Brother Lawrence, a simple, humble 17th century monk who spent most of his time peeling potatoes and caring for his fellow brothers through his work in the kitchen found that he could have an ongoing awareness of and conversation with God as he went about his daily duties. In fact, he came to see that he could have more meaningful exchanges with God in the kitchen than in the chapel during daily prayers. Let Brother Lawrence teach you how to commune with God in all of your life's activities.
Brother Lawrence made no distinction between the sacred and the secular in terms of his prayer life. All of life is holy and God is as accessible while we're working or driving in the car as when we're in a chapel praying.
...with him (Brother Lawrence) the set times of prayer were not different from other times...because his greatest business did not divert him from God.
...knowing only by the light of faith that God was present, he contented himself with directing all his actions to Him, i.e., doing them with a desire to please Him, let what would come of it.
Brother Lawrence shows by example that prayer is not a method or a system but a way of life. What is essential is that we relate to God constantly in an attitude of prayer, giving all our thoughts over to God, listening and speaking and having our whole lives informed by God's presence.
That useless thoughts spoil all: that the mischief began there; but that we ought to reject them, as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter in hand, or our salvation; and return to our communion with God.
That at the beginning he had often passed his time appointed for prayer, in rejecting wandering thoughts, and falling back into them. That he could never regulate his devotion by certain methods as some do. That nevertheless, at first he had meditated for some time, but afterwards that went off, in a manner that he could give no account of.
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Brother Lawrence rejected the notion of mortification of the body, noting that disciplines, actions, deprivation, and even acts of devotion are useless, except as they serve to help us arrive at union with God by love.
That all bodily mortifications and other exercises are useless, but as they serve to arrive at the union with God by love; that he had well considered this, and found it the shortest way to go straight to Him by a continual exercise of love, and doing all things for His sake.
That we ought to make a great difference between the acts of the understanding and those of the will; that the first were comparatively of little value, and the others all.
That our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God.
That all possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. That we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the Blood of Jesus Christ, only endeavouring to love Him with all our hearts. That God seemed to have granted the greatest favours to the greatest sinners, as more signal monuments of His mercy.
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Brother Lawrence lived in the assurance that if we confess our sins, we can, without fear, expect the pardon of our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. As a result of this amazing grace and mercy, our only endeavour should be to love Him with all our hearts.
That the greatest pains or pleasures, of this world, were not to be compared with what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual state: so that he was careful for nothing and feared nothing, desiring but one only thing of God, viz., that he might not offend Him.
That he had no scruples; for, said he, when I fail in my duty, I readily acknowledge it, saying, I am used to do so: I shall never do otherwise, if I am left to myself. If I fail not, then I give God thanks, acknowledging that it comes from Him.
(-excerpts from The Practice of the Presence of God, Second Conversation with Brother Lawrence)
