The Book in 3 Sentences
- Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century lay brother who spent fifteen years working in a monastery kitchen, found that the most direct way to God was not elaborate methods, penances or set devotions but a simple, continual conversation with Him in every moment of the day.
- Holiness does not depend on changing our work but on doing what we already do for God’s sake, so that picking up a straw or cooking becomes as much prayer as kneeling in church.
- The practice is hard at first and the mind wanders constantly, but by gently returning to God each time without discouragement it becomes a habit, and this sense of God’s presence can sustain joy even through sickness and suffering.
Overview & Impressions
I found The Practice of the Presence of God to be a short, clear and inspirational read. Brother Lawrence’s approach to faith feels revolutionary yet somewhat obvious at the same time - rather than relying on set prayers and devotional methods he simply keeps up a continual conversation with God throughout the day. What makes it compelling is that he lives it out. The conversations and letters show someone whose whole life has been shaped by the practice, not someone theorising about it. It sets a high bar but it is also full of practical steps for building depth in your relationship with God.
Top Quotes
The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.
We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.
There needed neither art nor science for going to God, but only a heart resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but Him, or for His sake, and to love him only.
We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.
Summary, Quotes & Notes
I Conversations
First Conversation
In the winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering that within a little time the leaves would be renewed and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the Providence and Power of God, which has never since been effaced from his soul.
We should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s Presence, by continually conversing with Him. That it was a shameful thing to quit His conversation, to think of trifles and fooleries.
We should feed and nourish our souls with high notions of God; which would yield us great joy in being devoted to Him.
Second Conversation
He was pleased when he could take up a straw from the ground for the love of God, seeking Him only, and nothing else, not even His gifts.
In order to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him, we must at first apply to Him with some diligence: but that after a little care we should find His love inwardly excite us to it without any difficulty.
When an occasion of practicing some virtue offered, he addressed himself to God, saying, Lord, I cannot do this unless Thou enablest me: and that then he received strength more than sufficient.
We ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking to Him frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as they happen.
In his business in the kitchen (to which he had naturally a 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.
Useless thoughts spoil all: that the mischief began there; but that we ought to reject them, as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter in hand, or our salvation; and return to our communion with God.
Third Conversation
When sometimes he had not thought of God for a good while, he did not disquiet himself for it; but after having acknowledged his wretchedness to God, he returned to Him with so much the greater trust in Him, as he had found himself wretched through forgetting Him.
The trust we put in God, honors Him much, and draws down great graces.
He was more united to God in his outward employments, than when he left them for devotion in retirement.
Many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances, and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end.
There needed neither art nor science for going to God, but only a heart resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but Him, or for His sake, and to love him only.
Fourth Conversation
We need only to recognize God intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment, that we may beg His assistance for knowing His will in things doubtful, and for rightly performing those which we plainly see he requires of us, offering them to Him before we do them, and giving Him thanks when we have done.
Our sanctification did not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for God’s sake, which we commonly do for our own. That it was lamentable to see how many people mistook the means for the end, addicting themselves to certain works, which they performed very imperfectly, by reason of their human or selfish regards.
It was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times: that we are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action, as by prayer in the season of prayer.
We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. That we should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often failed in our endeavors, but that at last we should gain a habit, which will naturally produce its acts in us, without our care, and to our exceeding great delight.
All things are possible to him who believes - that they are less difficult to him who hopes - that they are more easy to him who loves, and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.
The greater perfection a soul aspires after, the more dependent it is upon Divine grace.
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.
By rising after my falls, and by frequently renewed acts of faith and love, I am come to a state wherein it would be as difficult for me not to think of God as it was at first to accustom myself to it.
As brother Lawrence had found such an advantage in walking in the presence of God, it was natural for him to recommend it earnestly to others; but his example was a stronger inducement than any arguments he could propose.
The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.
II Letters
First Letter
This made me resolve to give the all for the all; so after having given myself wholly to God, that He might take away my sin, I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He; and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world.
By often repeating these acts, they become habitual, and the presence of God rendered as it were natural to us.
Second Letter
I make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I keep myself by a simple attention, and a general fond regard to God, which I may call an actual presence of God; or, to speak better, an habitual, silent and secret conversation of the soul with God.
The King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at His table, serves me with His own hands, gives me the key of His treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as His favorite.
Sometimes I consider myself there as a stone before a carver, whereof he is to make a statue; presenting myself thus before God, I desire Him to form His perfect image in my soul, and make me entirely like Himself.
Third Letter
A little lifting up of the heart suffices. A little remembrance of God, one act of inward worship, though upon a march, and a sword in hand, are prayers, which, however short, are nevertheless very acceptable to God; and far from lessening a soldier’s courage in occasions of danger, they best serve to fortify it.
Fourth Letter
God, saith he, has infinite treasure to bestow, and we take up with a little sensible devotion, which passes in a moment.
We must, nevertheless, always work at it, because not to advance in the spiritual life is to go back.
Fifth Letter
There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a 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.
Were I a preacher, I should, above all other things, preach the practice of the presence of God; and, were I a director, I should advise all the world to do it, so necessary do I think it, and so easy too.
Sixth Letter
We must serve God in a holy freedom; we must do our business faithfully; without trouble or disquiet, recalling our mind to God mildly, and with tranquility, as often as we find it wandering from Him.
At the first one often thinks it lost time, but you must go on, and resolve to persevere in it to death, notwithstanding all the difficulties that may occur.
Seventh Letter
He requires no great matters of us; a little remembrance of Him from time to time; a little adoration; sometimes to pray for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, and sometimes to return Him thanks for the favors He has given you, and still gives you, in the midst of your troubles, and to console yourself with Him the oftenest you can.
You need not cry very loud; He is nearer to us than we are aware of.
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.
Eighth Letter
Hold yourself in prayer before God, like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man’s gate.
One way to re-collect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times.
Ninth Letter
One does not become holy all at once.
How can we pray to Him without being with Him? How can we be with Him but in thinking of Him often? And how can we often think of Him, but by a holy habit which we should form of it?
We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.
Tenth Letter
He is always near you and with you: leave Him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you: why then must God be neglected?
Eleventh Letter
Pains and sufferings would be a paradise to me while I should suffer with my God; and the greatest pleasures would be hell to me if I could relish them without Him.
Twelfth Letter
Faith gives me as strong a conviction as sense can do, that He never forsakes us until we have first forsaken Him.
Thirteenth Letter
Love sweetens pains; and when one loves God, one suffers for His sake with joy and courage.
Fourteenth Letter
We must make our heart a spiritual temple, wherein to adore Him incessantly.
Knock, persevere in knocking, and I answer for it that He will open to you in His due time, and grant you all at once what He has deferred during many years.
Fifteenth Letter
Let all our employment be to know God: the more one knows Him, the more one desires to know Him.
He is within us: seek Him not elsewhere.
He took to his bed two days after, and died within the week.