Building An Awareness of the Presence of God

How can the words of a 17th Century monk have any revelance to my life, my journey in faith, my relationship with God today? I mean, we're talking about a completely different kind of world here. A faster pace, a more material culture, more worries, more stress, more anxiety, more distractions.

All this may be true to greater a greater or lesser extent in my life (and perhaps your own) and yet, I have always found something profoundly attractive about the way a simple, handicapped Carmelite lay brother in Paris approached his daily relationship with God.


Nicholas Herman, who was himself a humble footman and soldier in his youth was admitted into the barefooted Carmelites in the 1600's where he became known simply as Brother Lawrence. His conversion itself began at age 18 when, struck suddenly by the stark and dry appearance of a leafless tree standing lone in winter's cold, he became aware of how God would see to it that this lifeless form would begin to grow and sprout in verdant green come spring.

From that moment he grew daily in his desire to grow "eminently in the knowledge and love of GOD, endeavoring constantly to walk 'as in His presence.' "

One of my favorite stories regarding Brother Lawrence involves the lot he found himself in once accepted and working in the monastery in France. His personal attraction was to the out of doors, working in the gardens. He was placed to work, much to his chagrin, in the kitchens where his disability made work both in the kitchen itself, and in the markets where he must go to purchase supplies, extremely difficult and unpleasant. Recognizing that he had the potential for bitterness and dissatisfaction regarding his lot in religious life he remarks "...he said to GOD, It was His business he was about, and that he afterwards found it very well performed...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."

Sometimes we find ourselves looking for God in the extravagant, the out of the ordinary, the remarkable.I may even convince myself that, for the most part, God is not active and concerned with the minute details of my living, and doing in the course of my days.

Brother Lawrence and the small series of conversations and letters he has left us as his legacy, offers us today, in our own time and space, a means of approaching every situation, every relationship, every moment of our days, as a constant conversation with our God who presence has never truly left our side;

The Practice of The Presence of God

Peace and God Bless