Summer can be an excellent time for deeper reflection. The prospect of some rest and relaxation with friends and family is energizing and renewing. Of course, not everyone has a lighter schedule of activities and work when others are headed to beaches, pools, or outdoor barbecues. At SCS, the school’s summer team handles both the Summer Session and Summer High School programs at Georgetown. The dedicated staff expects nearly 3,000 students and the team is hard at work preparing for the first in-person summer program since 2019. Mission in Motion has previously amplified the work of the summer team, particularly the Summer College Immersion Program, a deeply mission-aligned three-week Georgetown curricular and co-curricular residential experience for rising high school seniors from the Cristo Rey Network, KIPP Foundation, and other select school systems, networks, and community organization.
No matter how much down time you can expect this summer, I encourage you to make some space for dedicated reflection, prayer, and meditation. There are many options for engaging in such spiritual exercise. You might consider logging into one of the SCS Daily Digitation Meditations (sign up here), taking a nature walk, or doing some slow reading. You may also consider adding the Jesuit-styled Examen of consciousness to your menu of inner practices. The examen, a style of reverential reflection on the meaning of your daily experiences that arises out of the tradition of Jesuit spirituality, is an especially useful tool for busy people. St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, emphasized flexibility and adaptability in the selection of spiritual practices that meet one’s needs. You can try out the examen in a way that works with your life circumstances and commitments.
If you find yourself this summer with extra time and space to devote to your inner life, I encourage you to try out the examen. And here is a suggested framework for a uniquely summer-time reflection:
- Take a few moments to enter into a time of stillness. Attend to your body and mind quieting down. As you transition into quiet, put yourself into contact with the Transcendent of your life, whatever the sacred relationship that grounds you. Allow yourself to experience the nearness of the Divine.
- As you feel yourself letting go of your distractions and preoccupations, allow yourself to settle your body, mind, and spirit. Quiet yourself by taking some intentional breaths. Try breathing in “peace” and breathing out “distraction.” Move onto the next step when you find your whole self quieting down and settling into this sacred experience.
- Now, use all of your senses to experience again the major moments of your day (or if you are reflecting on a longer period of time, your week, or month, or past semester). Savor all of the significant moments, tasting, smelling, and hearing again all of the details. Imagine that you are at rest in the shallow waters and these experiences are like the incoming waves that come into shore one after the next. Just let yourself feel all of these memories again.
- As you sift through the major moments, get in touch with your feelings of gratitude. For what in the past day (or week, month, etc.) fills you with gratitude and connects you more closely with the source of these gifts? In the spirit of summer time, what experiences of your life help encourage you to take time for rest and relaxation? Where in your life are you finding peace?
- Now spend some time with the opposite experiences and feelings. What in your life is drying you out and sapping up your energy? Moving from the personal to the interpersonal and then to the societal, what events in the world cause you desolation and even despair? How are these feelings of desolation affecting your actions and habits? Sit with these feelings, however difficult, for a little time.
- Begin to bring your time of quiet examen to a close by looking ahead. With whatever new insights or deeper awareness that you’ve gained in these moments of stillness, how would you like to make a change in your next day, week, or month? Are you sensing an invitation to become a more generous, loving, and mindful person? End your examen by giving thanks for this time and reminding yourself of your goodness.
This whole sequence can take 10-15 minutes. One of the best things about the examen is that you can do it at any point in your day. In these summer months, as you take stock of your need for rest and recharge, I hope that this invitation to quiet reflection gives you some inner resources for the journey ahead.