Session 5
Spiritual Maxims and Conversations 2-4
Spiritual Maxims - see Session 1 Notes 8-30
Second Conversation
Brother Lawrence only allowed himself to be led by love, then he never worried about heaven or hell and where he would go when he died. He sought God and nothing else and was at peace doing even the smallest thing for God. Even picking up a simple piece of straw.
He said that God sometimes caused him to feel good, he received a sweet consolation from his practice. He called it the “fruit” of God’s infinite graces. However, he did not want to dwell on enjoying the fruit, indeed he suggests “rejecting the taste of the fruit” because the taste (or feeling or consolation) is not God.
His desire was for God alone. “Love is always greater than Love’s gifts.” Go beyond the gift to God. Return your attention to God.
Sometimes Br. Lawrence wished he could do things for God in secret, so that by doing something without reward he could experience doing it for love alone. He went through a period (4 yrs at least) of extraordinary anxiety and thought for sure he was going to hell when he died. Then he remembered that all he’d ever done had been for love, so come what may he would continue to do all for love.
He didn’t worry about suffering because he knew that God would give him the strength to endure whatever came his way.
His creed was simplicity. He said we should ask God for help in all things, even the simplest things. He could find joy everywhere because of his simple devotion to the practice of turning to God.
“Overthinking ruins everything. Our trouble starts in our thoughts, he said.”
He was so naturally humble that he asked his superiors to let him remain a novice forever.
He figured that all penances and spiritual practices were aimed at facilitating union with God, so he determined to simply go straight there “by a continual practice of love, by doing everything for the love of God.”
Nothing worried or frightened him. He didn’t think about death or his sins or where he would go when he died. He just thought about doing little things for love. “Whatever happened to him was up to God. And he was at peace with that.”
Third Conversation
Sometimes Br. Lawrence didn’t think about God for an extended period of time. When he realized that he had been neglecting God he simply confessed this to God and returned to love.
“It is impossible for love to let a soul suffer for a long time, when that person is completely open with God and resolves to endure all for God.”
He became accustomed to God’s prompt help when he asked for it and thus ceased worrying about what he had to do ahead of time.
He could sense temptations coming on and asked God for help and the tempting thoughts vanished.
His worst fear was that some mental or physical suffering would cause him to lose his conscious connection to God. However, God reassured him that he would help him endure any suffering that came his way, so Brother Lawrence didn’t worry about that anymore and feared nothing. He then experienced only “unspeakable joy.”
You don’t need skill or special knowledge to practice the presence of God, just a heart devoted to love.
Fourth Conversation
The essence of the practice of the presence of God is this: “Let go once and for all of everything that we recognize as not tending toward God.That makes space for us to practice and become accustomed to an ongoing conversation with God, without ceremony or strategy.”
We recognize Love’s presence with us
Speak to God in every moment
Ask God for help
Don’t worry so much about “consulting our thoughts” instead ask for God’s help.
“He found no better way of going to God than by the ordinary tasks that were prescribed to him by obedience, disentangling these as much as he could from all self-interest and other people’s opinions…”
The practice of the presence of God is a shelter for the soul from everything that is not love.
Never tire of doing little things for the love of God who considers not the importance of the work, but the love with which the work is done.
“Only cultivate faith, hope, and love. All other things are irrelevant.”
Our soul is increasingly grace dependent as we seek to grow and mature spiritually.