Presence Project: Week 12
“Keep your eyes open for God, watch for God’s works; be alert for signs of God’s presence.”
"Contemplative practice...is a deeply revolutionary matter.”
-Rowan Williams
Learning:
The task of spirituality is to live out what Jesus called the greatest commandments: loving God and loving people. Brother Lawrence found a way to do this with his whole life. He called it The Practice of the Presence of God.
Highly influenced by his time, and richly nourished in the Carmelite spirituality of Teresa and John, Lawrence humbly and wholly committed his life to the simple, loving awareness and adoration of God, everywhere, all the time. His was a ‘methodless method’ that saw no difference in practice whether he was in church, at prayer, in the kitchen, or repairing sandals. It was a mindfulness method initiated in self-abandonment, maintained through habit, gently dealing with difficulties and failures, and persevering to enjoy God even in suffering.
This joyful, attractive yet challenging spirituality found an audience far beyond the wildest dreams of a modest lay friar in Paris. Over the centuries it has influenced and shaped countless Christians all over the world, and it stands poised to transform the current mainline church as well, if we choose to embrace it. Brother Lawrence came to the most wonderfully profound and practical spiritual insight there is, and it changed everything – God is always present; we, however, are not.
The presence we are actually practicing is our own!
