Dear Friends,
You might have seen a news clip where Pope Leo was asked about his favorite spiritual book, and he replied it was the Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. I am sure that answer has surprised a lot of people. It is a small book and presents a view of spirituality that is quite simple. It fits perfectly with Mary’s own approach to God – to simply live in the presence of God – all the time.
Lawrence, in 1649, when he was middle-aged, entered the monastery of the Carmelites in Paris, as a lay brother. After his novitiate he was put to work in the kitchen as a cook and a washer of pots and pans; it was a line of work he naturally detested, but he welcomed it because he expected that the mortification of it would be good for his soul.
We are told in the book, “In the beginning of his novitiate he spent the hours appointed for private prayer in thinking of God…By this short and sure method he exercised himself in the knowledge and love of God, resolving to use his utmost endeavor to live in a continual sense of His presence, and, if possible, never to forget Him more…When he had thus in prayer filled his mind with great sentiments of that Infinite Being, he went to his work appointed in the kitchen (for he was cook to the Society). There having first considered severally the things his office required, and when and how each thing was to be done, he spent all the intervals of his time, as well before as after his work, in prayer.”
In Brother Lawrence’s case, he simply didn’t have much theology nor did he like it; he had difficulty following theological discussions and was usually bored with them. So, he concerned himself only with knowing God, not with knowing theology.
The Carmelites prescribed set times for prayer and set prayers to be said. Brother Lawrence obediently observed the times, but he gave up on the specified prayers, for they bored him. He didn’t get much benefit from the set times either and declared that “he was more united to God in his ordinary occupations than when he left them for devotion in retirement, from which he knew himself to issue with much dryness of spirit.”
He found no value in penances and mortifications, felt no need of spiritual directors, and believed that the only remedy for sin was simple faith in God’s forgiveness by the blood of Jesus Christ. He declared: “Many do not advance in Christian progress because they stick in penances and particular exercise, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end.” But it was not a question of human merit, for he said plainly: “The greater perfection a soul aspires after, the more dependent it is upon Divine Grace.” Even his turning to God in prayer he acknowledged to be solely the work of God in him. His devotional practices, he said, “are to be imputed solely to the mercy and goodness of God, because we can do nothing without Him, and I still less than any. But when we are faithful to keep ourselves in His holy presence, and set Him always before us, this not only hinders our offending Him and doing anything that may displease Him, at least willfully, but it also begets in us a holy freedom, and, if I may so speak, a familiarity with God, wherewith we ask, and that successfully, the graces we stand in need of.”
For all of us who struggle to pray, this short book gives hope and a possible solution to the struggle. By calling to mind the presence of God around us when we do our regular work at home or the office can change everything. Brother Lawrence found doing the dishes a holy task when God was at his side. I think the Virgin Mary did the same. Being full of grace she took God with her wherever she went. How about you?
Peace,
Fr. Damian