Pope Leo XIV introduces a new Vatican edition of Brother Lawrence’s classic, highlighting its profound impact on his spiritual life and its call to joyful, continual awareness of God.
Newsroom (19/12/2025 Gaudium Press )In a poignant introduction to a newly released Vatican edition of the 17th-century spiritual classic “The Practice of the Presence of God,” Pope Leo XIV has lauded the humble Carmelite friar Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection for teaching a path of joy rooted in constant awareness of God’s presence amid everyday life.
The book, authored by the French religious known simply as Brother Lawrence, has been reissued by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV). Pope Leo XIV reveals in his foreword that this modest volume, alongside the writings of Saint Augustine and other seminal texts, has profoundly shaped his own spiritual journey and understanding of how to know and love the Lord.
“This small book places at the center the experience—indeed, the practice—of the presence of God, as it was experienced and taught by the Carmelite friar Lawrence of the Resurrection, who lived in the seventeenth century,” the Pope writes.
He describes Brother Lawrence’s proposed path as both simple and arduous. It is simple, requiring only the continual remembrance of God through small acts of praise, prayer, supplication, and adoration in every action and thought, with God as the sole horizon, source, and end. Yet it is arduous, demanding purification, ascetic discipline, renunciation, and conversion of the innermost self—particularly the mind and thoughts, beyond mere external actions.
Drawing on Saint Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians to “have in you the same sentiments as Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5), Pope Leo emphasizes that conformity to God extends to sentiments and feelings. In this interior realm, believers encounter God’s loving and burning presence—transcendent yet intimately familiar to the heart. He echoes Saint Augustine: “the new man will sing the new song” (Sermons 34,1).
Brother Lawrence’s depiction of union with God as a personal relationship filled with encounters, conversations, concealments, surprises, trust, and total abandonment evokes the great mystics, notably Saint Teresa of Ávila, who spoke of a “God of the pots and pans.” However, the Pope notes, this path remains accessible to all due to its simplicity and integration into daily routines.
With characteristic humility and humor, Brother Lawrence recounts entering monastic life expecting harsh penance for past sins, only to discover unexpected joy—ironically noting that God “deceived” him with a life of delight rather than sacrifice.
As God’s presence becomes familiar and fills the inner space, Pope Leo explains, joy in His company grows, spiritual graces flourish, and even mundane tasks lighten. Brother Lawrence’s writings, born amid the violent upheavals of his era—no less turbulent than our own—offer inspiration for contemporary believers, demonstrating that no circumstance can sever union with God. Every action, occupation, or even mistake gains infinite value when lived in His presence and offered to Him.
Ultimately, the Pope asserts, all Christian ethics distills to this continual remembrance: God is here. This living awareness transcends moralism or reducing the Gospel to rules, fulfilling Jesus’ promise of the hundredfold in this life and granting a foretaste of Paradise through entrustment to God’s presence.
The introduction is dated Vatican City, 11 December 2025.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
Related Images:
