The Practice of the Presence of God

The narrator recounts his first meeting with Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence spoke of his conversion, at the age of 18, which was marked by an experience of seeing a barren tree and imagining its eventual fruitfulness; Lawrence interpreted this vision as a sign of God’s providence.

Although Lawrence was a clumsy youth and believed that God would punish him for this failing, he instead found that God made his “Christian walk” pleasant and comparatively free from suffering. Here, Beaufort builds up to the main idea of the First Conversation and the book as a whole: the most important thing in the Christian life is “to be constantly aware of God’s presence,” and to achieve this “it is necessary to form the habit of continually talking with Him throughout each day” (11).

This form of prayer should be based in faith rather than rote recitation. The faithful should be persistent even through “dry periods,” because these are God’s way of testing Christians and are, in fact, opportunities to grow in maturity. Further, being in communion with God is perfectly compatible with dealing with the problems and challenges of the world.

If Christians are truly devoted to doing God’s will, “pain and pleasure won’t make any difference to [them]” (11).