Lectio Divina is a very ancient practice of spiritual reading. It is a profound way of experiencing God’s revelation through the Scriptures and it is about learning to listen deeply to the text. The practice of Lectio Divina as a way of praying the Scriptures has come to us through the Benedictine tradition.

St Benedict writes in his rule:

“The Gospel should be our guide in following the way of Christ to prepare ourselves for his presence in the kingdom to which he has called us....”

It has been a very real part of Christian pilgrimage for many centuries and being rediscovered in the present day by many individuals and groups.

To find out when the next H2O meeting is please click on Church Calendar in the menu

Spiritual reading and prayer was also practised by John Wesley. He believed that the path to spiritual truth was threefold: Scripture, reason, and experience. The Bible was always first, but reason and experience part of the process of making God’s word real in our lives.

For Wesley prayer was very much a part of Bible study. He interspersed times of Bible study with periods of prayer. He believed that Bible reading and study must be applied to heart and life. The early Methodists believed that they could come to an understanding of things of God by being willing to "walk in the light." In his Notes on the New Testament, Wesley says. "Whatever light you then receive should be used to the uttermost, and that immediately. Let there be no delay. Whatever you resolve, begin to carry it out the first moment you can. So shall you find this Word to be indeed the power of God unto present and eternal salvation."

He reads the Scriptures in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, from childhood through a lifetime of disciplined study. However, for Wesley faith was about the interaction between study and meditation on God’s word and action> His theology is a theology of living faith.

In reflection of that journey in living faith I am hoping to start a group focussing on Lectio Divina here at Horley Methodist Church. I have decided to call the group H2o because in the process of Lectio Divina we focus on the Scriptures as the Living Word of God. In John chapter 4 Jesus offers the Samaritan woman water that quenches spiritual thirst completely but also becomes a spring welling up to eternal life as lives, families, communities and nations are transformed by God’s love.

If you’d like more details about the group, contact me by clicking here or speak to me at coffee after the service on a Sunday morning, otherwise I hope that you will join us for the first meeting at 8pm on the 5th of August.