Having a bad day? Here how you can connect with God.

Having a bad day and feeling that you must praise God even if you are gritting your teeth? Yes, you can praise God but there is process before you can get there. The Ignatian Examen enables us to get to a place where we can see God in a bad day. Here are two points from the Examen.

• Grab a pen and paper and get into a comfortable chair. Invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you and sit in silence until your heart is calmer.

• Go through your day moment by moment and ask yourself: Where did I see God? Was it in the gentle voice of a friend, praise from a colleague? Keep exploring your day with God.

• Where did I not feel God’s presence with me? What was so hard about that moment? Why do I believe God felt absent? Was He absent?

• Stay with these feelings of desolation in prayer until the Holy Spirit shows you His presence with you. If nothing happens, get a glass of water, and return to prayer. Our hearts are sometimes deeply wounded and the wound clouds our perspective. God’ love for you is such that he wants to have you healed, and all healing comes from God.

• This process may take a while, sometimes days or months to recover from a catastrophe, but God will be there to heal you. He will never leave you broken and despairing.