of spiritual autobiography...
Because it provides the invitation
   to look back over our lives
    to reflect upon our experiences
   and to see where God was present...

One of the experiences that comes up whenever I journal in this way
    was in first grade
My best friend was convinced by another girl
   that they should be best friends
     and that I should be excluded...
Such a little girl
   such a typical childhood experience...
I have a few choices in thinking about this experience..
   I can write it off as something every kid goes through at one time or another
or I can see it as a formative experience
      that was both painful and a teacher for me
       and as a lens through which to see God at work...
And what I see is this:
   that was a painful experience for me..
     and I can see that God used it, along with other things,
     to form and build compassion within me..
I always look at the edges of a group
   and see who is not engaged...
     and is not included...
   and I try to bring them in..
    it's a part of how God works in me
      and it is born, in part, 
    because I identify with the poor people in the assembly
     that James talks about..
       I know what it feels like
    to be  told "sit at my feet"
This also teaches me
    that I formed a habit of keeping friends at arms length
     where they could not hurt me or reject me
And if I am not paying attention 
   if I am not spending time listening to God
    and letting God love me,
   then that same old pattern causes me pain again 
And so to open myself up to healing
   I have to see where it is that I need healing
    and what it is that I do
     to cause myself pain, ironically,
         because I am subconsciously trying to avoid pain 

This is where the daily examen becomes a wonderful practice: 
1. Become aware of God’s presence.
   Look back on the events of the day in the company of the Holy Spirit.
      The day may seem confusing to you—a blur, a jumble, a muddle.
          Ask God to bring clarity and understanding.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
Gratitude is the foundation of our relationship with God.
     Walk through your day in the presence of God
           and note its joys and delights.
               Focus on the day’s gifts.
Look at the work you did, the people you interacted with.
         What did you receive from these people? What did you give them?
Pay attention to small things—
       the food you ate, the sights you saw,
        and other seemingly small pleasures.
God is in the details.
3. Pay attention to your emotions.
    One of St. Ignatius’s great insights
       was that we detect the presence of the Spirit of God
           in the movements of our emotions.
Reflect on the feelings you experienced during the day.
        Boredom? Elation? Resentment? Compassion? Anger? Confidence?
 What is God saying through these feelings?
God will most likely show you some ways that you fell short.
         Make note of these sins and faults.
           But look deeply for other implications.
 Does a feeling of frustration perhaps mean
       that God wants you consider a new direction in some area of your work?
 Are you concerned about a friend?
           Perhaps you should reach out to her in some way.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
      Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you to something during the day
          that God thinks is particularly important. 
It may involve a feeling—positive or negative.
         It may be a significant encounter with another person
            or a vivid moment of pleasure or peace.
Or it may be something that seems rather insignificant.
        Look at it. Pray about it.
            Allow the prayer to arise spontaneously from your heart—
             whether intercession, praise, repentance, or gratitude.
5. Look toward tomorrow.
       Ask God to give you light for tomorrow’s challenges.
        Pay attention to the feelings that surface as you survey what’s coming up.
 Are you doubtful? Cheerful? Apprehensive? Full of delighted anticipation?
      Allow these feelings to turn into prayer.
          Seek God’s guidance. Ask God for help and understanding.
               Pray for hope.
St. Ignatius encouraged people to talk to Jesus like a friend.
       End the Daily Examen with a conversation with Jesus.
          Ask forgiveness for your sins.
              Ask for his protection and help.
             Ask for his wisdom about the questions you have
              and the problems you face.
Do all this in the spirit of gratitude.
      Your life is a gift, and it is adorned with gifts from God.
End the Daily Examen with the Lord’s Prayer
source: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/#handouts

How do you live a life of prayer and reflection?
What is your interior life like?
Where are the formative places
    that you did experience
Acceptance, Affection, Appreciation, and Attention 
     and where are the places you did not receive those?
Allowing the Spirit to show us these… and to teach us…
     is central to opening ourselves to healing…
Because first, we must seek what it is that we really need healing from…
Next week, we will reflect more deeply
    Opening Ourselves to Healing
     by identifying habit patterns that keep us in pain
And how to recognize fear, attachment, aversion, and ego
     at work in us
      so that we can open ourselves more deeply
to the healing grace of God.

Amen


The Daily Examen
The Daily Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and discern his direction for us.  The Examen is an ancient practice in the Church that can help us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience.
The method presented here is adapted from a technique described by Ignatius Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises. St. Ignatius thought that the Examen was a gift that came directly from God, and that God wanted it to be shared as widely as possible. One of the few rules of prayer that Ignatius made for the Jesuit order was the requirement that Jesuits practice the Examen twice daily—at noon and at the end of the day. It’s a habit that Jesuits, and many other Christians, practice to this day.
See more at: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/#handouts
 This is a version of the five-step Daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced.
A great way to pray is to look for God’s presence in your life. More than 400 years ago St. Ignatius Loyola encouraged prayer-filled mindfulness by proposing what has been called the Daily Examen. The Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and to discern his direction for us. Try this version of St. Ignatius’s prayer.