Session 4
Letters 9-16
Letter nine - In this letter the reader is reminded of the primary principle of the practice which is simplicity. Keep it simple; simplicity in living is the key foundation to the practice. You don’t have to muddle up your prayer life with rules and complicated devotions. Indeed, your heart is a chapel where you can turn in the slightest, simplest way to God with subtle inner affections, gently turning to God and love throughout the day.
Letter ten - “God is always near you and with you.” So think of God often as if remembering Him were your job. Just as you would not forget to pay attention to a visiting friend, turn to love frequently.
Letter eleven - “Love is the one and only relief for your troubles.”
Letter twelve- Br. Lawrence was looking for a way to be completely with God but all the methods he found only cluttered his mind with distracting thoughts. Thus he determined to let go of everything that was not God and live as if only he and God existed.
Spiritual Maxims Letter thirteen- talk to God often and offer him your sorrows and your sufferings. Ask for the strength to bear your burdens. Joy comes not from the cure but from a steady connection to love. Brother Lawrence’s joy increases even as his health declines because he is continually in the company of God.
Letter fourteen - “love softens suffering.”
Letter fifteen - Continue to turn to God making your “heart a spiritual temple where you respect love without ceasing.” Respect means to look again, so if we respect Love in the temple of our own hearts then we are continually glance toward Love again and again. This rhythm and an accompanying acceptance of all life’s trials makes “suffering a paradise.” Surrender to God mysteriously renders our discomforts powerless to name us or claim us. They become yet another pathway into God’s presence in as much as they are one more thing that is not God to let go of. Etty Hillesum writes, “There is so much in life that is hard, yet as soon as I showed myself ready to bear it the hard was directly transformed into the beautiful.”
Letter sixteen - “Let’s banish from our heart and mind all that is not love.”