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Check out the preface below!

Preface to The Practice of the Presence of God: A Modern Translation, by Peter Northcutt

With the exception of the Bible itself, it is estimated that The Practice of the Presence of God has been read by more Christians than any other book in the past three hundred years. It is remarkable, then, that this little collection of conversations, letters, and maxims was written not by a trained writer or theologian, but by a man who spent most of his time in the kitchen. Frankly, this celebrated book doesn’t overwhelm with reason like the arguments of Aquinas or sing like Augustine’s poetry. Instead, it owes its popularity to the humble, simple, and practical insight of the unassuming spiritual master it centers on.

The author of this book, a French monk by the name of Brother Lawrence, hadn’t always been called on for spiritual insight, however. In fact, he hadn’t always been called Lawrence. He was born Nicolas Herman in 1611, belonging to a poor family in the French region of Lorraine. Having little formal education, Herman eventually joined the army and fought in the Thirty Years’ War. It was during this time that Herman had a powerful conversion experience and saw the first glimpse of what his life would become.

One day in the winter of his eighteenth year, a tree caught the eye of young Herman. It looked dead, as trees in winter do. But spring was near, and Herman contemplated for a while how the tree would soon return to life, blooming with flowers and leaves. Through this seemingly ordinary experience, God forever impressed upon him His power and plan for everything, and Herman’s soul became sensitive to the presence of God in his life. According to his friend and biographer, that experience “sparked in him a love for God so immense that he couldn’t tell whether it had increased over the more than forty years he had lived since that day.”

Soon after his conversion to Christianity, Herman suffered a serious leg injury that left him nearly crippled and in pain for the rest of his life. Unable to continue in military service, Herman chose to live for a period in wilderness isolation, experiencing life like the early desert fathers he came to admire. Presumably for financial reasons, Herman left the wilderness to take a brief job as a footman, then soon entered a Carmelite monastery in Paris. He took the name Lawrence of the Resurrection and spent the rest of his days cooking and repairing sandals for the community.

For the next forty years, as he chopped potatoes and scrubbed dishes, Lawrence learned to spend every moment of his day in constant awareness of the God he met at the tree when he was eighteen. Though he admitted he often failed, he made it his life’s goal to carry on a simple, never-ending conversation with his loving Father. When he became distracted by work or by trivial thoughts, he simply confessed it to God and then returned to his usual, pray-without-ceasing state of mind. “The time of work,” he said, “is no different from the time of prayer. And in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, as people all around are calling for different things, I possess God with all the peace in the world.” It is this simple, spiritually-minded way of life that he called “the practice of the presence of God.”

The wisdom and joyful spirit that resulted from years of this practice caught the attention of those in his community and beyond. Despite Lawrence’s lowly position, his reputation attracted many visitors seeking to learn from him. Although demand was high, he never wrote a formal book on spiritual formation. It was only after his death that his friend, Monsignor Joseph de Beaufort, vicar general to the archbishop of Paris, collected letters written by him, outlines of conversations they shared, and the Spiritual Maxims that were found in Lawrence’s room after his death. In 1693, two years after Lawrence died, Beaufort published these writings as The Practice of the Presence of God.

 Since its publication more than three hundred years ago, the message of this modest book has inspired millions of people seeking to realize a continual awareness of God. Among its legion of devotees is A.W. Tozer, who said, “(Lawrence) wrote very little, but what he wrote has seemed to several generations of Christians to be so rare and so beautiful as to deserve a place near the top among the world’s great books of devotion.” In today’s age of constant distraction and activity, we believe Lawrence’s message is more revolutionary and needed than ever and is primed to impact millions more in the coming generations.

To ensure this book continues its immense influence, we at Modern Saints have breathed new life into the classic text, writing a faithful, fresh translation based on a popular English translation dating back to the late 1800’s. Our goal was to create the book that would have been published had it been written in the 21st century. Here are the three basic ways in which this book was adapted:

• Sentence structures and vocabulary were altered to better suit modern readers,

• Paragraphs were broken up or consolidated for clarity,

• And, while nearly a word-for-word translation, short bits of text were added or removed intermittently to help the flow of reading.

The result of these adaptations is a fun and fresh reading experience void of needless struggle, allowing you to focus not on wading through archaic language but on contemplating the depth of Lawrence’s wisdom.

Before you begin, however, it would be appropriate to note once more that this book is not written in a formal structure. What you will encounter in these pages are notes of conversations written by Lawrence’s friend Beaufort, letters written by Lawrence himself regarding a variety of topics, and a list of Lawrence’s own Spiritual Maxims. As a result, the book isn’t meant to be read in large chunks. Instead, it should be digested in small bites. The beauty of this book is not in its theological weight, but in the simple wisdom of a humble life completely surrendered to his Maker. In short, you should read with your heart as well as your head.

I pray God uses this book in your life as He did in mine. I pray that we all become more aware of His presence, that we talk with Him as friends, that we see the holiness of every moment in our day, and that when we fall short, we simply turn back to Him, reveling in His grace and love for us. Or in the words of Brother Lawrence, I pray we learn “the practice of the presence of God.”