Throughout our journey together we have discussed what we were called to do as a group. Those who started off our preparation to enter the Catholic Church, via the Ordinariate have all talked about knowing now that they are in the ‘right place’. We hope that those going through RCIA this year feel the same by the time they are received into the Church.

This feeling however is not a vague feeling it is due to the work God has done in our lives. One of the aspects that came out quite quickly, in our preparation and the discussions we have had since, is the importance of living out a Eucharistic dynamic and of praying together. Times have been busy and we maybe haven’t talked about it as much lately as we might have done. So now, still at the beginning of the Year of Faith could be the time.

As most people know Karlie and I with some others from our group went to Celebrate in Brighton in the summer and there we heard Jo Gilbert from the Wellspring Community talk about Koinonia and the essentials for Christian Community. Much of what she said resonated with us and touched on so much of what we, as a group, had discussed over the months.

Last week, Karlie and I travelled over to Brighton to talk to Jo about their experience and to share something of our own journey. Much came out of the time spent together and one important aspect was to talk about how decisions about their community come out of their prayer lives together. As they are a lay community based on the Rule of St Benedict, reading and discussing the rule is the other strand from which decisions are made.

Our talk about a community prayer life, all those months ago in the Vicarage was really useful. It was obvious that this element of shared prayer was something people felt important. And for some, we have prayed parts of the Divine Office. Some meet regularly at St Agnes, where, with the community there, Morning Prayer is done before Mass. However there isn’t a pattern or minimum commitment that we have as a group. Member of the group pray parts of the Divine Office but there is not much that is done together or done in common. Wellspring’s experience suggested to us that we might commit to doing one aspect of the Divine office each day, even if other parts are also being prayed.

One of the other things that the community in Brighton commit to is to pray Lectio Divina on the daily Gospel. Lectio Divina is an important part of the Spiritual Exercises and I have come to value the opportunity to come into God’s presence and allow him to speak through scripture. Done as a group this powerful experience means that God can use what he is doing in the lives of each member to touch other individuals and the group as a whole.

So these might be two elements for our prayer life together. All new things need to have time to become a habit and so anything we do will start small. Watch this space for more details.