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Brother Lawrence
Brother Lawrence (c. 1614–1691). Born Nicolas Herman around 1614 in Hériménil, Lorraine, France, to a peasant family, Brother Lawrence became a Carmelite monk and lay brother renowned for his practice of God’s presence. Wounded as a soldier in the Thirty Years’ War and later serving as a footman, he experienced a spiritual awakening at 18 upon seeing a barren tree, reflecting on God’s renewing power. Entering the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Paris around 1640, he took the name Lawrence of the Resurrection and worked humbly in the kitchen and as a sandal repairer. Despite no formal education, his simple faith and constant communion with God drew many to seek his counsel. His teachings, recorded by others, notably Abbé Joseph de Beaufort, were compiled posthumously in The Practice of the Presence of God, a collection of letters and conversations emphasizing continual prayer in daily tasks. Lawrence’s life exemplified joy in mundane duties, influencing spiritual thinkers across centuries. Unmarried, he remained in the monastery until his death on February 12, 1691, in Paris. He said, “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”
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Brother Lawrence preaches about finding strength and comfort in God during times of great pain and suffering, emphasizing the importance of enduring hardships with patience and trust in God's plan. He encourages the listener to view sickness as a means of God's mercy and a way to draw closer to Him, rather than solely as a burden. Brother Lawrence reminds that God is the ultimate Physician of both body and soul, and that true healing comes from trusting in Him above all else.
Eleventh Letter
To one who is in great pain. God is the Physician of body and of soul. * Feels that he would gladly suffer at His wish. I DO not pray that you may be delivered from your pains; but I pray GOD earnestly that He would give you strength and patience to bear them as long as He pleases. Comfort yourself with Him who holds you fastened to the cross: He will loose you when He thinks fit. Happy those who suffer with Him: accustom yourself to suffer in that manner, and seek from Him the strength to endure as much, and as long, as He shall judge to be necessary for you. The men of the world do not comprehend these truths, nor is it to be wondered at, since they suffer like what they are, and not like Christians: they consider sickness as a pain to nature, and not as a favour from GOD; and seeing it only in that light, they find nothing in it but grief and distress. But those who consider sickness as coming from the hand of GOD, as the effects of His mercy, and the means which He employs for their salvation, commonly find in it great sweetness and sensible consolation. I wish you could convince yourself that GOD is often (in some sense) nearer to us and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health. Rely upon no other Physician, for, according to my apprehension, He reserves your cure to Himself. Put then all your trust in Him, and you will soon find the effects of it in your recovery, which we often retard, by putting greater confidence in physic than in GOD. Whatever remedies you make use of, they will succeed only so far as He permits. When pains come from GOD, He only can cure them. He often sends diseases of the body, to cure those of the soul. Comfort yourself with the sovereign Physician both of soul and body. I foresee that you will tell me that I am very much at my ease, that I eat and drink at the table of the LORD. YOU have reason: but think you that it would be a small pain to the greatest criminal in the world, to eat at the king’s table, and be served by him, and notwithstanding such favours to be without assurance of pardon? I believe he would feel exceeding great uneasiness, and such as nothing could moderate, but only his trust in the goodness of his sovereign. So I assure you, that whatever pleasures I taste at the table of my King, yet my sins, ever present before my eyes, as well as the uncertainty of my pardon, torment me, though in truth that torment itself is pleasing. Be satisfied with the condition in which GOD places you: however happy you may think me, I envy you. Pains and suffering would be a paradise to me, while I should suffer with my GOD; and the greatest pleasure would be hell to me, if I could relish them without Him; all my consolation would be to suffer something for His sake. I must, in a little time, go to GOD. What comforts me in this life is, that I now see Him by faith; and I see Him in such a manner as might make me say sometimes, I believe no more, but I see. I feel what faith teaches us, and, in that assurance and that practice of faith, I will live and die with Him. Continue then always with GOD: ’tis the only support and comfort for your affliction. I shall beseech Him to be with you. I present my service.
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Brother Lawrence (c. 1614–1691). Born Nicolas Herman around 1614 in Hériménil, Lorraine, France, to a peasant family, Brother Lawrence became a Carmelite monk and lay brother renowned for his practice of God’s presence. Wounded as a soldier in the Thirty Years’ War and later serving as a footman, he experienced a spiritual awakening at 18 upon seeing a barren tree, reflecting on God’s renewing power. Entering the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Paris around 1640, he took the name Lawrence of the Resurrection and worked humbly in the kitchen and as a sandal repairer. Despite no formal education, his simple faith and constant communion with God drew many to seek his counsel. His teachings, recorded by others, notably Abbé Joseph de Beaufort, were compiled posthumously in The Practice of the Presence of God, a collection of letters and conversations emphasizing continual prayer in daily tasks. Lawrence’s life exemplified joy in mundane duties, influencing spiritual thinkers across centuries. Unmarried, he remained in the monastery until his death on February 12, 1691, in Paris. He said, “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”