Brother Lawrence
ThePracticeOfThePresenceOfGod152
The Practice of the Presence of God
1
O my God, since thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech thee to grant me the grace to continue In thy presence; and to this end do thou prosper me with thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.
2
God knoweth best what is needful for us, and all that he does is for our good. If we knew how much he loves us, we should always be ready to receive equally and with indifference from his hand the sweet and the bitter. All would please that came from him. The sorest afflictions never appear intolerable, except when we see them in the wrong light. When we see them as dispensed by the hand of God, when we know that it is our loving Father who abases and distresses us, our sufferings will lose their bitterness and become even matter of consolation.
Let all our employment be to know God; the more one knows him, the more one desires to know him. And as knowledge is commonly the measure of love, the deeper and more extensive our knowledge shall be, the greater will be our love; and if our love of God were great, we should love him equally in pains and pleasures.
Let us not content ourselves with loving God for the mere sensible favors, how elevated soever, which he has done or may do us. Such favors, though never so great, cannot bring us so near to him as faith does in one simple act. Let us seek him often by faith. He is within us; seek him not elsewhere. If we do love him alone, are we not rude, and do we not deserve blame, if we busy ourselves about trifles which do not please and perhaps offend him? It is to be feared these trifles will one day cost us dear.
Let us begin to be devoted to him in good earnest. Let us cast everything besides out of our hearts. He would possess them alone. Beg this favor of him. If we do what we can on our part, we shall soon see that change wrought in us which we aspire after.
Selections from a letter by “Brother Lawrence” (Nicholas Herman), who lived almost sixty years as an obscure lay brother among the Carmelites in seventeenth-century Paris. The little collection of letters and conversations known as The Practice of the Presence of God, pieced together after his death in 1691, less than a week after this letter was written, is an underground classic of Christian devotion.
