About Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

About
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

Brother Lawrence was a French monk who lived from 1611 to 1691. Prior to becoming a monk he was known as Nicholas Herman of Lorraine. As a young man he was a soldier, but after becoming a monk he lived a quiet life performing various domestic chores for his monastery. Nonetheless his sense of inner peace was so profound that other individuals were drawn to him for spiritual direction. When talking to these individuals, Brother Lawrence shared information about his own repeated efforts to keep his attention riveted on God no matter what business was occupying him. He reports that eventually this continual recollection of God became effortless and filled him with peace and joy.

Following his death M. Beaufort (Grand Vicar to M. De Chalons, formerly Cardinal de Noalilles) authored a book in which he recorded what Brother Lawrence had told him over the course of several conversations; in his book he also included a number of letters written by Brother Lawrence. Owing to the book's very awkward sentence construction, I have chosen to paraphrase the cited passages rather than quote them directly. Since M. Beaufort apparently wanted to emphasize the fact that he was quoting Brother Lawrence, the vast majority of sentences in the Conversations begin with the word "that", as in "Brother Lawrence said that ...", but without any explicit reference to Brother Lawrence. The result is paragraph after paragraph of dependent clauses. I have rephrased the cited passages by using independent clauses, and putting the words directly into Brother Lawrence's mouth. On occasion I have also updated the English. If you wish, you can compare an original passage with my paraphrased version.

The book itself is known as The Practice of the Presence of God. For my personal study, I have reorganized the text of the book according to various themes. If you'd like to take a look at my study version of the text, feel free.