Why is this important? After journaling partially about my failings in Practicing the Presence of God, this song came into my heart. The last verse says:
Praise to the Lord, oh, let all that is in me adore Him! All that hath life and breath
come now with praises before Him; Let the Amen sound from His people again, Gladly for aye we adore Him.
Yes, Lord I adore You, even when I get lost in distraction. Forgive me Lord when I forget You.
Brother Lawrence says to waste no time but confess and return promptly to talking with You and abiding with You. Waste no time beating yourself up. Confess your failing. Promptly return to the practice. Have you noticed yet how the enemy would have you stall and stay stuck in your failings rather than move on to God’s Presence? He is a crafty one.
So here I am Lord, Your Molly Lin. You ask me to stand and tip, be Your lily shield. Help me to obey. I return to You.
While away by myself I began reading my back copies of Guideposts. I subscribe because that little magazine almost ALWAYS moves me in some way. Then I get busy and miss an edition, throw it in a drawer for later. Something happens and I do not read the next one. Eventually, feeling guilty, I do not renew my subscription. So here I was during February, 2022 in a motel room reading the August/September 2021 edition.
The cover story was written by Harry Connick, Jr. about himself. Wow! He found his world turned upside down like all of us did when the pandemic began. He began to get in touch with his faith. His dad “took charge” of his faith when Harry was a child. His mom was born Jewish and did not have a problem with dad taking Harry to church. Then, like many of us, he lost track of his faith in the shuffle of life.
While staying home during the first year of the pandemic he searched his heart concerning his faith and made music – as in wrote, performed and sang very part- in his home studio – until he had created a new album entitled Alone with My Faith. I was able to hear it on You Tube and it is wonderful.
Harry did some arrangements of old time hymns like The Old Rugged Cross as well as writing some original songs such as Thank You for Waiting for Me and All These Miracles. I was amazed to learn he knew so many instruments including the tuba. Guess if you create New Orleans style music you need that tuba! I told Bob I was certain he had added some harmonies by other people when the quarantines were lifted. Reading the article again I read that he did ALL the vocals. You will be amazed by his talent if you listen to God and My Gospel. Sure sounds like a group of folks! Bob was startled by some of the familiar hymns set in a new arrangement!!
Just imagine this 54 year old, worth $45 million is willing to share his renewed faith with the world!
Even if you are not a Harry Connick, Jr fan but love the Lord, I encourage you to check out this music for yourself. The album and one of the songs are entitled Alone with My Faith. His daughter helped design the cover made from the broken down useless piano he is standing on.
I keep returning to “Thank You for Waiting for Me” as the refrain reminds me of walking in the ways of Brother Lawrence. “If I’m listening, really listening, I’ll hear. If I’m looking, really looking, I’ll see. If I’m praying, really praying, I will try to understand..”
Are you listening, really listening? Are you looking, really looking? Are you praying, really praying? I hope so! Blessings abound if we only will begin!
In the preface to Brother Lawrence’s “Spiritual Maxims” we are told “He committed his thoughts sometimes to writing, but comparing what he had written with that which he had just experienced in his soul, he deemed it so inferior and so far removed from the inspired thoughts with which he had been visited, of the greatness and goodness of God that often he felt compelled to tear it up at once.“
Perhaps I should quit writing and go sweep the dog hair off that rug!!
Oh I do so relate. Just as Rilke wrote, “Most experiences are unsayable.”
As soon as I attempt to put these whispered communications with God into words, they automatically lose much of there splendor and power. And yet, we have some of Bro Law’s Maxims to this day.
All things are possible to him who believes,
they are less difficult to him who hopes,
they are easier to him who loves,
and still more easy to him who practices and perseveres
in these three virtues.
Brother Lawrence
Frank Laubach was most known for his methods of teaching people to read. He also wrote a volume based on Brother Lawrence’s teachings and Frank’s experiment in trying to live according to them. He entitled it Practicing His Presence. Laubach also wrote The Game With Minutes which you can read online at https://levaire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The-Game-with-Minutes-Frank-Laubach.pdf
Laubach wrote: “All who have tried that kind of abiding for a month know the power of it—it is like being born again from center to circumference. It absolutely changes every person who does it. And it will change the world that does it.” Christy Nockels wrote recently about the same idea, living center to circumference, in her book The Life You Long For.
Reading Brother Lawrence’s maxims it is no wonder that more of Christianity is not fascinated with his practice and attempting it themselves!
He wrote “Of the Presence of God” I have a friend who these forty years past has been practicing through the understanding a realization of the Presence of God. To it he gives many other names; sometimes he calls it a simple act, or a clear and distinct knowledge of God; at other times, a view as through a glass, a loving gaze, an inward sense of God; yet again he terms it a waiting on God, a silent converse with Him, a repose in Him, the life and peace of the soul. Still, my friend tells me that all these ways, in which he has expressed his sense of the Presence of God, come to the same thing; and that the Presence fills his soul quite naturally, that it has come to pass in this way.
I send you his words because this experience is so difficult to put into words. An act, knowledge, gaze, view, inward sense, waiting, silent converse, repose, life and peace… and still words fall so far short of this mystery; Christ in you, the hope of Glory. Max Lucado says that Paul refers to the indwelling Christ 216 times.
I believe Brother Lawrence was teaching how to go inward and experience Christ daily, constantly. Yes, that takes discipline and practice. So did learning to walk, and drive a car. Give it a try, and then try again and again. God is just waiting for your sincere desire to be with Him. Let Christ in you live loud and large.
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can do.”
Arthur Ashe
“Arthur Ashe is easily recognized as the first male African American tennis player to win the US Open and Wimbledon singles titles. Before he was ranked, there was no other African American man in the world’s top 10. He was also the first individual to be inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame.” He believed that we can each do great things, but we must begin where we are. Thomas Merton is quoted as saying,
“It is important to know where you are put on the face of the earth.”
Thomas Merton
So where are you? What service can you provide for the earth and people of the earth?
Our pastor urges us to join God in what He is doing. What can we do about Ukraine and the suffering there? Of course, we should be praying. We can give money for the millions of refugees who will lose everything in the bombing and fighting. Our pastor also said as part of our reach to Ukraine we should “get in the game,” meaning become active in our church community. Share how we walk with Jesus and make disciples. I try to encourage others to authenticity. As the power of God moves in and through us it will reach to the ends of the earth.
Use what you have. Do not dream about a someday to come. Right here, right now! wrote Jason Gray in the song Good to Be Alive. Part of the lyrics read:
Is this really the life I’m living? Cause I don’t feel like I deserve it Every day that I wake, every breath that I take You’ve given So right here, right now While the sun is shining down
I wanna live like there’s no tomorrow Love like I’m on borrowed time It’s good to be alive, yeah
The video below is an interview with Jason.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. Be grateful and joyous throughout life.
There is a female goldfinch on our feeder at this moment. She is still in her drab winter feathers. She will never look as glowing and bright as her male counterpart. She is doing her best to be a female goldfinch in February. Are you as grateful as this finch feeding upon the seeds Bob just put out front?
I pray that you may be strong enough to grasp what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth and to KNOW the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, being filled with to all the fullness of God and then do His Bidding – walk in obedience to Him.
… as he has become known to me. For years I have tried to live his practice … the practice of the presence of God. I first read it as a folder from the Upper Room. Their first copyright was 1950. The folder I own was its twenty-first printing. Brother Lawrence left no large writings of his own. What we have from the 1600s is mostly what others remember from conversations with him and a few letters. Harold Chadwick says in his extensive publication about Brother Lawrence “The Spiritual Maxims and the Letters appear to be the only writings of Brother Lawrence that we still have.”
After reading this booklet multiple times, teaching from the book published by Spire and endeavoring to live his ideas, I am still at it. Recently I was inspired to purchased the book through Audible. This wonderful app lets you buy books to listen to. What a great idea while walking this beagle in winter! So I am mining the prayers, quotes and ideas that are reminding me how simple and how simply difficult this practice is.
Years ago while teaching crochet at Hobby Lobby I met a woman named Charlene. She was amazing in her determination to crochet. She suffered several surgeries due to cancer. As soon as she would wake from anesthesia she would insist they give her the current crochet project. When she knew she was dying she asked me if I thought she was doing her Christian life correctly. She told me she talked to God all day long about everything and listened for His answers. At the time I had been trying to practice the presence of God for probably ten years. She was doing exactly what Brother Lawrence taught! What an inspiration.
Here is the story of Brother Lawrence’s conversion in 1666 from the Audible recording. “His conversion which took place when he was about 18 years old, was the result under God, of the mere sight in mid-winter of a dry and leafless tree and of the reflections it stirred respecting the change the coming spring would bring. From that time he grew imminently in the knowledge and love of God endeavoring constantly to walk as in His presence.” This being mid-winter, can you find a tree to ponder and reflect upon the changes God will bring about soon to that tree?
photo by r m dutina
He was born Nicolas Herman. He worked as a cook in a monastery kitchen for 15 years. He was not highly educated. Can you imagine learning a way to be with God constantly, sharing your thoughts and teaching others this way, and having your method be important to folks 350 some years later?
He complains much of our blindness, and cries often that we are to be pitied who content ourselves with so little. God, says he, has infinite treasure to bestow, and we take up with a little sensible devotion, which passes in a moment. Blind as we are, we hinder God and stop the current of His graces. But when He finds a soul penetrated with a lively faith, He pours into it His graces and favors plentifully; there they flow like a torrent which, after being forcibly stopped against its ordinary course, when it has found a passage, spreads itself with impetuosity and abundance.
Brother Lawrence Fourth Letter
The letter goes on to encourage us to enter into ourselves and break down the banks that hinder this flow.
“His graces and favors flow like a torrent” photo by M L Dutina
I have been trying to bring a few of his prayers to up-to-date, current English, changing Thee and Thou to our common You and Your usage. This was his prayer when he had to turn his attention to work in the kitchen. A filial trust means like a child with its parent. “That when he began his business, he said to God, with a filial trust in Him:
O my God, since You are with me, and I must now, in obedience to Your commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech You to grant me the grace to continue in Your presence; and to this end do prosper me with Your assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.
Prayer before beginning work in his kitchen
One thing I especially like about his teachings is his ready recognition of his failure and then rapid moving back to the practice. “That when he had failed in his duty, he only confessed his fault, saying to God, I shall never do otherwise if You leave me to myself; it is You who must hinder my falling and mend what is amiss. That after this he gave himself no further uneasiness about it.” Simple. Can you do that?
“That he was very sensible of his faults, but not discouraged by them; that he confessed them to God, but did not plead against Him to excuse them. When he had so done, he peaceably resumed his usual practice of love and adoration.” Again, simple. Can you do that?
I was so prone to self-castigation that this simple method of recognition of my sins and faults and then rapidly returning to loving God was hard for me to accomplish. “Peaceably resumed his usual practice of love and adoration.”
One of my favorite, and likely my most quoted teachings is “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 at hand and return to our communion with God.”
Useless thoughts spoil everything and much mischief begins there.
Brother Lawrence
Yeah, buddy! SO VERY TRUE.
Rapidly return to His presence when you realize you have lapsed. Don’t waste energy on your sins; confess and peacefully go back to His presence. Discuss with God everything all day about your life. It brings Him delight. When those useless thoughts pop up, and they will, learn to recognize them. We are taught in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ Jesus. My useless thoughts are usually recognizable after a time. When I realize another one has crept into my thinking, I spurn it. Taking it captive to Jesus I see in the light of Christ the evil it could do and I reject it.
Some say that Christianity is full of “thou shalt nots.” I say if you do the things instructed in the word you will not have time for useless nonsense. Father wants a relationship with us. Are you willing to give that a try?
Look, you might as well know, this thing
is going to take endless repair: rubber bands,
crazy glue, tapioca, the square of the hypotenuse.
Nineteenth century novels. Heartstrings, sunrise:
all of these are useful. Also, feathers.
To keep it humming, sometimes you have to stand
on an incline, where everything looks possible;
on the line you drew yourself. Or in
the grocery line, making faces at a toddler
secretly, over his mother's shoulder.
You might have to pop the clutch and run
past all the evidence. Past everyone who is
laughing or praying for you. Definitely you don't
want to go directly to jail, but still, here you go,
passing time, passing strange. Don't pass this up.
In the worst of times, you will have to pass it off.
Park it and fly by the seat of your pants. With nothing
in the bank, you'll still want to take the express.
Tiptoe past the dogs of the apocalypse that are sleeping
in the shade of your future. Pay at the window.
Pass your hope like a bad check.
You might still have just enough time. To make a deposit.
What an imagination and apt description for those that refuse to give up and continue to hope, even when things look dark. “Rubber bands, crazy glue and tapioca” everything you’ve got.
Paul described hope as one of the greatest things we can have.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:11-13
Irregardless of what you may be enduring this week, this year, I urge you to hold on to hope.
And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Through the window of the ages
Past the thick walls of time
Stands a symbol of death
Nay! Bright resurrection
Hope of all men
The rough stones placed
In geometrically sound patterns
Of worship, of honor, of praise
Roofless now
that heaven may freely break through
to us of long ages later
Arches , capstones, edges of time
Torn by the worship of long ago
Until our hearts are lifted up
To worship the same lovely truth
You came for us
You come to us still
To have us for Your own
Encircling with Spirit
Invading with Holy
Illumine our techno age
With truth of heaven
Power of Holy
Spirit of Life
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
Matthew 8:23-27 NIV
I recently sent my friend, Kathy this icon from the Printery House, Conception Abbey. The title is “Storm on the Sea of Galilee” based on the verses in Matthew 8, Mark 4 and Luke 8. I have an 8 x 10 image of this icon on my office wall. Here is the link if you are interested in ordering one.
The Episcopal diocese of West Missouri has a page about how to pray with an icon. “Icons bring us into prayer, or conversation with God, with our eyes wide open. An ancient practice, praying with icons involves taking into our heart what the image visually communicates. Rather than focusing on what is seen, we focus on what is seen through it – the love of God expressed through God’s creatures.” https://spirit.diowestmo.org/2022/01/a-way-to-pray-icons/
Shortly after I mailed it to Kathy, the Haven Today Winter Newsletter arrived in my mailbox. It contained an article by Dan Warne called “Rest as a Daily Rhythm of Dependence.”
The idea isn’t that we shouldn’t work hard, but that we should remember that it’s okay to rest, knowing that it’s a gift from God and he will keep the world turning until sunrise.
As someone pointed out, Jesus himself modeled this for us when he slept in the boat in the storm. The disciples were frantic and scared, but the God who made the sea was taking a moment to rest his tired, human body. He had power over the storm, and because of that when we walk with Jesus, sometimes the best way to imitate our Savior and express our reliance upon him is to rest knowing he is in control.
Even the winds and waves obey Him. Oh readers, take heed to this Master of the Universe, your Savior and King. Mind his instruction and directions for you. He is Lord and knows what you need. Rest in His love and power. He cares beyond your deepest understanding.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and TO KNOW this love that SURPASSES knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17b-19
This brings to mind that prayer/poem I had only heard snippets of until recently.
Thy sea, O God, so great,
My boat so small.
It cannot be that any happy fate
Will me befall
Save as Thy goodness opens paths for me
Through the consuming vastness of the sea.
Thy winds, O God, so strong,
So slight my sail.
How could I curb and bit them on the long
And saltry trail,
Unless Thy love were mightier than the wrath
Of all the tempests that beset my path?
Thy world, O God, so fierce,
And I so frail.
Yet, though its arrows threaten oft to pierce
My fragile mail,
Cities of refuge rise where dangers cease,
Sweet silences abound, and all is peace.
- Winfred Ernest Garrison
He is able to keep us, on land or on sea with love and power beyond our comprehension. Thank the Lord we can be recipients of that love and power on our behalf without having to understand and comprehend them! Help us, Father, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to KNOW this love.
Did you know that Episcopalians have nuns and convents? There is one in Glendale, Ohio a suburb of Cincinnati. I have been an associate there for thirty-one years.
Recently the Sisters of the Transfiguration sent out a photo of the icon they commissioned years ago. The first artist died before she could complete it. The second artist worked on it and recently sent it along to the Sisters. It depicts Jesus at the Transfiguration, supposedly on the Mount of Tabor. The letters around the edge quote the Scripture Luke 9:29 I believe.
About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
Luke 9:28-29
Orthodox Church of America says “We believe that at the Transfiguration He manifested not some other sort of light, but only that which was concealed beneath His fleshly exterior. This Light was the Light of the Divine Nature, and as such, it was Uncreated and Divine. So also, in the teachings of the Fathers, Jesus Christ was transfigured on the Mount, not taking upon Himself something new nor being changed into something new, nor something which formerly He did not possess. Rather, it was to show His disciples that which He already was, opening their eyes and bringing them from blindness to sight. For do you not see that eyes that can perceive natural things would be blind to this Light?”
TRANSFIGURATION (Gk. metamorphoō, to “change into another form”). It is recorded (Matt. 17:2; Mark 9:2) that our Lord “was transfigured” before His disciples Peter, James, and John; and this is explained (Luke 9:29): “And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming.” Each of the evangelists represents it as taking place about eight days after the first distinct intimation our Lord made to them of His approaching sufferings, death, and resurrection. The location is merely given as a high mountain, which is traditionally thought to have been Mt. Tabor; but as Jesus was at this time sojourning in the neighborhood of Caesarea Philippi, it seems likely that it was one of the ridges of Hermon. While our Lord was praying He was “transfigured,” i.e., His external aspect was changed, His face gleaming like the sun, and His clothing being so white that it shone like light. The cause of this appearance was that His divine glory shone out through His human form and was not, as in the case of Moses, caused by God’s having appeared to Him.
Unger’s Bible dictionary
The Transfiguration of our Lord on a “high mountain apart,” is described by each of the three evangelists (Matt. 17:1–8; Mark 9:2–8; Luke 9:28–36). The fullest account is given by Luke, who, no doubt, was informed by Peter, who was present on the occasion. What these evangelists record was an absolute historical reality, and not a mere vision. The concurrence between them in all the circumstances of the incident is exact. John seems to allude to it also (John 1:14). Forty years after the event Peter distinctly makes mention of it (2 Pet. 1:16–18). In describing the sanctification of believers, Paul also seems to allude to this majestic and glorious appearance of our Lord on the “holy mount” (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). The place of the transfiguration was probably Mount Hermon (q.v.), and not Mount Tabor, as is commonly supposed.
Easton Bible Dictionary
Trust me when I say I am no scholar on the Transfiguration or any Bible matters. I do know that these Scripture accounts have intrigued me for years. “He displayed the Light of Divine Nature that was concealed under His flesh.” And now, He lives in those of us who believe. He instructed us to let our light shine. I think He meant this Divine Light. As you look over the icon and perhaps pray with it may the Lord of all Knowledge open your minds and hearts to our Divine Jesus, come to transfigure us. As Associates we are asked to pray for the Sisters daily. Below is that prayer adapted from the Book of Common Prayer.
Prayer for the Community of the Transfiguration
O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son,
wonderfully transfigured in raiment white and glistening;
Mercifully grant that the Sisters,
being delivered from the disquietude of this world,
may by faith behold the King in his beauty;
who with you, O Father and you,
O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Practicing the discipline my pastor suggested, as I listed the five things I am grateful for one morning, suddenly all this came to me. Hope you enjoy it.
photo by r m dutina
#5. Cloud and mist fabric drawn across the moon
all that light originated from the sun?
Gray then white then yellow, clot of black then blue
For my attention and entertainment? No, a lesson more true
"I desire truth in your inward parts
To reflect My glory you must be clean, steady, sure
Certain of My love for all
Wavering not from circumstances
Leaning into My light"
Clouds move off and I can barely look away
The brightness of Your Glory my delight
Clouds clear and brilliance increases
I watch as moon orbits incrementally behind the tree
I want to move the furniture
Lie here looking out the window
Yet even now the sun is rising and moon will seem to go
Scour my being Father that I might reflect
Your brilliant glory, certain and true.
"Beware lest feeding feral cats from pity
You actually nourish marauding coyotes
Dimming the beauty of your intention
Encouraging the destruction of your very soul"
You parted the veil from before my eyes
Help me to keep Your glory in my remembrance forever.
Sun rises higher
Brilliant white moon beckons
Cream colored clouds move in thickly
My soul knows what it witnessed
Your power glows across the universe
Regardless of my momentary ability to see.
Enemies of my soul say, "Nothing to see here. Move along."
My heart ever held in Your nail scarred hand
I spend my life to declare Your glory.
I am always amazed when this stuff comes to me. Coyotes, like the prowling lion seeking whom he may devour? We have coyotes in this neighborhood. A pack prowls the street every morning just before dawn. Likely other times, too. I was giving Lucky her last outdoor stroll the other night and she noticed something at the end of the street. I could not see a thing. She would not take her eyes off the end of the street. She even growled which is atypical of her!
photo by r m dutina
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Psalm 51:6 NRSV
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith
1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV
Yes, Lord, I will have the courage to share. Bless the readers I pray.
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 