My Inner GPS

Introduction & Welcome (1 min.)

I. Opening Prayer (5 min.)

Grace:  Of perception, to see clearly the things that may normally remain hidden and receive them in gratitude.

Use the grace and the suggested scripture above to create your own prayer, or use CLC Opening Prayer.

Note:  Ask for a volunteer to lead opening and closing prayers for the next meeting.

II. Check-In (5 min.)

• • What is one thing that surprised you today: something out of the ordinary, or something you noticed for the first time? 

III.  Focus Exercise (40 min.)

Materials Needed:  CLC supply box (CLC journal booklets, papers, pens, etc.).    

• A live plant, or small plants for everyone in your group. Even consider giving everyone in the group a packet of seeds and bring small pots with potting soil (but be mindful of cleaning up afterward). 

Introduction

Have you ever had a day where you lie down in bed at the end of it and you can hardly remember what you did that morning?  You’ve been on the go for such a long time that you stopped even really noticing what was happening?  You just do one thing after another in order to get it done until you finally crash?

• • • Why are we so busy?  Is that the lifestyle or the person we want to become?  Shaping ourselves into the person who we want to be takes persistent work and attention.  We seek to have discerning hearts, hearts that readily notice the things that are God’s activity or the things that push us away from God.  In order to make our hearts increasingly receptive, we work on cultivating receptive and attentive hearts. 

    • We will explore the idea of “cultivation” in general to give us insight into the process of cultivating a discerning heart. Then, we will share in a guided Examen as a tool to help us in our cultivation.

Exercise 1: Lessons from the Plant

Bring a live potted plant of some kind to the meeting. You may choose to bring a small one for each member of your group. Lead the group in a discussion of how this plant came to be.

• 1. What did it need to grow? Light? Water? Nutrients?

  2. What would happen if those things were no longer provided to the plant?

  3. Explore the idea of a farm and a farmer who cultivates the land. What does that entail? What must the farmer do to make sure the land can bear fruit? What kind of tools does the farmer use? What is the difference between farmland and wild land?

Sharing 

Suggested questions for discussion

• • How do we see our own spirituality in the plant or the land?

  • If you are the farmer and your faith is the plant, how are you tending to it? What shape is it in?

  • How is your spirituality thriving?  How is it struggling?

Exercise 2: Awareness Examen

Introduce your group to the Examen prayer and how it can help us as we continue to cultivate a sense of discernment in our own hearts. Invite them to enter into the Examen prayer as you guide it.  This 5-10 minutes reflective prayer at night (or the next morning) to review a day is a vital way to developing a discerning heart:

• 1. Lord, bless me with the light of your Spirit to see through Your eyes and feel with Your heart.

  2. Lord, what gifts have I received today that I can be thankful for?

  3. Which experiences gave me life today? Which experiences drained me? Lord, how have you loved me today?

  4. Lord, how have I not responded to you? I need your forgiveness for...?

  5. Lord, how are you inviting me to respond more fully or be more attentive to you in the coming day?

Sharing 

Suggested questions for discussion

• • How did it feel to review your day in this prayerful way?

  • What did you notice?

  • What did you feel called to?

  • How do you think this could work as a tool for cultivating a growth in your spiritual life?

IV.  Moving Forward (5 min.)

• Action:  Can our CLC commit to praying the Examen once a day this week? Will we undertake the “Awareness Examen Challenge?!” Some ways we could do this include:

  • One person can volunteer to text message everyone a reminder each night.

  • The group can pick a time that they will pray it so they can be in it together.

  • Pray-as-you-go.org have audio guided-Examen prayers you can use from your phone or computer.

  • The group could Facebook or text message each other each day sharing one grace that they experienced in the Examen (or one struggle with it).

  • You can use your plant as a reminder to do the Examen, and tend to it each time you tend to your own spirit. See how it grows!

  • You can journal the “One a Day Gratitude”

• Announcements:  Topic for next meeting and upcoming CLC events

V.  Closing Prayer (5 min.)

Return to the image of the plant, using that image as inspiration for the prayer.  Pray for one another.