Week 5: Letters Nine through Twelve — Love, Fidelity, and the Gift of Suffering

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?