How do we look honestly at ourselves--recognizing both the content and intent of each affection, attention, and action--with unflinching courage and compassion, without turning confession, contrition, and prayer into just another bit of performative, introspective, religious theatre?

Especially, when we consider the fact that we are called saints before we have finished becoming saints--certainly long before most of us feel like saints anyways. As we have said, the name "saint" is both a gift and a task: God sets us apart in Christ, precisely BEFORE and WHILE we learn to live into that identity together, with all that we are—spirit, soul, and body. Our ordinary habits matter because they form us through who/how/where/why/what we attend and respond to during each moment, every hour, all the days of... YOUR life.

This week we practiced the Examen. We recall who we are in Jesus, settle into the Father's love, notice God's presence and our response, bring our resistance out into the light, and entrust tomorrow to the grace and embrace of Jesus known and felt today. The distinction between consciousness and conscience matters: we attend both to where we received God's nearness and to where we ignored it. We ask the Spirit to help us see clearly, confess honestly, and take a concrete step toward restoration. Christ loved us, even died for us, while we were still sinners; so now we can face what needs fixing and hold what needs healing without fear or shame.

Questions for Reflection

• Where did you notice God's nearness this week, and how did you respond?
• What habit helped you relate to God as Father and to others as brothers and sisters?
• Where did you resist the Spirit's leading, and what step toward restoration might you take tomorrow?

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:2–4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; Psalm 139:7–18, 23–24; Luke 6:39–42; 1 Corinthians 2:1–16; Romans 5:6, 8.

From the series Simple Saints

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