Reviews for The Practice of the Presence of God

The average rating for The Practice of the Presence of God based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-01-05 00:00:00 Todd Marion Brother Lawrence was a simple man. But he was happy. Supremely happy, he said, for he had reached the summation of his Life's Quest. Now, Aquinas said the pinnacle of all our spiritual experiences is to See God. Did Brother Lawrence achieve that height? Well, I believe so. Just because he was POOR IN SPIRIT... It all started when he was eighteen. As an uneducated soldier in the Thirty Years War, he, Nicolas Herman - as he was then called - saw a barren tree in a wintry field and suddenly grasped its inner meaning. He was thunderstruck and transfixed. The message? That like the tree, all of us - in our ordinary, unoccupied state, stripped of all our endless diversions and distractions - will remain denuded of all REAL and LASTING comforts, in empty surroundings, unless God steps in. And in the same way that He sends light, heat and rain in the spring, to bring the tree back to life, He will eventually give new Life to our Hearts. But we have to ask Him in. Now, wait a minute - that doesn't make sense! If we need comfort nowadays, we just press a button and adjust the thermostat, right? Not quite. Let's put it another way. If you're that tree, and for all the perks that go with being JUST a tree (and just think of never again being forced to Be someone you aren't!) you might - just might - want to have the comfort of a little MEANING in your life! I think we ALL want that. So, Lawrence says, all we have to do is sincerely ask God for meaning. And we'll get it. In His time. And if we never afterwards STOP talking to Him - about whatever pops into our minds, however trivial... we'll always find Him, in whatever we DO. For, He- like the tree - is just pure BEING. As I said, Brother Lawrence was a simple man! But his simple method works Wonders. Why do I say that? Because there's a wonderfully beneficial psychological underpinning to it all. Because if we Believe, and Pray constantly, after a while we'll lose our interior monologue, our ceaseless griping and comparing ourselves to others, and become our authentic selves. And we'll finally evade our Shadows. Because our so-called social self will drop away, as our self-consciousness itself drops away. Natural living is all that will remain - just like the tree in the field. And if we go the full way, giving our all, one day we will reach Poverty of Spirit. The Lowest Point - and, paradoxically, the Pinnacle. Because whether your tree blossoms, grows dense foliage, or sheds... is now God's business. That's called simply: Abandonment to divine providence. Timeless time. And we all have a glimpse of that now and then. And those are the times we are Real: and it does happen, now and then. It's not continuous, for we are flawed and will always lapse into our precious murky Shadowlands. Heaven help us! But, as T.S. Eliot says, we only LIVE in our Timeless Moments. And once we KNOW - listening to Brother Lawrence - how to get there, we'll finally be sure of Who we are and what our Purpose is. And, you know, even if your own background is oriented toward Eastern religions, you'll recognize the pattern. For as the Japanese Zen saint Dogen said in the Middle Ages: I won't even stop at the valley's brook for fear that my shadow may flow into the world. For self-assertion, like a shadow, can disturb the world... And ego is the OPPOSITE of poverty of Spirit. If you're content within your soul, why would you bother with riches won by competition? Why on earth should we stick your neck into the endless and fruitless power games of the world, to be dominated and victimized again and again by their and your endless Shadows? Be like the tree. And keep up your part of the inner dialogue with God - for Brother Lawrence ingenuously says His answers will always come, and provide you with the protection and comfort of spiritual foliage, and with the real and continual fruits of the Spirit. And that's a pretty fair return for just asking that our lives have a little meaning, isn't it?

Review # 2 was written on 2015-11-15 00:00:00 Tiesha Atkinson It is truly fitting and proper'somewhat ironic too'that the author of the shortest, sweetest, and perhaps the most useful guide to prayer and union with God was written by a Catholic who never became a saint, never became a priest, and worked almost his entire life in the kitchen. Nicholas Herman grew up amid the violence and upheavals of The Thirty Years War, and, being a poor peasant, he joined the army in order to eat and survive. One winter, while still a soldier, he happened to gaze upon the bare branches of a tree, and he knew in that instant not only that its leaves and its fruits were certain to arrive, in good time, in the coming spring and in the summer, but also that grace would surely bring him to a flowering and a ripeness too. That tree had "flashed upon [his] soul the fact of God" and from that moment he never ceased to burn with Love. After being wounded and discharged from the army, Nicholas first worked briefly as a footman, and then entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery. Considered too unlettered to be a priest and too ignorant to perform any but the most menial tasks, he was assigned to cook and clean in the kitchen. The name he chose for himself was Lawrence, for St. Lawrence was the Patron Saint of Cooks, having achieved his martyrdom by being cooked to death on a grate. ("Turn me over! I'm done on this side!" St. Lawrence cried out to his torturers, and this dark witticism eventually earned him the additional title of Patron Saint of Comedians.) By concentrating on the simple, uncomplicated duties of the kitchen, Brother Lawrence developed his method of prayer. Whether he was picking up a stray straw from a broom or washing a bowl or a plate, he continually sought "to fix [himself] firmly in the presence of God by conversing all the time with Him." This practice, after years, led him to great peace, a conviction of God's presence, thoughtfulness toward others, and an extraordinary sweetness of manner. He was revered within the monastery, admired without, and eventually the aide of a local bishop arrived to crystallize Brother Lawrence's spiritual teachings by transcribing his conversation, which'along with a few letters of spiritual direction'make up The Practice of the Presence of God. If you can, try to obtain a copy of The Practice which, like this one, also includes the "maxims." The Practice is a better read, for it conveys clearly the sweet personality of the aging friar, but the maxims are more succinct, and numbered, and thus a more efficient aid to reflection and meditation.