This enduring classic of devotion consists of the letters and recorded conversations of a simple seventeenth-century lay brother who, through the most ordinary of activities, was able to achieve a profound intimacy with God. At any moment and in any circumstance, he taught, we can ‘practice the presence of God’ – by thinking on Him, loving Him, and offering up our daily tasks as acts of worship. This volume also includes Brother Lawrence’s Spiritual Maxims, a summary of his teachings in the form of short aphorisms and sayings.

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (c1611-1691) born Nicholas Herman, spent most of his life serving as a kitchen hand and errand boy at the Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Paris.