Lectio et Oratio

If we feel our life is in danger, physically or spiritually, what should we do?

Send up little prayers to God like arrows. In letter 6, Br Lawrence encourages a woman that God can raise us up from allowing us to be cast low. We need to continually send up little prayers to God. We need to remember Him, however briefly. Such advice is especially important for a young soldier friend. His little prayers in the midst of his dangers is very pleasing to God. So will our prayers in our spiritual combat.

What is the treasure we are looking for in the spiritual life?

General loving knowledge of God's presence. In Letter 5, Br Lawrence identifies this general loving knowledge of God with the treasure hidden in the field mentioned by Christ in a parable. We should go and sell all we have and buy that field. The treasure is the secret and loving contemplation of God that God gives us in prayer. We can search for God and we must do so. But in time God gives himself to us more and more. When this general loving knowledge, this awareness of the presence of God, becomes more regular, we have found the treasure. Or rather, God has given us the treasure.

What will we sometimes feel towards the practice of the Presence of God?

Repugnance in our emotions. Spending long periods in what can feel like idleness is not satisfying to our emotions. Our emotions want stimulation. We tend to want to feel like we are being useful. But as God leads us into this more hidden prayer, this general loving awareness of God and his presence and his action, we will be content to be alone with the One we know loves us. We will sit for long periods keeping our attention on Him. Part of our human nature will rebel. We will have to do violence to that part of ourselves. We have to make time for this prayer. We have to make ourselves stick in the chapel. Such steadiness in our prayer requires effort, but that effort is the fruit of God's grace. Let us pray for the grace to be faithful.

Why should we seek to practice the presence of God?

God wants it. Br Lawrence is convinced that the shortest way to holiness is continual conversation with God, the practice of the presence of God. He knows that this loving knowledge is a great gift. But he advises us not to seek this gift primarily for ourselves. We must seek it out of love for God, to please him, to fulfill his will.

Last episode, we read a long letter to a spiritual director. Br Lawrence went through a ten year period of trials and anxieties before he began to regularly live in a general loving awareness of God's presence. This awareness was the result of trying from the beginning to live in God's presence and to practice mental prayer, especially meditation on the four last things and the life of Christ.

Does the practice of the presence of God take time and effort to develop?

Yes! In a letter to a spiritual director Br Lawrence describes the growth of his prayer life after he became a Carmelite friar. The Lord does not always give us an easy time. He leads us to himself by trials and aridities. What is most important is faith and perseverance. The Lord gives himself to those who seek Him.

What is one of the most fruitful of spiritual practices?

The practice of the presence of God. In Letter 1 (of 16 that survive), Brother Lawrence speaks of himself in a veiled way and his practice of living as often as he can in an awareness of God"s presence. Not a priest, but a simple lay brother in a Carmelite monastery, Br Lawrence became known throughout Europe for his simple wisdom. He spent fifty years cooking, fixing broken sandals, and praying much. Throughout the day, he tried to keep himself before the Lord. And his methods have been handed down to us.

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