The Language of Feelings

In praying the examen, we reflect on these various feelings. Consolation and desolation are not rarefied spiritual states: they are feelings and moods that we experience all the time. We often push them out of our awareness as we go about the business of our day. In the examen we look at them carefully. Where has God been in our day? We find him in those times when we have felt happy, joyous, and at peace. We also find him in times of anxiety and sadness, because we need God at those times.

What we do and how we think are of great consequence. But first we ask how we feel. There, “in the depths of our affectivity,” we find the Holy Spirit powerfully moving us.

Excerpted from A Simple Life-Changing Prayer by Jim Manney (pp. 43-44)