Sabina Holtby - The Practice of the Presence of God

I think hearing the stories of others is one of the most powerful connectors on earth. I love to listen to bad music with good lyrics; I like music that tells a story that shows emotion. I like to relate to the lyricist. This is the same feeling I got when I read The Practice of the Presence of God. I felt as though the book was a intimate exchange between friends, which it is, it was never intended to be published the first line in the first letter of the book is as follows;
“Since you desire so earnestly that I should communicate to you the method by which I arrived at that habitual sense of God’s Presence, which our LORD, of His mercy, has been pleased to vouchsafe to me; I must tell you, that it is with great difficulty that I am prevailed on by your importunities; and now I do it only upon the terms, that you show my letter to nobody. If I knew that you would let it be seen, all the desire that I have for your advancement would not be able to determine me to it.”
This is so neat to me that we are able to see into this conversation and I think that it is funny that so many copies of this book have been sold.
The power of this short book is so wonderful, we see so closely into the life of the man who wrote them, he was a monk, Brother Lawrence, he would have had ample opportunity to cultivate a ‘habitual sense of God’s Presence’ we get to benefit from his experience. This is the most important function of the church, to support and grow from one another, to be a community, to create an environment in which it is safe to ask questions and to hear the deep stories of another traveler on the road of life, to listen to their pain and learn from it. This community has been lost and Brother Lawrence seeks to cultivate in his reader the idea of community with God. I love the feeling of two spirits dwelling together; nothing can rip me away from a person who has made themselves venerable to me. Their stories are gold, so this communion with another human being means to be hearing their heart, to be experiencing their life feeling what they feel, so communion with God must be the same thing, but according to Brother Lawrence:
"There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it." Brother Lawrence