Practicing the Presence of God: Brother Lawrence's Method for an Ordinary Workday
By Dom · · 11 min read
You read about Brother Lawrence and liked the idea: God at the sink, God at the desk. So this morning you meant to keep Him in mind at work. It is now 10:40, and the last time you thought of God was in the car park.
That does not mean this is only for monks. Lawrence wrote that “for the first ten years I suffered much.” Here is what he actually did, in his own words, and a small way to start tomorrow.
Key takeaways
- Practicing the presence of God is Brother Lawrence’s “habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with GOD,” kept up during ordinary work, not only at set prayer times.
- Four small moves around one task: offer it before, talk to God during, come back when you wander, give thanks after. The framing is ours; each move is his.
- It was hard for him too. “For the first ten years I suffered much,” he wrote.
- Small acts stick. In habit research on health behaviours, automaticity levelled off after an average of 66 days, with wide variation, and missing the occasional day did not seriously impair it.
- It does not replace set-apart time. Lawrence still prayed at the appointed hours.
Who Brother Lawrence was, in four lines (and where his words come from)
Brother Lawrence was born in 1611 and died on 12 February 1691. He spent time as a soldier, then entered the Discalced Carmelite priory in Paris. Being uneducated, he entered as a layman, and he worked in the kitchens and as a cobbler there for the rest of his life. We gave the same short biography in what it means to pray without ceasing; this post is about his method.
His words reach us in two forms. The first is four conversations written down by a visitor, de Beaufort, who first met him “upon the 3rd of August, 1666.” That is mostly reported speech. The second is Lawrence’s own letters. Every quote here comes from the public-domain 1895 English translation on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL), with the section named.
What he actually did: four moves across one task
Lawrence started from a fact: God is already here. Paul said God “is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:27–28, NIV). “Where can I go from your Spirit?” asks Psalm 139:7–10 (NIV). The presence comes first. The practice is noticing it.
He told de Beaufort “that it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times.” Then, in the Fourth Conversation, he described a working day in order. It comes down to four small moves around one task. The four-move framing is ours; every move is his.
1. Before: offer it. He prayed first, then went to the kitchen (“for he was cook to the society”) and looked over what the job needed. As he began, he said: “O my GOD, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy Presence.” His rule was “offering them to Him before we do them.” Compare “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23, NIV).
2. During: keep talking. “As he proceeded in his work, he continued his familiar conversation with his Maker.” Not long prayers. In his Seventh Letter he wrote that God “requires no great matters of us; a little remembrance of Him from time to time, a little adoration,” and that “the least little remembrance will always be acceptable to Him.”
3. When you wander: come back. His First Letter describes “keeping my mind in His holy Presence, and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him,” and doing it “without troubling or disquieting myself.” The return is the practice, not proof it failed.
4. After: give thanks. “Giving Him thanks when we have done.” When he finished, he looked back at the work. If it went well, he thanked God. If not, he asked pardon, “and without being discouraged, he set his mind right again.”
The psalmist puts the whole thing in one line: “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8, NIV).
His kitchen, your workday: the moves translated
Lawrence did not love his job. The Second Conversation records that he had “naturally a great aversion” to the kitchen, where he had worked for fifteen years. He was sent to Burgundy to buy wine, “a very unwelcome task for him, because he had no turn for business and because he was lame.” He told God “It was His business he was about.” Here is each move in a week with meetings, a commute and a phone.
| Move | His words | For him | For you | A line to use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before | “offering them to Him before we do them” (Fourth Conversation) | A kitchen he naturally disliked, for fifteen years | The task you dread: the report, the full inbox | “Lord, this one is Yours.” |
| During | “the least little remembrance will always be acceptable to Him” (Seventh Letter) | Buying wine in Burgundy, a job he was bad at | The errand you are bad at, the commute | “You are here in this too.” |
| When you wander | “recalling it as often as I found it wandered” (First Letter) | “the noise and clutter of my kitchen” (Fourth Conversation) | An open-plan office, or a loud family kitchen at 6pm | “Back to You.” |
| After | “giving Him thanks when we have done” (Fourth Conversation) | Looking back: thanks, or pardon | Closing the laptop, the last dish in the rack | “Thank You.” |
Keep the lines short. His Eighth Letter warns that “many words and long discourses” are often “the occasions of wandering.” And this is not a focus trick with God’s name added. His attention was on a Person who, he wrote, “is nearer to us than we are aware of.”
Where it led him, in de Beaufort’s record: “in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess GOD in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.” That is where he ended up. It is not where he began.
When your mind wanders (it did for him, for ten years)
Most summaries leave this out. De Beaufort records that “at the beginning he had often passed his time appointed for prayer, in rejecting wandering thoughts, and falling back into them.” In his Second Letter, Lawrence wrote: “for the first ten years I suffered much,” partly from fear that he was not as devoted as he wished. “During this time I fell often, and rose again presently.”
When a friend wrote about wandering thoughts, he replied: “you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering thoughts.” His advice: “If it sometimes wander, and withdraw itself from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that.” And he tied the workday to prayer time: it helps “not to let it wander too far at other times.”
A wandering mind is normal. A Harvard study reported in the Harvard Gazette used an iPhone app to check in with 2,250 volunteers at random moments. They spent 46.9 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they were doing. That was everyday activity, not prayer, so treat it as the background rate, not a verdict on you.
Habit research points the same way. In the British Journal of General Practice, Benjamin Gardner, Phillippa Lally and Jane Wardle summarise a study of people adding one daily health behaviour, like eating fruit. Automaticity levelled off “after an average of 66 days,” with considerable variation. “Missing the occasional opportunity to perform the behaviour did not seriously impair the habit formation process,” and it “peaked more quickly for simple actions.” That was health habits, not prayer. But a “little remembrance” is that simple, repeatable kind of act, and one missed return is not starting over. It is why grace works better than streaks.
Lawrence said where the falling and rising led: “by rising after my falls, and by frequently renewed acts of faith and love, I am come to a state, wherein it would be as difficult for me not to think of GOD, as it was at first to accustom myself to it.”
Maybe by ten o’clock God feels far away, and you wonder if this is only for saints. Lawrence felt that for years. He said to “feed and nourish our souls with high notions of GOD” before the work begins. BlessUp sets out the day’s Bible chapter and holds your place, and reading it is what opens the apps you chose to shield, so the workday starts with Scripture, not a feed. The app cannot make you feel close to God. Nearness grows slowly, a little each day, with grace. BlessUp is on the App Store
How this differs from a quiet time, silence or a breath prayer
This practice does not replace set-apart time. Lawrence still “retired to pray, according to the directions of his Superior.”
- A quiet time is the morning appointment; see how to have a quiet time with God. Lawrence’s practice is what you carry out of it.
- Silence and solitude step away from the noise; see silence and solitude in a noisy life. Lawrence’s practice happens inside it.
- A breath prayer is one short prayer repeated, from the Jesus Prayer tradition; see what a breath prayer is. Lawrence used no fixed formula: “Do not always scrupulously confine yourself to certain rules, or particular forms of devotion.”
Starting tomorrow: one task, one offering, one return
He told de Beaufort “we should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often failed in our endeavours.” So start small.
- Pick one task for tomorrow. A dull one is ideal; his was a kitchen.
- Offer it before you start, in one sentence. Borrow his prayer or use your own words.
- Return when you notice you drifted. One short line, no scolding.
- Look back when it is done. Thank Him, or ask pardon and set your mind right again.
- Repeat with the same task the next day. Add a second only when the first feels natural.
We are app builders, not pastors. For how this kind of prayer fits your tradition, ask your pastor. If you are looking for a church, our church finder lists churches by US city.
Frequently asked questions
What does it mean to practice the presence of God?
It means keeping up a simple, ongoing conversation with God during ordinary activity, not only at set prayer times. Brother Lawrence called it “an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with GOD.” In practice: offer a task to God before you start, speak to Him during it, bring your mind back when it wanders, and give thanks after.
Who was Brother Lawrence?
A lay brother of the Discalced Carmelite priory in Paris, born in 1611, who died on 12 February 1691. He had been a soldier, entered as a layman because he was uneducated, and worked in the kitchens and as a cobbler for the rest of his life.
How do you practice the presence of God at work?
Start with one task. Offer it to God in a sentence before you begin, speak to Him briefly while you work, come back without scolding yourself when your mind drifts, and thank Him when you finish. Lawrence said God asks for “a little remembrance of Him from time to time.”
What if my mind keeps wandering?
That is expected. Lawrence told a friend, “you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering thoughts,” and advised, “do not much disquiet yourself for that.” Bring your mind back calmly. One missed return is not starting over.
Was Brother Lawrence Catholic, and do Protestants read him?
Yes, he was Catholic. The preface to the 1895 English translation calls him “In communion with Rome, a lay brother among the Carmelites,” and links his practice to the later piety “of Epworth and of Moorfields.” That is the translator’s view of his influence. For how his practice fits your own tradition, ask your pastor.
Offer the next task before you start it. He kept at it for above forty years, one task at a time.
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