Book Club Questions for The Practice of the Presence of God

1.The editor tells us that Brother Lawrence's birth records were destroyed in a war he himself fought in, and that the war left him crippled and in chronic pain for the rest of his life. What does it tell you about God's ways that the man who would teach the world about joyful, continuous communion with God spent his entire adult life in physical suffering?

2.Brother Lawrence entered the monastery expecting to be punished for his clumsiness and faults — to 'sacrifice his life with its pleasures to God.' Instead, the editor notes, 'God surprised him because he met with nothing but satisfaction.' Have you ever approached God bracing for judgment and been surprised by grace instead? What happened?

3.The editor describes Brother Lawrence as a man who 'shunned attention and the limelight, knowing that outside distraction spoils all.' It was only after his death that his letters were collected and published.

1.In the First Conversation, Brother Lawrence describes his conversion at eighteen: seeing a bare winter tree and receiving 'a high view of the Providence and Power of God which has never since been effaced from his soul.' He could not tell whether his love for God had increased in the forty years since.

2.In the Second Conversation, Brother Lawrence describes four years of torment in which he feared he was damned, and no one could persuade him otherwise. His resolution was striking: 'Whatever becomes of me, whether I be lost or saved, I will always continue to act purely for the love of God.' After that, he lived in 'perfect liberty and continual joy.' What does this tell us about the relationship between love for God and anxiety about our own spiritual standing?

3.Brother Lawrence makes a sharp distinction in the Second Conversation between 'acts of the intellect' and 'acts of the will,' saying the first are 'comparatively of little value' while the second — loving and delighting in God — are 'all important.' He also said that 'all possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin.' How does this challenge common assumptions about spiritual discipline and growth?

1.In the First Letter, Brother Lawrence writes that reading many books about the spiritual life made him feel 'puzzled' rather than helped. He resolved instead to 'give the all for the All' — to give himself wholly to God and renounce everything that was not God. What do you make of that phrase, 'give the all for the All'? What would it cost you, concretely, to make that resolution?

2.Brother Lawrence describes his early practice in the First Letter: 'I made this my business, not only at the appointed times of prayer but all the time; every hour, every minute, even in the height of my work, I drove from my mind everything that interrupted my thoughts of God.' He adds: 'I found no small pain in this exercise.' What does the admission of 'no small pain' tell us about the nature of spiritual formation? Does it change your expectations of what practicing God's presence will feel like at first?

3.In the Second Letter, Brother Lawrence describes his first ten years as a time of suffering, doubt, and spiritual instability — feeling that 'all creatures, reason, and God Himself were against me and faith alone for me.' Then, 'all at once,' he found himself changed: 'My soul, which, until that time was in trouble, felt a profound inward peace, as if she were in her center and place of rest.'

1.In the Fifth Letter, Brother Lawrence makes a bold claim: 'It seems to me that whoever duly practices [the presence of God] will soon become devout.' He also says the heart must be 'empty of all other things' because 'God will possess the heart alone.' Do you find this condition — emptying the heart of everything that is not God — appealing, frightening, or both? What are you most reluctant to let go of?

2.Also in the Fifth Letter, Brother Lawrence writes: 'Were I a preacher, I would above all other things preach the practice of the presence of God. Were I a director, I would advise all the world to do it, so necessary do I think it, and so easy too.' He then adds: 'Ah! knew we but the want we have of the grace and assistance of God, we would never lose sight of Him, not for a moment.' What does it mean to truly know your need for God — not as a theological idea but as a felt reality? What would it take for you to feel that need more consistently?

3.In the Sixth Letter, Brother Lawrence writes: 'We must serve God in a holy freedom. We must work faithfully without trouble or disquiet, recalling our mind to God mildly and with tranquillity as often as we find it wandering from Him.' He is careful to say we must not put 'violent constraint upon ourselves.' How does this balance of discipline and gentleness challenge the way you typically respond when you realize your mind has wandered from God?

1.In the Ninth Letter, Brother Lawrence asks himself and his friend a searching question: 'You and I have lived over forty years in the monastic life. Have we employed them in loving and serving God?' He adds that he is 'sometimes filled with shame and confusion' when he considers God's great favors to him alongside 'my small advancement in the way of perfection.' How do you sit with that kind of honest self-assessment — not despair, but clear-eyed humility? Is there a difference between shame that crushes and shame that purifies?

2.In the Ninth Letter, Brother Lawrence writes: 'We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him. And when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.' This is a virtuous circle — knowledge deepens love, and love deepens attention. Where are you in that circle right now? Do you find that thinking of God leads you to love Him more, or does the love come first and draw your thoughts?

3.In the Tenth Letter, Brother Lawrence advises a friend who has lost a close companion: 'We ought to love our friends, but without encroaching upon the love of God, which must always be first.' He suggests the friend may have been 'too attached' to the one he lost, and that God can give 'another friend more powerful and more inclined to serve him.' How do we hold human love and friendship rightly — deeply and genuinely — without letting it become a substitute for God?

1.In the Thirteenth Letter, Brother Lawrence tells his suffering friend to stop pursuing human remedies and 'resign yourself entirely to the providence of God,' believing that 'perhaps He waits only for that resignation and perfect faith in Him to cure you.' He also says not to ask God for deliverance from pain, but rather 'for the strength to resolutely bear all that He pleases.' This is demanding counsel. What does it assume about the character of God, and about the purpose of suffering, that makes this counsel not cruel but compassionate?

2.In the Thirteenth Letter, Brother Lawrence offers what may be the simplest and most profound statement about love in the entire book: 'Love sweetens pains. And when one loves God, one suffers for His sake with joy and courage.' Have you ever experienced something difficult becoming bearable — or even sweet — because of who you were enduring it with or for? What does that experience teach you about what Brother Lawrence is describing?

3.In the Fourteenth Letter, Brother Lawrence writes: 'How sweet it is to suffer with God! However great your sufferings may be, receive them with love. It is paradise to suffer and be with Him.' He then connects this to the practice of the presence: 'If, in this life, we might enjoy the peace of paradise, we must accustom ourselves to a familiar, humble, and affectionate conversation with God.' How does this connect the practice of God's presence in ordinary moments to the endurance of extraordinary suffering? Are they the same skill, developed in different circumstances?

1.Looking back across the entire book — the Conversations and all fifteen Letters — which single passage, image, or idea has stayed with you most powerfully? What is it about that particular moment in the text that lodged itself in you?

2.Brother Lawrence's central claim is that the practice of God's presence is available to anyone, anywhere, in any circumstance — 'not from the head but from the heart.' Has your understanding of what that means changed over the course of this study? If so, how?

3.At the beginning of this study, what did you think 'practicing the presence of God' meant? What do you think it means now? Has the gap between your prayer life and your everyday life narrowed at all — even slightly — over these weeks?