Brother Lawrence Ten Tips

Developing a Holy Habit: Ten Tips from Brother Lawrence





Renounce all besides


Thoughts as prayers


Talking to your Friend


Watch yourself


Return, and return again


Don’t be discouraged


Please, Thank You, I’m sorry


Holy pause; holy inactivity


It’s the little things


Don’t Give Up




Renounce all besides...



“I took a resolution to give myself up to God, as the best return I could make for His love, and, for the love of Him, to renounce all besides.”


“I know that for the right practice of it the heart must be empty of all other things, because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.”


“He told me that all consists in one hearty renunciation of everything which we are sensible does not lead to God.”


“Let us renounce, let us generously renounce, for the love of Him, all that is not Himself.”


Thoughts and prayers



“Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is, to think often on God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions.”


“How can we pray to Him without being with Him? How can we be with Him but in thinking of Him often? And how can we often think of Him but by a holy habit?”


“Let us think of Him perpetually.”


“Let it be your business to keep you mind in the presence of the Lord.”


“Thus I continued some years, applying my mind carefully the rest of the day, and even in the midst of my business, to the presence of God, whom I considered always as with me, often as in me.”


“That useless thoughts spoil all; that the mischief began there”


Talking to your Friend



“That in order to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him, we must at first apply to Him with some diligence.”


“That we ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking to Him frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as the happen.”


“...an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God.”


“He is always near you and with you; leave him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you; why, then, must God be neglected?”


Watch Yourself



“That to arrive at such resignation as God requires, we should watch attentively over all the passions which mingle as well in spiritual things as in those of a grosser nature…”


“...I drove away from my mind everything that was capable of interrupting my thoughts of God.”


“My most useful method is this simple attention, and such a general fond regard to God…”


“Hold yourself in prayer before God like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man’s gate.”


“I say again, let us enter into ourselves.”


Return, and return again



“...but that we ought to reject them [useless thoughts] as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter in hand, or our salvation, and return to our communion with God.”


“When outward business diverted him a little from the thought of God, a fresh remembrance coming from God invested his soul…”


“...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.”


“If sometimes my thoughts wander from it by necessity or infirmity, I am presently recalled by inward motions…”


“...the least little remembrance will always be acceptable to him.”


“Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is mistress of all our faculties, she must recall them, and carry them to God as their last end.”


Don’t Be Discouraged



“If it [your mind] sometimes wanders and withdraws itself from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that: trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the mind than to recollect it.”


“...let us return to that Father of mercies, who is always ready to receive us affectionately.”


“That he was very sensible of his faults, but not discouraged by them; that he confessed them to God, but did not plead against Him to excuse them. When he had so done, he peaceably resumed his usual practice of love and adoration.”


“That in difficulties we need only have recourse to Jesus Christ, and beg His grace; with that everything became easy.”


Please, Thank You, I’m Sorry



Before you begin a task, or whenever you run into trouble, ask God for help


“That when an occasion of practising some virtue offered, he addressed himself to God, saying, Lord, I cannot do this unless Thou enablest me; and that then he received strength more than sufficient.”


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; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.


“As he proceeded din his work he continued his familiar conversation with his Maker, imploring His grace, and offering to Him all his actions.”


If things go well, say Thank you; if not well, ask pardon or help.


“When he had finished he examined himself how he had discharged his duty; if he found well, he returned thanks to God; if otherwise, he asked pardon, and, without being discouraged, he set his mind right again, and continued his exercise of the presence of God, as if he had never deviated from it.”


The Holy Pause; A Holy Inactivity



Stop for a minute during your work to lift your heart to God…


“During our work and other activities, during our spiritual reading or study, yes, even in our set devotions and vocal prayer, we ought to stop for a moment, as often as we can, in order to worship God in our hearts to touch Him as it were by stealth as He passes. Since you know that God is with you in all your actions, that He is at the very depth and center of your soul, why not then pause an instant in your external occupations, and even in your prayers, to worship Him inwardly, to praise Him, to petition Him, to offer Him your heart and to thank Him?”


Sometimes prayer is just being still with God


“I know that some charge this state with inactivity, delusion, and self-love. I confess that it is a holy inactivity, and would be a happy self-love if the soul in that state were capable of it, because, in effect, while she is in this repose, she cannot be disturbed by such acts as she was formerly accustomed to...I cannot bear that this should be called delusion, because the soul which thus enjoys God desires herein nothing but Him.”


It’s the Little Things



“...he was always pleasing himself in every condition by doing little things for the love of God…”


“That the most excellent method he had found of going to God was that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing men, and (as far as we are capable) purely for the love of God.”


“That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”


“That he was pleased when he could take up a straw from the ground for the love of God, seeking Him only, and nothing else, not even His gifts.”


Take Heart, Don’t Give Up



“That there needed fidelity in those drynesses or insensibilities and irksomenesses in prayer by which God tries our love to Him…”


“Knock, persevere in knocking, and I answer for it that He will open to you in His due time, and grant you all at once what He has deferred during many years.”


“She seems to me full of good ill, but she would go faster than grace. One does not become holy all at once.”


“If you persevere in this manner, God will have pity on you.”


“...by oft repeating these acts, they become habitual, and the presence of God rendered as it were natural to us.”


“That we should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often failed in our endeavors, but that at last we should gain a habit…”