The Practice of the Presence of God: October 2005

THE SPIRITUAL MAXIMS

All things are possible to one who believes, even more to one who hopes, and still more to one who loves; but all things are even more possible to one who practices these three virtues and perseveres in them. All who are baptized believers have made the first step on the road that leads to perfection, and will be perfect providing they persevere in the practice of the following guides to their conduct:

First. We must always keep our eyes on God and His glory in all we do, say or undertake. May the goal toward which we strive be to become perfect worshipers of God in this life, just as we hope to be throughout all eternity. Resolve firmly to overcome, by the grace of God, all the difficulties found in the spiritual life.

Second. When we undertake the spiritual life we must consider in depth who we are, and we will find ourselves worthy of all scorn, unworthy of the name of Christian, and subject to all sorts of afflictions and countless misfortunes. We will find that these woes not only trouble us but also make us uncertain in our health, in our moods, and in our inner and outward dispositions. In short, we will find ourselves among those whom God chooses to make humble through an abundance of sufferings and travails, both within and without.

Third. We must believe beyond any doubt that it is to our advantage to sacrifice ourselves to God and that He is pleased by our sacrifice. It is normal in His divine Providence that we should be abandoned to all sorts of conditions, sufferings, afflictions and temptations for the love of God, as much and for as long as it is His will. Without this submission of heart and spirit to the will of God, there can be no devotion or going on to perfection.

Fourth. A soul is all the more dependent on grace as it aspires to higher perfection, and the help and assistance of God are all the more necessary to us every moment because without Him the soul can do nothing. The world, the flesh and the devil all combine to make such a strong and continual war against the soul that without the very present help of God and our humble and necessary dependence upon Him, they would carry it away in spite of itself. To our nature this seems harsh, but grace takes pleasure in being dependent upon God and finds its rest in Him.

PRACTICES NECESSARY TO ACQUIRE THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

First. The holiest, most universal and most necessary practice in the spiritual life is the presence of God. To practice the presence of God is to take pleasure in and become accustomed to His Divine company, speaking humbly and conversing lovingly in our hearts with Him at all times, and at every moment, especially in times of temptation, pain, spiritual dryness, revulsion to spiritual things, and even unfaithfulness and sin.

Second. We must apply ourselves continually to the end that all our actions may be little spontaneous conversations with God, coming from purity and simplicity of heart.

Third. We must weigh all our actions without the impetuosity or impulsiveness that mark a distraught spirit. As we carry out our duties, we must work gently, tranquilly and lovingly with God, asking Him to accept our labor. Through our continual attention to God, we will crush the head of the devil and make his weapons fall from his hands.

Fourth. During our work and other activities, and even during our times of reading or writing, even though they may be spiritually oriented — and yes, even more during our outward devotions and prayers aloud — we ought to stop for a short moment, as frequently as we can, to adore God deep within our hearts and take pleasure in Him, even though we might have to do this momentarily and in secret. Since you are not unmindful of the fact that God is present before you as you carry out your duties, and you know that He is at the depth and center of your soul, why not stop from time to time, whatever you are doing — even if you are praying aloud — to adore Him inwardly, to praise Him, to beseech Him, to offer your heart to Him, and to thank Him?

What could please God more than for us to leave all created things over and over each day in this way in order to withdraw and worship Him in our hearts? Not to mention the fact that this is the way to destroy self-love, which cannot exist except among us creatures. Inwardly returning to God in this way rids us of self-love without our being aware of it.

Finally, we can give no greater witness to God of our faithfulness than by continually renouncing and turning from the created things around us to take pleasure, even for a single moment, in our Creator.

This is not to suggest that you should withdraw inwardly forever. That is not possible. But prudence, the mother of virtues, will guide you. Nonetheless, I maintain that it is a common error among spiritual persons not to withdraw from outward things from time to time to worship God within themselves and to find comfort and pleasure in the peace of His Divine presence for a few moments.

This digression has been lengthy, but I thought that the matter demanded all this explanation. Let us return to our discussion of spiritual practices.

Fifth. All this adoration must be done in faith, believing that in truth God is in our hearts, that we must worship, love and serve Him in spirit and truth, and that He sees all that is happening or will happen in us and in all creatures. We must believe that He is altogether independent of everything and that He is infinitely perfect and is worthy by His infinite excellence and His sovereignty of all that is in Heaven and on earth. We must believe that He can dispose according to His good pleasure in time and in eternity, and that we justly owe Him all our thoughts, our words and our actions. Let us see that we do it!

Sixth. We must study carefully which virtues we need most, those which are the most difficult to acquire, the sins into which we often fall, and the most frequent and inevitable occasions of our falls. We must run back to God with complete confidence when an occasion for spiritual warefare arises, remaining steadfast in the presence of His Divine majesty, humbly worshipping Him and presenting our miseries and afflictions to Him, and asking Him lovingly for the help of His grace. By doing this, in God we will discover all virtues without having any ourselves.

HOW TO WORSHIP GOD IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH

There are three answers to this question.

First. To worship God in spirit and truth means to worship God as we ought to worship Him. God is Spirit, so we must worship Him in spirit and truth, that is, with a humble and true spiritual adoration in the depth and center of our souls that God alone can see. We can repeat it so often that in the end it will become a part of our very natures and will be as if God were one with our souls, and our souls one with Him.

Second. To worship God in truth is to recognize Him for who He is, and to recognize ourselves for what we are. To worship God in truth is to recognize as a very present reality in our spirit that God is infinitely perfect, infinitely worthy of worship, and infinitely distanced from evil. He is infinitely greater than all the divine attributes ascribed to Him by man. What man, lacking in wisdom though he may be, could refuse to employ all his strength to respect and worship this great and infinitely worthy God?

Third. To worship God in truth is further to admit that we are entirely contrary to Him, but that He is willing to make us like Himself if we desire it. What man could be so imprudent as to turn himself away, even for a moment, from the reverence, love, service and continual adoration that we most justly owe Him?

ON THE UNION OF THE SOUL WITH GOD

There are three kinds of spiritual union: The first is habitual, the second is virtual, and the third is actual, i.e., accomplished in the present.

First. Habitual union is when we are united to God solely by grace.

Second. Virtual union is when we have begun to unite ourselves to God and we remain united with Him as long as we continue our efforts.

Third. Actual union — present, sustained, ongoing union — is the most perfect of the three. As it is wholly spiritual, its action can be felt within the soul because the soul is not asleep, as it is in the case of the other two unions. On the contrary, it finds itself powerfully excited. Its actions are more lively than those of a fire, more luminous than a sun unobscured by clouds. We must be careful not to be deceived into thinking that this union is a simple expression of the heart, as in saying, "My God, I love You with all my heart," or other similar words. No, this union is something indefinable that is found in a gentle, peaceable, spiritual, reverent, humble, loving and utterly simple soul. This "undefinable something" raises the soul and presses it to love God, to worship Him, and yes, even to caress Him with an inexpressible tenderness known only to those who experience it.

Fourth. All who aspire to union with God should know that everything that can delight the will and is pleasant and delicious to it serves to further this union.

We must all acknowledge that it is impossible for our human minds to understand God. In order to unite ourselves to Him, we must deprive our wills of every kind of spiritual and bodily pleasure, so that being thus freed, we can love God in our wills above all things. For if the will can in some way understand God, it can only be through love. There is a great deal of difference between the feelings of the will and the operation of the will, since the feelings of the will come to an end in the soul, whereas the operation of the will, which is the expression of true love, ends up at God.

ON PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

First. Practicing the presence of God is the application of our spirit to God; it is the vivid recollection that God is present with us. It can be accomplished either through the imagination or by the understanding.

Second. I know a person who for forty years has practiced the conscious presence of God.* To this practice he gives several other names: sometimes he calls it a simple action, a clear and distinct knowledge of God. Sometimes he refers to it as a blurred, indistinct sight, a general and loving gaze at God, or simply the remembrance of God. At other times he calls it attention to God, a silent conversation with God, confidence in God, or the life and peace of the soul. In short, this person has told me that all these types of the presence of God are only different ways of saying the same thing, and that the presence of God is now so natural that it has become a part of him. Here is how it happened:

Third. Through choosing in his will to frequently recall his spirit into the presence of God, the habit of doing it his has been formed in him in such a way that as soon as his mind is free from its outward duties, and frequently even when he is the busiest with them, the uppermost part of his spirit or the highest part of his soul lifts itself without any diligence on his part, and remains as if it were suspended and firmly held on God, above and beyond all things, as if it were in its center and its place of rest. It is by faith that he almost always feels himself in this suspension, and that is sufficient for him. This is what he calls the state of being actually present with God, so that he now lives as if there were only God and himself in the world. He converses with God no matter where he goes, asking God for what he needs and unceasing delighting himself in Him in countless ways.

Fourth. However, it is fitting to repeat that this conversation with God is done in the depth and at the center of the soul. It is there that the soul speaks to God, heart to heart, always delighting itself in God in a state of great and profound peace. All that happens outside seems to the soul like only a small fire that is extinguished as quickly as it is lit, with the result that outward things succeed to a very little degree or almost never in troubling its interior peace.

Fifth. To come back to our discussion of the presence of God, I maintain that this gentle and loving gaze upon God lights a divine fire in the soul without our being aware of it, and this fire burns so ardently with the love of God that we find ourselves obliged to do a number of outward things in order to moderate it.

Sixth. We would be quite surprised if we knew what the soul sometimes says to God, who seems to take such great pleasure in these conversations that He permits the soul complete freedom, provided that it wishes to remain always with Him and rely on Him. And, as though He were afraid that the soul might return to created things, God takes care to supply it so well with all that it can desire that over and over it finds deep within itself a source of nourishment that is very savory and delicious to its taste, although it never desired it or procured it in any way, and without its having contributed anything on its part other than its consent.

Seventh. We can conclude that the practice of the presence of God is the life and nourishment of the soul and that it can be obtained with the grace of the Lord. Here are the means of acquiring it:

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* Brother Lawrence is referring to himself here.

THE MEANS OF ACQUIRING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

First. The first means is leading a very pure life.

Second. The second is remaining very faithful to the practice of this presence and to the interior awareness of God in ourselves. We ought always to do this gently, humbly, and lovingly, without allowing ourselves to be troubled or worried.

Third. We must take care to glance inwardly toward God, even for a moment, before proceeding with our outward actions. Then, as we go about our duties, we must continue to gaze upon God from time to time. And finally, we must finish all our actions looking to God. As time and much labor are necessary to acquire this practice, we must not be discouraged when we fail in it, because the habit is formed only with difficulty; but when it is formed, everything we do we will do with pleasure.

Is it not right that the heart, which is the first member to be quickened to life in us, and which dominates over the other members of our body, should be the first and the last part of us to love and worship God, as we begin or end our spiritual and bodily actions? It is in the heart that we should carefully produce this brief interior glance, which we must do, as I have said before, without struggling or studying to make it easier.

Fourth. It would not be out of place for those who are beginning this practice to inwardly form a few words. We could say, "My God, I am entirely yours; God of love, I love You with all my heart; Lord, do with me according to Your heart," or some other words which love produces spontaneously. But those who are beginning should be wary lest their minds should stray and return to the creature when they should be keeping them on God alone. When their minds are pressed in this way and constrained by their wills, they will be forced to remain with God.

Fifth. Practicing the presence of God is a little difficult in the beginning, but when it is done faithfully, it secretly works marvelous effects in the soul, brings a flood of graces from the Lord, and leads it without its knowledge to gaze simply and lovingly at God and find His presence everywhere. This gaze is the easiest, the most holy, the most solid and the most effective type of prayer.

Sixth. Please note that to arrive at this state, we have to mortify our senses, since it is impossible for a soul which still has some creature-satisfaction, to fully enjoy this divine presence. To be with God, one must absolutely leave all created things behind.

THE USEFULNESS OF PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

First. The first thing that the soul receives from practicing the presence of God is a faith that is more alive and more acvtive in every aspect of our lives, particularly in our areas of need. Living this way easily obtains grace for us in our temptations and in the inevitable contact we have with created things. The soul that is acustomed to exercising its faith through this practice sees and feels God's presence by simply remembering God. It invokes Him easily and effectively, and obtains what it needs. By doing this it somewhat approaches the state of those who are already enjoying God's presence in Heaven. The more it advances, the more its faith becomes alive, and finally its faith becomes so penetrating that it could almost say, "I no longer belive; I see and I experience."

Second. The practice of the presence of God strengthens our hope. Our hope increases as our spiritual knowledge increases, as our faith lays hold the very secrets of God. By finding in God a beauty surpassing not only physical bodies on earth, but the beauty of the most perfect souls and of angels, our hope is strengthened. It is reassured by the very greatness of the blessing to which it aspires and which it sometimes actually foretastes.

Third. Practicing the presence of God inspires in the will a disdain of created things, and sets it ablaze with the fire of sacred love. Being always with God who is a consuming fire, this fire of sacred love reduces to ashes all that can be opposed to it. The soul, so kindled, can no longer live except in the presence of its God. This divine presence produces in the heart a holy ardor, a sacred zeal and a passionate desire to see God loved, known, served, and worshipped by all creation.

Fourth. By practicing the presence of God and by gazing inwardly at Him, the soul so familiarizes itself with God that it spends almost all its life in continual acts of love, adoration, contrition, confidence, thanksgiving, offering, beseeching, and all other excellent virtues. All these acts may even sometimes merge to become nothing less than one single continuing act that no longer comes and goes, because the soul is always in God's divine presence.

I know that there are few people who arrive at this stage; it is a special grace with which God favors only a few chosen souls, since in the end this steady, simple gaze is a gift from His generous hand. But I will say for the consolation of those who wish to embrace this holy practice, that He ordinarily gives this gift to souls who prepare themselves for it. If He does not give it, we can at least, with the help of His ordinary grace, acquire by the practice of the presence of God a state of prayer that comes very close to this simple, continual vision of God.

The Practice of the Presence of God

Monday, October 31, 2005