The Practice of the Presence of God
Brother Lawrence · Conversations and Letters · The Best Rule of a Holy Life
About this book
The Practice of the Presence of God
Brother Lawrence (Nicholas Herman of Lorraine, c. 1611–1691)
A Carmelite kitchen brother in seventeenth-century Paris learned to keep company with God amid pots, errands, and ordinary work. After his death, Joseph de Beaufort gathered four conversations and fifteen letters and published them in French in 1692. The little book has been read ever since as a guide to continual fellowship with God — not by leaving daily life, but by turning to Him in the middle of it.
This Web Book presents the complete public-domain Fleming H. Revell English translation: preface, conversations, and letters, with the edition’s original notes. Scripture allusions that can be identified with confidence are linked to the UECF.NET NKJV Bible.
- 4 conversations
- 15 letters
- ≈ 55 min read
- Public domain · 1692 / English translation
- About this edition
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Contents
The preface, four conversations recorded by Joseph de Beaufort, and fifteen letters, followed by a note on this web edition’s sources.
Opening
Conversations
3 August 1666 · ≈ 3 min2Second Conversation
Love as the end of every action · ≈ 6 min3Third Conversation
A high notion and esteem of God · ≈ 3 min4Fourth Conversation
Continual conversation with God · ≈ 7 min
Letters
How he arrived at the practice · ≈ 3 min2Second Letter
To the Reverend — · ≈ 7 min3Third Letter
A little lifting up of the heart · ≈ 2 min4Fourth Letter
The example of a brother · ≈ 4 min5Fifth Letter
The whole spiritual life · ≈ 2 min6Sixth Letter
To the Same · ≈ 2 min7Seventh Letter
An oratory of the heart · ≈ 2 min8Eighth Letter
Concerning wandering thoughts in prayer · ≈ 2 min9Ninth Letter
Our only business is to please God · ≈ 2 min10Tenth Letter
Do not leave God alone · ≈ 1 min11Eleventh Letter
Strength to bear pain · ≈ 2 min12Twelfth Letter
To the Same · ≈ 2 min13Thirteenth Letter
To the Same · ≈ 1 min14Fourteenth Letter
To the Same · ≈ 1 min15Fifteenth Letter
To the Same · ≈ 2 min
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