The Friar Who Left His Mark on Me
Leo XIV - Even here on Earth, it is possible to experience a glimpse of Paradise.
“All Christian ethics can truly be summed up in this remembrance: God is present. This awareness transcends all moralism and any reduction of the Gospel to a mere set of rules.”
We are publishing the Pope's preface to the new edition of The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a 17th-century classic. Leo XIV spoke about the book to journalists upon his return from Lebanon: “Read it if you want to know something about me—about what has shaped my spirituality for many years, amid great challenges... I trust in God, and this message is something I share with everyone.” As I have said, along with the writings of St. Augustine and other books, this is one of the texts that has most marked my spiritual life and taught me what the path to knowing and loving the Lord can be.
This little book focuses on the experience—or rather, the practice—of God's presence, as lived and taught by the Carmelite friar Lawrence of the Resurrection in the 17th century.
The path Brother Lawrence shows us is simultaneously simple and arduous. It is simple because it requires nothing more than constantly remembering God through small, continuous acts of praise, prayer, supplication, and adoration in every action and thought, keeping Him alone as our horizon, source, and end.
It is arduous because it requires a journey of purification, asceticism, renunciation, and conversion of the most intimate parts of ourselves—our minds and thoughts—even more than our actions. This is what St. Paul wrote to the faithful in Philippi: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). Therefore, not only must our attitudes and behaviors be conformed to God, but also our feelings and our very sensibilities.
In this interiority, we find His presence: the loving and ardent presence of God, who is so “other” yet so familiar to our hearts. As St. Augustine writes, “the new man will sing the new song” (Discourses 34:1).
The experience of union with God—described in the pages of Brother Lawrence as a personal relationship comprised of encounters and conversations, of hiddenness and surprises, of trust and total abandonment—recalls the experiences of the great mystics. Foremost among them is Teresa of Avila, who also bore witness to this intimacy with the Lord, famously speaking of a “God who moves among the pots and pans.” However, Lawrence points to a path that is accessible to all, precisely because it is simple and grounded in the everyday.
Like many mystics, Brother Lawrence speaks with great humility but also with humor. He knows well that everything earthly, even the most grandiose and dramatic, is very small in the face of the Lord's infinite love. Thus, he can say ironically that God has “deceived” him; for having entered the monastery perhaps a bit presumptuously to sacrifice himself and atone harshly for the sins of his youth, he instead found a life full of joy.
Through the path Brother Lawrence proposes, as God's presence becomes familiar and occupies our inner space, the joy of being with Him grows. Graces and spiritual riches flourish, and even daily tasks become effortless.
The writings and testimonies of this 17th-century Carmelite lay brother, who lived with luminous faith through the troubled events of his century—certainly no less violent than our own—can serve as inspiration and help for us men and women of the third millennium.
They show us that no circumstance can separate us from God. They show that all our actions, all our occupations, and even all our mistakes acquire infinite value if they are lived in the presence of God and continually offered to Him.
All Christian ethics can truly be summed up in this continual remembrance that God is present: He is here. This remembrance—which is more than a simple memory because it engages our feelings and affections—transcends all moralism and any reduction of the Gospel to a mere set of rules. It shows us that, as Jesus promised, the experience of entrusting ourselves to God the Father grants us a hundredfold, even here below. Entrusting ourselves to God's presence means tasting a foretaste of Paradise.
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