Right from its inception in 2004 Logopraxis has been an experiment in how to be in spiritual community through a shared lived experience of the Word working in each other’s life. Thus the approach is two-fold in nature. It has both an individual and a community dimension to it.  So, in Logopraxis the individual practice is carried out with a view to sharing  one’s experience of the Word with others in a small group setting, in the recognition that what is brought to the group is a gift from the Lord through each person’s willingness to engage with the Logos, with the text.  So as the group gathers together and witnesses each others’ work… the Lord as the Word then becomes visible in the midst of the group and hence the over-arching catch phrase for Logopraxis being ….. Making the Lord visible in our midst.

Where two or three are gathered together in My name …. there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)

So the Word as the Lord is acknowledged as being the principal agent that guides and directs the processes involved for the life of the individual, as well as for the life of the group.

STEP 1 – READ AND NOTE

In Logopraxis we acknowledge that, because of the way the texts of Divine Revelation are formed, they anchor our awareness of the Lord’s presence within us in a way that nothing else can.  Find a quiet space and give yourself a moment to clear your mind as you approach the Text.

As you read: –

• Take note of (or mark) the areas that catch your attention,
• Record specific impressions,
• List any initial insights or questions that you become aware of.

STEP 2 – REVIEW & SELECT

The aim is to choose something from what you marked up in Step 1.  What catches your attention? What is reaching out to you? Avoid analysing why at this stage. You’re looking to get a sense of what portion of the Text seems to resonate most strongly for you.

You may quickly identify one particular portion of Text.  You may hold your selected areas of Text in mind over a few days, perhaps reading through them before you make a choice which will form the basis for developing a work task in Step 3.In Logopraxis, our task is a spiritual principle/truth taken from the Text and then reframed into a form that we can engage with so that we might experience how it is true for us. The task therefore becomes a prompt to remind us to observe this principle in our day-to-day life.  The task will serve as a spiritual focus over the remainder of the 2-weeks so that we may become more aware of the thoughts and feelings that we experience.

STEP 3 – CREATING A TASK

In Logopraxis, our task is a spiritual principle/truth taken from the Text and then reframed into a form that we can engage with so that we might experience how it is true for us. The task therefore becomes a prompt to remind us to observe this principle in our day-to-day life.  The task will serve as a spiritual focus over the remainder of the 2-weeks so that we may become more aware of the thoughts and feelings that we experience.

STEP 4 – PUT THE TASK INTO PRACTISE AND LIVE IT!

It can be helpful to keep a journal to record your work with your task in this second week. As well as remaining conscious of the task itself, notice whatever may come up in opposition to your task.It can be helpful to keep a journal to record your work with your task in this second week. Seek to stay conscious of what comes up in opposition to your task, as well as the task itself.

STEP 5 – REFLECT

The following questions are offered as a framework for reflecting on your experience of the task: –  

• What happened when I remembered to implement my task?
• What thoughts and feelings did I notice?
• What happened when I forgot the task, or struggled to remember it?
• What thoughts and feelings did I notice then?
• What is the Lord allowing or asking me to see?
• What has He taught me concerning the nature and quality of my thoughts and affections over this session?
• What principle/s from the Text is/are illustrated in my experience?

STEP 6 – PREPARE A SUBMISSION

Typically, a submission includes the following: –

• The number of the paragraph and the chosen piece of Text you worked with.
• The spiritual principle and task that you drew from this.
• A short summary of what your work revealed for you over the period.

The submission describes how we experienced the Word working in us, and the material that we gather individually in our practice, when shared with our Life Group, is the Lord’s gift which is given to support the spiritual lives of others in the group as well as the group as a collective whole.

*Remember – like any new practice, it can take a while to get into the rhythm of things. Walk gently with yourself through the process and trust that whatever arises is what the Lord is offering you.

The governing principle for sharing in the rounds in a Logopraxis Life Group Meeting is to keep crosstalk to a minimum. The need for our “person” to be heard is something that our culture places a lot of value on, but in Logopraxis we encourage a mode of being together that is counter-cultural. We seek to work (to be conscious of our states) as we enter into the exchanges in a Life Group. What this means is that effort is being made not to be person-centred but Word-centred and to have this mode of being serve as the basis for cultivating a sense of spiritual community.

We come together to experience collectively the operation of the Word through what passes between people as they share their direct experience of the Text working in their individual lives. Every Life Group meeting offers it’s participants a gift, this being an opportunity through our exchanges to live through the Word and have it live through us, to be with others in a different way. An effort is required if we are to leave our habitual ways of being at the door and enter into what can become a sacred space.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:5)

To live through the Word and have it live through us is to make the Lord visible in our midst, and this is the very core of what Logopraxis is. When we realise this, it makes a demand on every participant to be present and awake to the principles that govern being together in this way. The physicists David Bohm in his essay, On Dialogue points out that the word “dialogue” is Greek in its origin from, “dia” meaning “through” and “logos” meaning word, so dialogue literally means, “through the word“. The principles that Bohm identifies as crucial to meaningful dialogue have a universal quality to them that points to their spiritual origins.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. (John 15:7)

The presencing of the Lord in our midst is a creative activity on the part of the Lord, who is constantly coming into being. His presence becomes accessible to our awareness as each practitioner’s experience of the Word is woven together with every other participant’s experience through what is exchanged in the dialogue. What arises in the collective experience of the Lord is an experience of a Church, not as a static representation, but as a dynamic living entity. What is received through one’s work is offered as a gift from the Lord to the Life Group, and this is the bread and wine that nurtures and sustains the living experience of the Lord being made visible in our midst.

He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. (John 6:56)

All we have to bring is what the Lord has given to us through our work with the Word. What we bring is not ours, we don’t own it. What this means is that when the gift is offered, it is let go to be picked up by those hearing in whatever way that supports their spiritual life. It could well be that the gift that is received is something very different from the gift that was offered from the giver’s point of view. And that’s okay. If a receiver comments on what they have received and their comments don’t align with what was originally said we may feel we need to correct them, to ensure that we have been heard “properly”. This is not necessary. Dialogue, in a Logopraxis context, has nothing to do with our “person” being heard. It’s a difficult thing to hold to the principle that others are not here to validate our “person’s” or the proprial need to be at the centre of everything. Dialogue is all about the Word being central and as the Lord is the Word, He is the one managing everyone’s states and apportioning what is offered in accordance with the spiritual needs of each participant.

We need to be awake to our process in our exchanges, its a work which we cannot perfect, what’s important is to be in the effort. If we can be in the effort to be more conscious in our exchanges we open a way for the Lord to be more fully present and experienced as such.

Here is an illustration from the work The Apocalypse Revealed 875(9) that illustrates the gift received is not always the same as the gift given…

After that I went down the steps from The Temple of Wisdom and went walking in the garden, and I saw some people sitting under a laurel tree, eating figs. I turned aside to them and asked them for some figs, which they gave me. And lo, the figs in my hand changed into grapes.
Seeing my astonishment at this, the angelic spirit said to me, “The figs in your hand changed into grapes because figs, owing to their correspondence, symbolise goods of charity and so of faith in the natural or external self, whereas grapes symbolise the goods of charity and faith in the spiritual or internal self. So, because you love spiritual matters, this therefore has happened in your case. For in our world everything happens and comes into being, including also transformations, in accordance with correspondences.”

The human form is the Divine form, and is that which comes into being as the only possible expression of the Lord’s life within those He is creating. This means that on the largest or smallest scale of creation all is organised or strives towards a more complete and thereby perfect, human form.

In Heaven and Hell 73 it’s explained that

Heaven in its whole complex resembles one man, as does any one society in heaven. From the sequence of reasons there set forth, it follows that this is equally true of each angel. As heaven is man in the greatest form, and a society of heaven in a less form, so is an angel in the least form. For, in the most perfect form such as that of heaven is, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole  

Although we can relate to being supported by the Text at the level of our personal work, the idea that we are part of a collective human being that takes form as we meet together can be rather abstract, and difficult to grasp. The descriptions of heaven as a Grand Human composed of countless societies, with each society being a fully functioning human form composed of individual angels, provides an illustration of how the group can be, and of our function and use in it. This requires a perceptual shift where our sense of person expands from being limited to a single individual to incorporate many individuals functioning as one, in support of a common use. Expanding our sense of what actually constitutes a human being is important to contemplate and asks where our sense of self sits in relation to that.

Logopraxis group life is concerned to provide an environment that leads us towards an ever-deepening sense of the Lord in our collective midst, as the Word. The more conscious we are of working – not only for ourselves, but for others in the group, and for the group as a whole – the deeper will become our sense of spiritual community.

The Lord is looking to be present in our midst, and He is present when the things of the Word are made the basis for our being together. The collective human that forms when a Life Group meets together is brought into being as we share our direct experience of the Word working in our lives; forming a sacred space where the Word can be known as the Lord.

By the Lord’s name is meant the Word, for the Lord is the Word

(Arcana Coelestia 5502; John 1:1)

In the very act of meeting, what we bring from our experience of the Word’s operation in our life becomes a live conjoining presence, creating connections:

• Between individuals in the group
• Between the group and the spiritual world
• Between the group and the Lord

It is this lived experience of the Word, when shared with others, that serves as the soul or life of the group. It’s what connects each to the other.

The structure of the Logopraxis Life Group meeting is based on a series of three rounds designed to allow for only one person to speak at any given time without interruption from others. The structure is organised in this way to promote a way of being with others that places people’s experience of the Word working in their life at the centre of their interactions within the group.  From its inception Logopraxis has been an experiment in ‘how to be‘ , with the Word, and with others through a shared experience of the Word. It is the practice of the Word that brings everything into connection with everything else. The Lord, in the Gospels, declared that,

Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” Matthew. 18:20.

By the Lord’s name is meant the Word, for the Lord is the Word (Arcana Coelestia 5502; John 1:1).

The design of the Logopraxis meeting, through its use of the rounds, looks to support the Lord being made visible in the midst through providing just enough structure for each member of a group to share their experience of the Word working in their life.

It is this lived experience of the Word, when shared with others, that serves as the soul or life of the group when the group is seen as a collective person. As each individual brings the gift of their life with the Word and places it upon the altar of receptive hearts it is received by the Lord within each and every member of the group, who, through apportioning to each according to their need and capacity to receive, is made known in their midst.

Maintaining a focus on only sharing a direct experience of the Word working in our life is vital to this unfolding of the Lord in the midst. It is vital that people’s sharing remains experiential and doesn’t cross over into intellectual speculation or theoretical discussion about doctrinal matters which sit outside their direct experience of the Text. The use of rounds is helpful in this regard for it limits the tendency to engage in discussion and crosstalk and therefore helps maintain the integrity of Logopraxis, where the focus is on building a sense of connection with the Word and others based solely on sharing the direct experience of the Word working within the mind.

It needs to be remembered that what a person shares out of their experience of working with the Text is what the Lord has given them for the group. This gift stands as it is given, as a gift from the Lord for the group. It is not open to being questioned and any impulse to get the person offering the gift to expand or clarify on what they have shared should ideally be avoided.

Ongoing work with the Logos, the Word, brings us to see that we have, in general, two very different coexisting states of doctrine. The first is doctrine in our memory: our knowledge about spiritual realities. This doctrinal state includes a whole range of beliefs we readily subscribe to and feel aligned with. These beliefs include not only our own understanding of what the doctrines of Spiritual Christianity teach, but also what others say they teach. The second state of doctrine is the more unconscious doctrine we actually live from.

When we first begin to seriously walk a path of inner reflection and self-examination, the distinction between these two forms of doctrine is often quite blurred. We tend to think what we profess with our lips is what we believe. Through our work with the truths from the Word, we find that we are confronted with what we say we believe with our actual responses to life. For example, we might say we believe implicitly in the Lord’s providence, but when we reflect on our lives through the work tasks that we create from the Text, we see that we actually live from a raft of worries and anxieties which manifest as the effort to control and manage the people, circumstances and situations of our lives.

If we are willing to see how we actually experience life, without filtering it through who we think we are or what we believe our life should be, we will soon discover the material for our inner work.

Logopraxis – the practice of the Word, can help us come to see more clearly the distinction between the doctrine of our lips and the doctrine of our actual life. Once we see this distinction, we can be shown by the Word what is required of us.

This isn’t to say that the beliefs we profess with our lips are not truths. They may well be, but knowing truths and living from them are two very different states of life. The reflective question for us in Logopraxis work is not, What is our doctrine? The question is, What is our life? Seeing our life more clearly opens up opportunities for truths from the Word to work in an entirely new way: we begin to acquire the doctrine unique to our life.

It is this unique perspective (won only by the fresh view of our inner responses provided through the lens of our chosen Text) that we share in a Life Group. By sharing it, we are building and promoting a more perfect collective life: a community that approaches ever so slightly a living experience that Heaven’s perfection is founded in diversity.