During a talk at St Luke’s in January, Denise Ward introduced us to a form of meditation called ‘Lectio Divina’ or Holy Reading. Conceived by someone called Origen, who lived a couple of hundred years after Jesus, and developed by Benedict, three hundred years later again, this is an approach to prayer which invites words from the Bible to speak by listening to them rather than simply reading them.

Drawing on the words from Psalm 131, read earlier in the service, (‘Put your hope in God, both now and forever’ ) Denise outlined four movements in the practice of Lectio Divina in which we can 'use a short piece of the Bible to make space, to calm your soul, to be attentive to God.'

1. Reading or Lectio. Read and repeat the words of a verse or line of scripture several times. (‘Put your hope in God, both now and forever’ )

2. Meditation or Mediatio. Reflect on what this verse says to you, today. (What would it mean for you to choose to hope.)

3. Praying or Oratio. Respond. (For example, in the light of hoping and trusting in God pray for our world and the people who are on your mind.)

4. Contemplating or Contemplatio. Rest. Allow yourself a moment of quiet, allow space for what might come to you.