Weekly Greeting - January 5th, 2024
Dear Bethlehem Family,
The prayer of Examen was first devised by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the sixteenth century as part of his Spiritual Exercises. The prayer is a powerful way to examine our lives in the presence of God, especially as we enter a new year.
Like many helpful guides to prayer, it follows a simple format. Pete Greig of the 24/7 prayer movement has introduced alliteration as a way of making it easy to remember the steps of the prayer. According to Greig, the prayer can be summarized in four simple steps:
‘Remember,’ Rejoice,’ ‘Repent,’ and ‘Resolve.’
We begin the prayer by remembering what God has done. It is especially helpful as we begin this New Year to look back and remember what God has done in our lives in 2023. As we remember we rejoice and give God thanks for all our blessings. Having remembered and rejoiced over all the ways God has helped us, we then think of ways we have not taken advantage of God’s grace and fallen short of God’s best for us in 2023, we then repent and resolve to do better. To resolve to do better is to prayerfully look forward to a better new year. You can find out more about how to pray the prayer of Examen at the Jesuit Institute website: jesuitinstitute.org
There are lots of great ways to pray. I hope you find the prayer of Examen helpful. However you choose to pray as you enter 2024, please know I am praying with you and for you!
It is such a blessing to be a part of the Bethlehem family.
Blessings,
Craig
We will begin a new worship series, Fresh Start, this Sunday as we enter 2024. This first week we will observe the time honored Wesleyan tradition of a covenant renewal service. John Wesley first developed the service we will follow in an updated format in 1755. Since that time, Methodists have often gathered together near the start of the year to renew their covenant with God and pledge to serve God together.
Hope to see you this Sunday!