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Read Book Practice of Presence Of PRACTICE OF PRESENCE OF GOD PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Lawrence Brother | 112 pages | 01 Jan 1999 | Baker Publishing Group | 9780800785994 | English | Ada, MI, United States Free PDF: "The Practice of the Presence of God" by Brother Lawrence After having given myself wholly to God, to make all the satisfaction I could for my sins, I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He, and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world. Sometimes I considered myself before Him as a poor criminal at the feet of his judge. At other times I beheld Him in my heart as my Father, as my God. I worshipped Him the oftenest I could, keeping my mind in His holy presence and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him. I made this my business, not only at the appointed times of prayer but all the time; every hour, every minute, even in the height of my work, I drove from my mind everything that interrupted my thoughts of God. Brother Lawrence never advanced beyond being the cook at the Paris monastery, but he developed the unique gift of being able to pray incessantly with God throughout the entire day and regardless of whatever else he was doing. This unique gift produced such a spiritual change in Brother Lawrence that many people sought him out to learn how to practice the presence of God themselves. Sign in. Log into your account. Forgot your password? Password recovery. Recover your password. Church Jobs Shop Subscribe. Robert Edmonson took a straightforward approach in his translation of this Maximes passage:. We would be quite surprised if we knew what the soul sometimes says to God. Translators John Delaney, Edward Musgrave Blaiklock and Salvatore Sciurba rendered the passage with the same semi-literal interpretation. We should be surprised if we knew what converse the soul sometimes holds with God. Attwater's was a common approach taken by many translators of this passage: "Conversation with God occurs in the depth and center of the soul," in one translation [8] ; and in another, "Great would be our surprise, if we but knew what converse the soul holds at times with God. Numerous versions of The Practice of the Presence of God have been published, as reprints or new translations. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. John Delaney Image, : Robert Edmonson Paraclete, : vii. All the while, he is subject to work that would have been brutally difficult -- imagine preparing meals for a huge community of probably grouchy men at a time when stoves and ovens were wood-fired and there was no air conditioning or even electric fans, and all the cookware was heavy cast iron or copper -- he worked in the inferno on earth. View all 3 comments. Where I got the book: purchased on the Nook yes, it does happen. I'm not really sure what to say about this little book. I guess I was expecting some great revelation about how to be a better Christian but the basic message here is "practice the presence of God every day. That's a bit like opening a book and finding written inside, "This is a book. Read it. In fact the book is part memoir, part biography, part letters and so Where I got the book: purchased on the Nook yes, it does happen. In fact the book is part memoir, part biography, part letters and so on. It's a collection of documents by and about Brother Lawrence who, from the sound of it, was a genuinely humble, dedicated follower of Christ. I think this book may inspire some people; it just didn't inspire me, and probably that's indicative of my own spiritual status low on the scale. Maybe I should revisit this one in ten years' time. Will there still be a Nook, I wonder? Dec 29, Rachel rated it it was ok Shelves: audiobooks. While there is certainly a truism presented in this book, and though I appreciated much in it, I believe it is faulty in that it encourages a mystical view of God and the practice of contemplative prayer. View all 4 comments. Aug 02, Andrea rated it it was ok Shelves: christian-living. I was disappointed to learn that really only about half of this book was written by Brother Lawrence. The first section contains a series of "conversations" recorded by someone who had spoken with Brother Lawrence and the last section was a short biography of his life. I found this biography to be so inundated with bad theology and an almost worshipful view of Brother Lawrence that it left a severe distaste of the entire book. The nature of this lent itself to being quite repetitive and disjointed. I guess I expected the book to be entirely written by this man and involving a larger scope and explanation of his life and beliefs. I was looking forward to reading this as I have heard about it for several years but I don't feel like it really added anything to my understanding of God or my convictions about daily living. The basic premise, that being in the presence of God is a practice that one can achieve through discipline and foucs, was repeated often. However, I didn't find his methods overly profound or his committment to them overly impressive considering the fact that he was secluded from the world. To say that he followed in Christ's footsteps seems to really miss the point as Christ was ever fellowshipping, teaching and evangelizing out in the world. Brother Lawrence makes an example of the chore of doing dishes and serving in the kitchen to bolster his proposition that any activity can be completed inside the presence of God but I found that to be pretty hollow. I don't disagree that doing dishes or any seemingly mundane task can be done as an act of service and love but I thought it was weak to use that as an example of a trying or difficult circumstance which would really challenge our ability to be God-centered. I don't know; maybe he really hated doing dishes. However if that's the most difficult situation he faced in his life in the monastery, it makes me wonder how credible his teaching really is. I agreed with Brother Lawrence that a right, awe-filled view of God brings us a long way in seeking and remaining in His presence and that it is a discpline to pursue God's presence. I'm not sure I really see the merit in "achieving" a consistent position in the presence of God if it's not used to bring others to Him. Apparently Brother Lawrence had great influence with other "brothers" living around him and we know that he wrote to encourage others so I guess you could say that his life and writings have inspired others to connect with God. However, he seemed to be more interested in a life of pleasant seclusion than in fulfilling the Great Commission. From the evidence of this book alone, this position is merely conjecture, but I really didn't see any inclination to "put to good use" the profound connection he seemed to have achieved in his decades of "the practice of the presence of God. My overall view is that you'd probably be just as well off using the time it takes to read this book to meditate on the Scriptures instead. I didn't feel that it offered much insight. I would highly recommend "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life" by William Law to anyone looking for meatier inspiration and instruction about a life lived fully for God. I think, possibly, reading Law's book just a couple months ago wrecked anything I could have gotten out of "The Practice of the Presence of God. I think there is some good to be gotten out his writings but they just didn't do much for me. I feel like I should be apologizing for this overly negative review considering the other reviews The two star "It was OK" rating it pretty true to my experience with this book. I'd love to have a discussion with someone for whom this book was much more significant. Jul 24, Skylar Burris rated it liked it Shelves: christianity , spiritual-autobiography. God will not permit a soul that desires to be devoted entirely to Him to take pleasures other than with Him. The idea that everything in life must be deliberately spiritualized and that if it is not deliberately spiritualized it is harmful to the spiritual life is not an idea I have been able to embrace. I will have to mull this little volume over further, perhaps in a moment of greater receptivity. Dec 12, Brian rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction , christian. A Catholic man who loved Jesus with all his heart. Even Protestants covet this book in our time. Since I'm a Calvinist, I'm one of them. This devotee finds God in mundane tasks, like washing dishes. Read in The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection is, to borrow a phrase, a book for transformation and not merely information. In fact, as far as information goes, this book has only one main idea. Namely, we should live our lives every moment with the realization that God is present with us, and we should lift up our hearts to Him frequently in a spirit of prayer.
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