I've been reading The Practice of the Presence of God: Brother Lawrence's Conversations and Letters. It has been an excellent read and extremely challenging. He was a cook in a monastery in the 1600s, and God taught Brother Lawrence how to practice His presence. He realized that everything should be about God and loving Him, so he carried out every task with loving God in mind. "Brother Lawrence emphasized that all physical and mental disciplines and exercises were useless, unless they served to arrive at the union with God by love. . . He found that the shortest way to go straight to God was by a continual exercise of love and doing all things for His sake." (http://www.practicegodspresence.com/brotherlawrence/practicegodspresence09.html)
So I've been challenged to practice God's presence all day. Brother Lawrence talks about the difficulties of doing so, especially starting out, but "Then, after a little care, we would find His love inwardly draw us to Him without any difficulty." (same source as above). I ask you all to pray for me as I begin this journey (and I encourage you all to join me on this journey) as I learn to love God in washing dishes, doing class prep, shopping, interacting with people, driving my car, and everything else that I do in a day.
Pray without ceasing. I Thessalonians 5:17
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30
That is such a good book. Very inspiring.
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