The Practice of the Presence of God for Children

Edit

$9.95

ebook $7.95

Robin Khoury has retold the Christian Classic, The Practice of the Presence of God for children in the book from Little Light Press, The Grumpy Monk.

About the Grumpy Monk Story

Brother Lawrence was a lay monk who lived in France in the early 1600’s.The lay monks did all of the hard work of the monastery. Brother Lawrence was older when he became a monk, and suffered constant pain from a war wound which had left him partially lame. He was assigned to work in the kitchen, which he hated.

Brother Lawrence was totally miserable.  He was convinced that God was punishing him for all of his past sins by making him work in the kitchen. Then one night in his prayer time he broke down,  accepted his lot, and reconciled himself to God’s will.  From this time forward he consciously tried to walk before God in faith with humility and love. Brother Lawrence determined to live his entire life as an expression of his relationship with God. Brother Lawrence began to do everything out of love for God instead of duty. He focused his attention on God moment by moment.

Brother Lawrence said,” The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

The monks who lived with Brother Lawrence noticed the difference in him, and the word began to spread. People from surrounding villages came to visit with Brother Lawrence about his secret, which he called the Practice of the Presence of God. One of those people was the Abbott of Beaufort, who kept notes on four conversations and fifteen letters he and Brother Lawrence exchanged. After Brother Lawrence died, the Abbott published these notes under the title: The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

Now children can become familiar with this noble Christian and his realization that God is just as near us in good circumstances as in bad, and that it is not so much what happens to us as how we respond.