little things

"We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, for He regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed..." ~Brother Lawrence

favorite

"I think it is proper that I tell you what manner I imagine myself before God, whom I behold as King.

I imagine myself as the most wretched of all, full of sores and sins, and one who has committed all sorts of crimes against his King. Felling a deep sorrow, I confess to Him all of my sins, I ask His forgiveness, and I abandon myself into His hands so that He may do with me what He pleases.

This King, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastening me, embraces me with love, invites me to feast at His table, serves me with His own hands, and gives me the key to His treasures. He converses with me, and takes delight in me, and treats me as if I were His favorite. This is how I imagine myself from time to time in His holy presence.

My most useful method is this simple attention, done with a passionate regard toward God to whom I find myself often attached with greater sweetness and delight than that of an infant at it's mother's breast. So much so that--if I dare use this expression--I choose to call this state the bosom of God because of the inexpressible sweetness which I taste and experience there.

If sometimes my thoughts wander from God because of necessity, I am recalled back to God soon after by inward sensations so charming and delicious that I am afraid to speak of them. I desire you to see and know my great wretchedness rather than the great favors which God does for me, unworthy and ungrateful as I am."

~From Practicing The Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

my all for God's all

"I have found in many books many different ways of going to God and many different practices in living the spiritual life. I began to see that this was only confusing me, as the only thing I was seeking was to become wholly God's.

Thus, I resolved to give my all for God's all. After having given myself wholly to God that He might take away my sin, I renounced, for the love of God, everything that was not God, and I began to live as if there was none but God and I in the world.

Sometimes I imagined myself standing before Him as a poor criminal at the feet of the judge. At other times, I beheld Him in my heart as my Father and as my God. I worshiped Him as often as I could, keeping my mind in His holy presence and recalling it back to God as often as I found it had wandered from Him."

~From Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence