Untitled

The time of business does not differ with me 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 on my knees. - Brother Lawrence

In the 1600’s a young soldier named Nicholas Herman decide to devote his life to following God and learning more about Christ. He joined a monastery and took the name Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. He worked for the most part in the kitchen. Through the decades Brother Lawrence learned, what Christ had also known, that God’s presence is continual.

Prayer in time set aside as well as while we work. Amidst movement, amidst chaos and meeting the needs of others. On a boat flailing in the sea Jesus sleeps in peace because He knows His Father can calm the torrential waves. When I have been scared or upset, sometimes, not always of course, because life, I envision Christ asleep on this boat.

I love the thought of my soul at peace so independent from anything going on around me. This idea of God’s presence everywhere. Everywhere holy. The idea of this so consumed Brother Lawrence he spoke about it to his peers and wrote letters always reminding them of the continual conversation the soul can have with God if our mind is set to it.

He spoke about it so often his words were compiled into the book, The Practice of the Presence of God. A small book that is so easy to read and amazingly still speaks to those seeking God today. It relays the the way God’s work is not at all confined. Wherever we are and whatever he has given to do today it is the motivation of our heart, the love for which it is done that is important.