Learning about the lives of people who inspire me is one way in which I grow personally. People like St. Maximilian Kolbe, Mahatma Gandhi, John Coltrane, Octavio Paz, Brother Lawrence, Frederick Douglass, St. Theresa of Calcutta, and many more are examples of the heights the human spirit can aspire to. They are role models that can teach us how to live. They are endless sources of knowledge, love, compassion, wisdom, peace, perseverance, strength, beauty, and inspiration. About some of them much has been written, said, and recorded. Some others are not as well-known. Either way, I would like to share with you some of the things I’ve learned with the hope that you can get something out of it as well.
Today I would like to write about Brother Lawrence. Born in the 17th century in France, Brother Lawrence’s life was inspiring in its simplicity and marked by his complete surrender to God. Brother Lawrence entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery at a young age and spent his whole life cooking and making sandals for the other monks in the monastery. He was not martyred nor did he write extensive theological treatises. No, what made Brother Lawrence extraordinary–and why I think he’s a great role model for a lot of us–is that he believed that “our sanctification did not depend upon changing our works, but in doing that for GOD’s sake, which we commonly do for our own.” Brave martyrs and people who sacrifice everything for what they believe in are indeed inspiring, but Brother Lawrence teaches us that even in the smallest things which we may consider unworthy of greatness, if done with love, they can also raise us up to the greatest heights of holiness. Any of us can apply that immediately to our lives. It is a matter of how and why we do something, not what we do. If we do everything for the love of God then we will see that we lose interest in everything that pulls us away from that love and we grow closer to God.
“Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God.”
Indeed, Brother Lawrence believed that we must practice the presence of God at all times and that “with him the set times of prayer were not different from other times; that he retired to pray, according to the directions of his Superior, but that he did not want such retirement, nor ask for it, because his greatest business did not divert him from GOD.” It may sound simple, but Brother Lawrence actually did not think it was easy. It took him years of practice because the mind and the heart always wants to turn away from God and back to worldly things. But just like Brother Lawrence, that calls us to grow in patience and love, knowing that God is perfectly patient and loving towards us.
So I invite you to get started on the practice of the presence of God. Go to class for the love of God. Talk to your friends for the love of God. Cook for the love of God. And if you find something that draws you away from that love, then step back and reconsider, always remembering that God is right there with you. Like Brother Lawrence said, “we must work towards making every action, without exception, into a kind of brief conversation with God—not in any artificial way, but purely, simply.”
Some of other quotes by Brother Lawrence:
“Men invent means and methods of coming at God’s love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God’s presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?”
“I began to live as if there were no one save God and me in the world.”
“As often as I could, I placed myself as a worshiper before him, fixing my mind upon his holy presence, recalling it when I found it wandering from him. This proved to be an exercise frequently painful, yet I persisted through all difficulties.”
“The soul that turns inward to practice the presence of God becomes so intimate with him that it spends practically its entire life in continual acts of love, adoration, godly sorrow, trust, thanksgiving, offering, and petition. Sometimes these become one unending act because the soul constantly practices the exercise of Christ’s divine presence.”
“A brief lifting up of the heart is enough. Do this even when you’re on the run because brief reflections on God, inner acts of adoration—short though these prayers may be—please God.”
“Think of God throughout the day, during every activity, even when you relax. He’s always near. Don’t leave him alone. Would you consider it rude to ignore a friend who’s visiting you? So why abandon God and leave him alone? Don’t forget God. Think of him often, adore him unceasingly, and live and die with him.”
“O my GOD, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy Presence; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.”
“When he had finished, he examined himself how he had discharged his duty; if he found well, he returned thanks to GOD; if otherwise, he asked pardon; and without being discouraged, he set his mind right again, and continued his exercise of the presence of GOD, as if he had never deviated from it.”
“I have no pain or difficulty about my state, because I have no will but that of GOD, which I endeavor to accomplish in all things, and to which I am so resigned that I would not take up a straw from the ground against His order, or from any other motive than purely that of love to Him.”
God bless!
EN 
ES 
DE