The Practice of the Presence of God

To be a Christian is to know and love God, and any help you can get with doing this should be eagerly received. The Practice of the Presence of God, a brief compilation of Brother Lawrence's thinking, has one simple message about how to do this: "we should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s Presence by continually conversing with Him." (location 70, Kindle edition)

This was Lawrence's practice for thirty years. What I enjoyed most when reading this was the grace he had experienced and wanted to share. Though part of a religious order, he finds religious orders unnecessary to communicating with God:

"With him the set times of prayer were not different from other times. He retired to pray according to the directions of his superior, but he did not need such retirement nor ask for it because his greatest business did not divert him from God." (120)

Whether readers with jobs more hectic than his could afford to follow this pattern: "even in the height of my work, I drove from my mind everything that interrupted my thoughts of God" (253) is a moot point. His encouragement that simply by turning our attention to God we are able to be with Him and enjoy Him is an invitation to discover fresh love from the God whose love never fails:

"God... has infinite treasure to bestow, and we take so little through routine devotion which lasts but a moment." (359)