At the beginning of Advent this year, a group of young adults gathered at Eastern Point Retreat House for a Jesuit Connections’ Sacred Pause Retreat.

Because this retreat was offered right at the beginning of Advent and the end of the calendar year, the group contemplated with a reflective view of the past year using an Ignatian examen (see below.)

A Reflective Review of the Past Year: An Ignatian Annual Examen* 

Adapted by Debra Mooney, Ph.D.
Center for Mission and Identity at Xavier University's Daily Examen 

1. Settle your body and your mind. Take some slow, deep breaths to help you arrive into a space of gentleness and openness. Sit with God who is lovingly creating you. Intentionally ask God to be with you as you review your year.

2. As you review the past 12 months, from a year ago through to the present moment, what you are especially grateful for this year.

   • An event that took place

   • Courage that you mustered

   • Love and support you received

3. Ask for the light to know God and to know yourself as God sees you.

   • Where have you felt true joy this year?

   • What troubled you this year?

   • What has challenged you?

   • Where and when did you find an opportunity for renewal and pause?

4. Have I noticed God's presence in any of this?

5. In light of your review, what is your response to the God of your life?

   • As you look ahead to the coming months, what comes to mind?

   • With what spirit do you want to enter the next few months, the next year?

6.  Ask for God's presence and grace, for this spirit, as you enter the next year

   Amen.

*Adapted by Debra Mooney, Ph.D. from the Center for Mission and Identity at Xavier University's Daily Examen: https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/jesuit-a-z/terms-e/annual-examen