Name
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Prayer Category
How to pray

Description

Published by Spire

This thin volume is a classic that has become the favorite of many. Brother Lawrence lived in a monastery in France in the mid 1600’s, yet his ideas can be practiced today whoever you are, where ever you are. Brother Lawrence says, “The times of business for me does not differ from the times of prayer.” His main idea is that we can “establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence by continually conversing with Him.” The book is written by someone who visited Br. Lawrence and the narrator gives us a simple summary of the wisdom shared. Although the language is somewhat old fashioned, the book is nevertheless very easy to understand and grasp. As we read the book we get a sense of how a life lived in continual prayer and conversation with God is a good and peaceful life, no matter what circumstances we encounter in life.

Review

This is a classic that I think everyone should read because you will sooner or later hear someone refer to it when discussing prayer. I was given a copy by a woman I met on a cruise who told me how God helped her after the death of her husband and then through her own cancer treatments. She wrote on the inside cover to me, “Through many readings I am learning to practice the continual presence of God in my life!” I was very impressed that this book could have that effect on someone who had been through so much. Indeed, Br. Lawrence shows us that being continually in tune with and in touch with God gives meaning to every small act of life. The book says, “So, likewise, in his business in the kitchen (to which he had naturally great aversion), having accustomed himself to do everything there for the love of God, and with prayer, upon all occasions, for His grace to do his work well, he had found everything easy, during fifteen years that he had been employed there.”

Added by Karen Barber on July 6, 2011