The Practice of the Presence of God
Brother Lawrence · 1692
5.0 · 6 ratings
About the book
A lame monastery cook who found God among the pots and pans, recorded in four conversations and fifteen letters after his death. The entire method is attention — doing small things with great love — and three centuries of readers keep finding it is enough.
Try the short course
Part 1 · The clumsy cook behind the classic. The first six slides, free.
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This is one of the most widely read books on prayer in the Christian West, and the man behind it never set out to write it. The preface introduces him in five plain words: “a lowly and unlearned man”.
Most people who meet the title picture a mystic in a stone cell, or a scholar who spent decades mapping the stages of contemplation. Hold that picture up for a moment, then put it down. The man behind these pages cooked for a monastery, walked with a limp, and by his own account broke things.
That is not colour added to make a saint likeable. It is the book’s whole argument, made in advance: if this worked for him, in his kitchen, it was never a technique reserved for specialists.
Inside the course
12 parts- Nicholas Herman of Lorraine: the cook behind the classicFree above
- The first conversation: conversion at eighteen, by a bare tree
- The second: work in the kitchen, prayer in the kitchen
- The third: confidence, and the fear that vanished
Questions
Is The Practice of the Presence of God free to read in Astra Trainer?
Yes. The full book opens free in the app’s reader, in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian.
What is the short course?
12 short parts that walk through the book’s key ideas in slides, each with a quick quiz. The first six slides are free to try on this page.
Where do I get the app?
Astra Trainer is free on the App Store and Google Play. The Practice of the Presence of God is waiting in the app’s library.
