As a doubly Jesuit-educated person, I have wanted to love the Examen for over thirty years. Who knew that desire could be fulfilled in just thirty days (besides St. Ignatius, of course)?
Katie Haseltine came to the Examen as an outsider--an evangelical Christian who found "breathing room" in a Protestant liturgical church where she began receiving spiritual direction and fell in love with a prayer form developed by a 16th century Catholic priest, eventually becoming a spiritual director herself. Haseltine's circuitous approach to all things Ignatian is a tremendous gift to readers, because it renders her writing direct and accessible. She's not parroting jargon or even reflexively using insider terminology as someone who grew up in the Jesuit soup might do. In many ways, she serves as a translator--a teacher of "Ignatian for Speakers of Other Spiritualities." Most importantly, every concept she shares is something she has integrated through study, prayer, and practice.
Using thirty different starting points, Haseltine presents as many ways to approach the Examen. She is so beautifully clear: this prayer is not a hurdle to be cleared or a series of boxes to be checked, but a golden opportunity to draw close to the God who loves us by rummaging backwards through our days together. Each chapter includes a personal, practical example of how using a particular angle of approach led her to notice something she might otherwise have missed, and thus to grow in friendship with God.
Another unique component of Haseltine's writing is that she is also an Enneagram coach, accustomed to helping people see themselves more clearly. In her book, as in her spiritual direction work, the Examen and the Enneagram inform each other, but the reader doesn't have to be a devotee to benefit from Haseltine's fluency with this ancient system of nine personality types.
Though tempted to plow through All the Things as soon as it arrived, I forced myself to read it over the course of a month so as to absorb the practice. With my copy now dog-eared and well underlined, I joyfully begin most days with the Examen--and I'm ready to start on Day One again.