The Practice of the Presence of God

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At the same time, I found myself troubled by at least three things: 1) On several occasions, Lawrence mentions the need to make satisfaction for his sins. Maybe he means something different than I realize, but if he means what I think he means, I have to wonder if the man even understands the gospel. 2) I don't think Lawrence refers to Scripture even one time in this whole book. 3) Lawrence seems to value a kind of mystical detachment from the present world, as if there is something super spiritual about ignoring the world around us. In the book of Genesis, Eden is the first couple’s home but, more importantly, it is God’s sanctuary—the garden temple where the Creator and his image-bearers relate (Gen 3:8). As a humble cook, Brother Lawrence learned an important lesson through each daily chore: The time he spent in communion with the Lord should be the same, whether he was bustling around in the kitchen—with several people asking questions at the same time—or on his knees in prayer. He learned to cultivate the deep presence of God so thoroughly in his own heart that he was able to joyfully exclaim, “I am doing now what I will do for all eternity. I am blessing God, praising Him, adoring Him, and loving Him with all my heart.”

Presence Of God - Preach The Word The Presence Of God - Preach The Word

April 9, 2018: Concluding another official read of this book, although whether it be the fifth, sixth or more, who can say? In any event, this will never be a closed book on my shelf, mostly because I want to be ‘practicing the presence of God’ always. Guardian Angel help me. If I would have stopped reading about 3/4 of the way through, I probably would have given this book three stars instead of two. Because if we Believe, and Pray constantly, after a while we’ll lose our interior monologue, our ceaseless griping and comparing ourselves to others, and become our authentic selves. I learned from brother Lawrence a couple of ways to sustain the dialogue. One thing I learned was that he described his conversations with God as extremely pleasurable. He kept at the conversation because he enjoyed being with God. There's joy in being with God. Finally, and this strikes at the heart of man’s pride and perhaps at the heart of why I and so many others in our modern world struggle with prayer, prayer is not a matter of becoming smarter or stronger. “Neither skill nor knowledge is required to enable us to go to God…” Rather, this sort of continual prayer can only come by a deep sense of our helplessness and weakness before God. We can’t work our way there, and we can’t think our way there. “The greater the perfection to which a soul aspires, the more dependent is she upon divine grace, and this grace becomes more necessary every moment because without it the soul can do nothing. The world, the flesh, and the Devil together wage so fierce and unremitting a war that, without actual grace and a humble reliance thereon, the soul would be dragged down in spite of herself.”

9. The purposes of the church are tied to the presence of God.

As a Christian husband and father of one (and another on the way), I am moved by the practical principles for religious devotion to Christ that are laid out in this book, but I do wish that they were not hypocritically represented by a clergyman who divorced himself entirely from life amongst lay people. It sets a terrible precedent when Jesus said,"no one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light" (Luke 11:33). There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it; yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive. It is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise; but let us do it from a principle of love, and because God would have us." Fast forward to the end of our Bibles and we see a very similar picture but on a much larger scale. All of heaven has collided with the whole earth to make a perfect sanctuary for God to dwell with man (Rev 21:1-4). In the book of Revelation, Eden has returned and expanded into new heaven and new earth where all of God’s people enjoy his presence eternally. 4. Humanity’s mission and the presence of God are inseparable. If we knew how much He loves us, we should be always ready to receive equally, and with indifference, from His hand, the sweet and the bitter; all would please that came from him. (59)

EXPERIENCING THE PRESENCE OF GOD: Teachings from the Book of EXPERIENCING THE PRESENCE OF GOD: Teachings from the Book of

That it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times: that we were as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in its season. (21) Now, Aquinas said the pinnacle of all our spiritual experiences is to See God. Did Brother Lawrence achieve that height?Maximes spirituelles fort utiles aux âmes pieuses, pour acquérir la présence de Dieu (Edme Couterot, 1692): 97. There is a difference between saying “God is everywhere,” and saying “God is here.” The former is the default category for most Christians. We talk about God’s presence being inescapable and that he is “everywhere present” (Ps 139:5-12; 1 Kings 8:27).

Things You Should Know about the Presence of God - Crossway 10 Things You Should Know about the Presence of God - Crossway

In the next section of the book, we are given sixteen of Brother Lawrence's letters—mostly written to a nun, but also one to a priest and several to a lay woman. All of these further elucidate how one is to advance along the path toward our ultimate goal, full and total communion with God. The book concludes with a group of Brother Lawrence's maxims. This would be a five star book for the right person at the right time, I was just not that person or perhaps it was not the right time. Or was it? The young, uneducated soldier who became known as Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection entered a French Carmelite monastery fresh from battle and pretty much destroyed by war trauma, experiencing what today we would call severe PTSD. I imagine he enters the community hoping to find peace—but instead, his life is a nightmare because of extreme terrors that continue day and night for four years before beginning to abate. In an era when psychological medicine did not exist, he is healed, slowly but completely, through the continual, maybe even continuous, practice of a simple, repetitive, spoken prayer throughout the work day by which he intends to give himself completely over to God. Eventually, as an old, still rough-spoken man, he becomes known as a spiritual master--I am not sure whether the term "spiritual master" was in use at the time, but he becomes someone others recognize for the peace in his soul and seek out for wisdom and guidance. All the while, he is subject to work that would have been brutally difficult -- imagine preparing meals for a huge community of (probably grouchy) men at a time when stoves and ovens were wood-fired and there was no air conditioning or even electric fans, and all the cookware was heavy cast iron or copper -- he worked in the inferno on earth. When his body could no longer handle that work, he “retired” to the shoe repair shop.

3. The story of Scripture begins and ends with the presence of God.

This book is a collection of conversations with him and letters from him that describe and prescribe his daily inner and external dialogue with God.

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This book explores the importance of God’s presence in the Bible and how it relates to his plan for the world, helping readers understand what we really mean when we say God is with us. 9. The purposes of the church are tied to the presence of God. In the “Conversations” section of the text the “Second Conversation” is simple and yet theologically very deep. I love that paradox. The “Fourth Conversation” is simply brilliant. It is not necessary for being with God to be always at church. We may make an oratory of our heart wherein to retire from time to time to converse with Him in meekness, humility, and love. Every one is capable of such familiar conversation with God, some more, some less. He knows what we can do."a b c Herman, Nicholas, The Practice of the Presence of God, The Christian Classics Ethereal Library . This is a short but profoundly meditative read. Good stuff for mothers in a hurry who want to ponder a connection with God in the midst of busy days; also palatable for people going through a hard time to read little bits at a time and absorb them without charging through. Brother Lawrence didn't intend to write a book, and some concepts are a bit disjointed. But, he is consistent enough in his perspective and approach that the same themes work throughout his pastoral correspondence. This is one of those places however where we ought to heed the words of Jesus concerning the Pharisees, "do what they say but not what they do" which highlights the great oversight of brother Lawrence. I must know, love and serve God in this world that I may gain the happiness of heaven.’ (Baltimore Catechism) What Brother Lawrence teaches through Practice is that no matter where we are, or what we are doing, we can and should be in God's presence at all times. But how to achieve this state, you may well ask? Although he answers this question in many different ways throughout the book, probably the most clear-cut answer lies here: