Tony Jones - Practicing the Presence of God: Learn to Live Moment-by-Moment

PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

A Modernized Christian Classic

by Brother Lawrence

Translation by Robert J. Edmonson, CJ
Introduction and Notes by Tony Jones

Practicing the Presence of God

2007 First Printing

Copyright 2007 by The Community of Jesus, Inc.
Notes and Introduction copyright 2007 by Tony Jones

ISBN: 978-1-55725-465-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lawrence, of the Resurrection, Brother, 16111691.
[Pratique de la prsence de Dieu. English]
Practicing the presence of God : a modernized Christian classic / by
Brother Lawrence ; translation by Robert J. Edmonson ; introduction and notes by Tony Jones.
p. cm.
Originally published: The practice of the presence of God. 1895. With new introd. and notes.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55725-465-8
1. Christian life--Catholic authors. I. Edmonson, Robert J. II. Jones, Tony, 1968- III. Title.
BX2350.3.L3813 2007
248.482--dc22 2007025372

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press

Brewster, Massachusetts

www.paracletepress.com

Printed in the United States of America

Before I set out to translate the book you are about to read, I had an image of Brother Lawrence as a jolly monk who took pleasure in cleaning pots and cooking. What could he have to say to me?

As I began to read the sections of the book in which others wrote about Brother Lawrence, I felt a growing awareness that this humble lay brother led a life that does, indeed, have much to say to me, and when I read his own writings, I was struck by the depth of his love for God and his life lived in obedience, humility, and concern for others. Then I understood why I was translating this book: it was because I so needed to hear what it has to say. Session after session in front of the typewriter brought deeper and deeper conviction of who I am, and greater and greater hope for what God can do in a life wholly given to Him.

It is my prayer that you will also be blessed by this book, and that as you follow the example of Brother Lawrence, you, too, will be filled with the presence of God.

ROBERT J. EDMONSON

Pray without ceasing.

When the apostle Paul first wrote these words to the church he had planted in Thessalonica, he may have thought that it was entirely natural for a person to pray continually. Maybe that was his experience.

But since those words were penned, Christians have struggled with how to apply them to their own lives. Paul was exaggerating, right?, we wonder, for surely he didnt mean that literally! Its just not possible to pray without ceasing.

So, for two millennia, saints and those of us who are not-quite-saints have endeavored to live a life that in some way aspires toward Pauls vision of ceaseless prayer.

In the history of our faith, it may be that no one has exemplified a life of continual prayerand taught others about itbetter than a humble monk who lived in seventeenth-century France. Brother Lawrence was not a saint, and hes never been made a saint. He wasnt even a priest. Instead, he was a simple man who committed his life to living every waking moment in the presence of God.

His wordssimple like the man himselfhave with-stood four centuries. We live in a much different time than Lawrence, a time of mobile phones and Internet access and twenty-four hour news, but his little book may be more popular today than ever before. Indeed, maybe its because the world is so un-simple now that Brother Lawrences words endure.

The seventeenth century was a time of transition, especially in France. In Europe, the Protestant Reformation, begun by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others, was only one hundred years old, the printing press only two hundred. When Brother Lawrence was just nine years old, the persecuted Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower and set off to find religious freedom on a new continent. Many people must have felt that the longstanding religious landscape was shifting beneath their very feet. Across Europe, other sweeping changes were initiated by geniuses such as Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Blaise Pascal, and Isaac Newton, men who birthed modern science and philosophy.

Meanwhile, France was enjoying its preeminence in the world. Louis XIV (a.k.a., Louis the Great, The Sun King) reigned from 1643 until 1715. He saw the Thirty Years War to a close in 1648 and fought several other wars during his tenure as king, all of which solidified Frances political and cultural clout across Europe, and established the French presence in the colonization of the Americas.

Into this world, Nicholas Herman was born in 1611. A peasant, he joined the army as a footman for the nobility and was thus guaranteed meals and a small salary. But at age eighteen, he saw a vision that altered the course of his life: looking at a dormant tree in the winter, he recognized that he, too, felt completely barren. However, he knew that the tree would come back to life in the spring, and Nicholas felt that God was about to bring him new life as well.

Circumstances demanded that he continue his service in the army for six more years, after which he arrived at the doorstep of the Carmelite monastery in Paris. The Carmelite Order had been founded in the twelfth century on Mt. Carmel in Israel, with an emphasis on the practice of contemplative prayer. But the order had become lax and political over the centuries, until St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross led a reform movement in the sixteenth century. They founded the Discalced (without shoes) Carmelites, and it was this order of Carmelites that Nicholas Herman joined.

Lacking the education necessary to become a priest, Nicholas was given the name Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection and put to work doing the menial tasks of the uneducated brothers. He spent the majority of the next five decades working in the kitchen until he became too old and infirm for that and was reassigned to making sandals. Brother Lawrence died on February 12, 1691.

At first glance, his was the seemingly trivial life of a peasant monk who spent fifty-plus years working in the kitchen and the shoe shop. But what compelled Brother Lawrence during his decades of monastic life was basically this: How can one be in a spirit of prayer, even while peeling potatoes? That is, how can a person commune with God, even while performing the most mundane tasks?

His answer: practicemore specifically, the practice of the presence of God.

In the following pages, you will read the thoughts of a man whose commitment to God is breathtaking and beautiful. Brother Lawrence made a habit of thinking about God in all things, drawing near to God at all times. Indeed, he was so disciplined in his ceaseless recollection of the Lord that it became habitual for him. It became a way of life.

This little book is a collection, really. At the beginning and end stand reflections on the life of Brother Lawrence, written by a man named Abbe Joseph de Beaufort, an influential churchman of that day. Between these two reflections stand de Beauforts notes on four conversations he had with Brother Lawrence; sixteen letters that Brother Lawrence wrote; and a list of Spiritual Maxims that was found on Brother Lawrences bedside stand after his death.