'For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.'

In principle, it is possible to sense the presence of God alone. However, by far the swiftest way to experience the presence of God is to gather with others in God’s name. This might not be in a strict religious sense but applies equally to pastoral or similar contexts, where you are helping another to find a power greater than themselves. Each time you’re teaching what you’ve learned about a relationship with God and the truth that lies beyond seeming material realities you’re invoking the presence of God. I am never so certain of the existence of God and a higher reality than when I am teaching the ideas by sharing my experience. In material teachings, facts or ideas seem certain until you try to teach them, and then you stand outside them and realise their every poverty or defectiveness; in spiritual teachings, the uncertainty lies in solitude, and in channelling God’s will to teach them, a certainty arises as you feel a voice stronger than your own echoing and supporting every word and in fact taking you further. Communion is the answer.