Brother Lawrence was a 17th-century French monk who discovered that you can enjoy close, constant fellowship with God in the middle of ordinary work. Born Nicolas Herman around 1614, he was a former soldier and footman who spent decades cooking and repairing sandals in a Paris monastery. His simple conversations and letters became the beloved Christian classic The Practice of the Presence of God.
From Wounded Soldier to Humble Lay Brother
Nicolas Herman grew up poor in the Lorraine region of eastern France. Like many young men of his day, he joined the army during the Thirty Years’ War, largely because it promised regular meals and a small income. Soldiering was brutal work. He was captured at one point and nearly executed as a spy, and later suffered a leg wound that left him in pain for the rest of his life.
Somewhere in those hard years, around age eighteen, something quiet changed everything. One winter he noticed a tree stripped bare of its leaves. As he looked at it, he realized that in a few months God would bring new leaves, then flowers, then fruit. That simple picture gave him a deep sense of God’s power and faithful care, and he later said that impression never left him. It’s a beautiful reminder that God often meets us not in fireworks but in a moment of honest attention.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.
After leaving the army, Nicolas worked briefly as a footman for a wealthy household and admitted he was clumsy at the job. In his mid-twenties he entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Paris as a lay brother, someone who served the community through manual labor rather than as an ordained priest. There he took the name Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.
Finding God in the Monastery Kitchen
When we picture spiritual giants, we usually imagine powerful preachers or brilliant scholars. Brother Lawrence was neither. The monastery assigned him to the kitchen, a job he naturally disliked, and he worked there for about fifteen years. Later, as his old leg injury worsened, he moved to the quieter work of mending sandals.
Instead of treating chores as interruptions to his spiritual life, he made them the place where his spiritual life happened. He believed God cares less about the size of a task than about the love behind it. Flipping something in a frying pan, he said, could be done for the love of God just as much as any grand religious duty.
Colossians 3:23-24 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.
Paul wrote those words to ordinary workers, many of them servants with little control over their circumstances. Brother Lawrence lived them out in a hot, noisy kitchen. His example suggests that the question isn’t whether your work feels holy, but whether you’re doing it alongside the One you’re ultimately serving.
What Does “Practicing the Presence of God” Mean?
At the heart of Brother Lawrence’s life was a habit he called practicing the presence of God. Rather than splitting his day into “sacred” prayer times and “secular” work times, he carried on a simple, ongoing conversation with God all day long. He thanked God, asked for help, confessed his failures quickly, and then went right back to trusting Him.
This didn’t come easily. He openly described his first years in the monastery as a season of real anxiety, when he worried about his sins and wondered whether he was truly right with God. Peace came not through trying harder but through resting in God’s mercy and simply returning his attention to Him, again and again, like a muscle that grows stronger with use.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Visitors noticed his unusual calm and joy, and people began seeking him out for spiritual advice. After his death in 1691, a church leader named Joseph de Beaufort gathered notes from their conversations along with a handful of Brother Lawrence’s letters and published them. Though Brother Lawrence was a Roman Catholic, his little book has been treasured by Protestants and evangelicals for centuries because its core message is so plainly biblical.
Why Brother Lawrence Matters for You Today
Life moves fast. Between work deadlines, family needs, and constant notifications, it can feel like there’s no room left for God. Maybe you’ve assumed that growing spiritually means adding another big commitment to an already overloaded calendar.
Brother Lawrence offers a gentler path. Practices like Bible reading and prayer still matter, and you can learn more about them in What Are the Big “5” Spiritual Disciplines? But he shows that those set-apart moments can spill into the rest of your day. You can talk with God on your commute, thank Him while folding laundry, or ask for wisdom in the middle of a tense meeting.
Matthew 28:20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Jesus has already promised to be with His followers. Practicing His presence simply means paying attention to that promise. When you turn your thoughts toward Him in ordinary moments, the dishes, the spreadsheet, and the car ride all become places of worship.
The Takeaway
Who was Brother Lawrence? He was a wounded soldier turned monastery cook who learned to walk with God through every ordinary task. His life shows that intimacy with Jesus isn’t reserved for special places or spiritual experts. Anyone can practice God’s presence one everyday, loving conversation at a time.
