Prayer of Examen Guided Retreats
The practice of doing a yearly examen on an anniversary or birthday, on some meaningful (or challenging) occasion, or at the beginning of each new year, has been a gift for many. The prayer of examen is a centuries-old practice that invites us to reflect on our days prayerfully in the presence of God. Rather than a formula to memorize, it is a form of prayer based on a series of five movements drawing you through presence, reflection, awareness, faithfulness, and ultimately, hopeful action. This retreat will help you cultivate an awareness of God's work in your daily life over the past year and move forward toward the coming year in a spirit of hope. Our approach to this practice is creative and playful to encourage curiosity and experimentation, helping you cultivate and deepen your prayerful reflections.
Each half-day retreat includes an introduction and teaching on the Prayer of Examen for any who may be new to the practice (or who would appreciate a refresher or a new perspective). The center portion of the retreat will be spent in prayer, reflection, and practice alone. The last part of our time together will be to re-gather for noticing, questions, workshopping, and further connection. Each retreat date is a stand-alone invitation to join a group of up to 20.
No experience with the Prayer of Examen is needed to join a guided retreat! Beginners and long-time practitioners alike will benefit from the intentional time spent in retreat.
Yearly Examen guided retreat dates:
- Friday, September 22 | 11:00 am – 3:00 pm central
- Friday, October 27 | 11:00 am – 3:00 pm central
- Friday, November 17 | 11:00 am – 3:00 pm central
- Friday, December 15 | 11:00 am – 3:00 pm central
Time Zone Translator here
Retreat Length: 4 hours
Half-day Online Retreat: each guided retreat will gather via Zoom for one hour at 11 am central, sending retreat-makers off for two hours, and gathering again for one hour at 2 pm central with info and meeting links delivered ahead of time via email. We will also provide some recommendations for how to choose where you will make retreat, whether at home, at your church, at a retreat center, or anywhere that you can connect to the internet.
ABOUT SACRED ORDINARY DAYS
Sacred Ordinary Days offers a fresh approach, holistic tools, and time-honored resources to help people grow in Christ-likeness—and help the church come together—through intentional Christian spiritual formation.
We create tools rooted in ancient practices and rhythms but translated with a clean aesthetic, and accessible language. We create courses to help you learn, practice, and connect with kindred spirits. We curate resources that help you fill out your toolkit. Ultimately, we believe that helping people grow in Christlikeness will build the church and, in turn, the kingdom. The building blocks are sacred, ordinary days.
What types of shipping services do you offer?
Due to COVID-19 related fees, delays, and difficulties, we have temporarily suspended international shipping. We are still able to ship anywhere in the US.We currently offer free shipping on all orders valued at $75 and above (applied at checkout) and flat rate shipping of $3 or $5 per package on orders valued under $75, depending on total package weight.
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Because our orders ship daily, we may not be able to change your information before your order is processed and shipped. For that reason, please verify your shipping address at checkout before submitting your order. If you find an error, contact us as soon as possible and we will try our hardest to make corrections before the order goes out. We try to check email for any shipping-related updates before printing labels.
What is your return policy?
We do our best to describe and depict each product with great care and detail. For that reason we created the FREE Essentials Workbook to give you a closer look at the design of our planner. The Essentials Workbook will help you evaluate if our product is a good fit for you before you spend any money. You can often purchase digital sample months of the planners to try before you buy. Our planner isn't a perfect fit for everyone, though. We haven't set out to be. It's not possible! That said, let us know if you find an issue and we will do our best to make it right.
If your physical product is damaged or defective, or you receive the wrong product, please contact us with your name, order number, and nature of the issue at hello@sacredordinarydays.com and we will address your concern as quickly as possible.
The April 1, 2022 Yearly Examen retreat was challenging and welcoming and Jenn helped our group hold the door wide open for both of these experiences. Looking back at the past year with both loving and critical eyes is a helpful way to swim through the sometimes murky waters of your life and emerge bathed in sunlight ready to begin again, which we have to do over and over during our lifetime. The Examen helped me see, in concrete ways, how I would like to keep some thoughts, attitudes and practices and lovingly lay to rest other aspects of my behavior and my Christian practice. Diving into the crystal water of a new practice is challenging because I don't know where it will take me, but using the Examen I was able to see the pathway to newness a little more clearly. I highly recommend this excellent retreat if you're looking for clarity, authenticity, and depth.
At the end of the April Yearly Examen Guided Retreat, I felt challenged and refreshed. Jenn is able to facilitate a groups of strangers in a way that allows the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and hearts to the other participants and to God. I was able to hear some things that God had been saying and I hadn't been listening well. It was a safe space to be vulnerable. It was also a place of curiosity and wonder. I wholeheartedly recommend it!