LOVE EMBRACING THE BELOVED


  “In Thy Presence is fullness of joy,
      The simplicity that is Christ.”
 [The following is a portion of a complete article on the "Means for Attaining the Practice of the Presence of God". This entire article can be downloaded from the free eLibrary link on this websites homepage]

This article contains the Spiritual Maxims of one Nicholas Herman of Lorraine, a lowly born and unlearned man; who, after having been a soldier and a footman, was admitted a lay brother among the Carmelites Deschausses (bare-footed) at Paris in 1666, where he served in the kitchen of the community. He was afterwards known by the name of Brother Lawrence. He died in February 1691, at the advanced age of eighty, after a life the true saintliness of which can be well realised from his words of guidance.

Brother Lawrence, an earnest seeker of God, had a transforming experience at the age of 18. He was a changed person since then and till the last day of his life he was in commune with God to whom he surrendered himself entirely. His experience, and thus his guidance has a special significance as the theme is universal, and so is the endeavor to practice the Presence of God. The practice or sadhana explained herein is referred to thus in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali; (I-23): “Isvarapranidhanadva” (surrender to the Will of God).

God is the essence and the apex of Consciousness, so Patanjali further says: “In Him is the highest limit of omniscience.” (Yoga Sutras 1:25) In seeking constant abidance with this highest limit of omniscience, Brother Lawrence eventually abandoned all previously set devotions except those prescribed to his station within the Carmelite Society. Often he said: “All that he had heard others say, all that he had found in books, all that he had himself written, seemed savorless, dull and heavy, when compared with what faith had unfolded to him of the unspeakable riches of God and of Jesus Christ. He alone can reveal Himself to us; we toil and exercise our mind in reason and in science, forgetting that therein we can see only a copy, whilst we neglect to gaze on the Incomparable Original. In the depths of our soul, God reveals Himself, could we but realize it, yet we will not look there for Him. We leave Him to spend our time in fooleries, and affect disdain at commune with Him, Who is ever present, Who is our King.”

“We search for stated ways and methods of learning how to love God, and to come to that love we disquiet our minds by I know not how many devices; we give ourselves a world of trouble and pursue a multitude of practices to attain to a sense of the Presence of God. And yet it is so simple. How very much shorter it is and easier to do our common business purely for the love of God, to set His consecrating mark on all we lay our hands to, and thereby to foster the sense of His abiding Presence by communion of our heart with His! There is no need either of art or science; just as we are, we can go to Him, simply and with a single heart.”

“That useless thoughts spoil all: that the mischief began there; but that we ought to be diligent to reject them as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter at hand, or to our salvation; and return to our communion with God. When we are busied, as well as while meditating on spiritual things, even in our time of set devotion, whilst our voice is rising in prayer, we ought to cease for one brief moment, as often as we can, to worship God in the depths of our being, to taste Him though it be in passing, to touch Him though as it were by stealth. Since you cannot but know that God is with you in all you undertake, that He is at the very depth and center of your soul, why should you not thus pause an instant from time to time in your outward business, and even in the act of prayer, to worship Him with your soul, to praise Him, to entreat His aid, to offer Him the service of your heart, and give Him thanks for all His loving-kindness and tender-mercies?”

Brother Lawrence emphasizes that necessity is laid upon us to examine ourselves with diligence and to find out what are the virtues, which we chiefly lack, and which are the hardest for us to acquire. We should seek to learn the failures in virtue that most easily beset us, and the times and occasions, and through which associations we do most often fall. For the world, and association within it, is fraught with danger. So much so that reliance upon God’s grace is paramount.
 
“A soul is more dependant on grace, the higher the perfection to which it aspires; and the grace of God is the more needful for each moment, as without it the soul can do nothing. The world, the flesh and the association with evil join forces and assault the soul so straitly and so untiringly that, without humble reliance on the ever-present aid of God, they drag the soul down in spite of all resistance. Thus to rely seems hard to nature, but grace makes it become easy, and brings with it joy.” 

Just prior to the final moment when this lover of the Beloved passed away in the embrace of His Lord, a brother asked him if he was at ease and what his mind was busied with? He said: “I am doing what I shall do, through all eternity – blessing God, praising God, adoring God, giving him the love of my whole heart. It is our one business, my brethren, to worship Him and love Him, without thought of anything else.”

The brethren then begged him to entreat of God for them to possess the true spirit of prayer. Brother Lawrence, without pain or struggle, without losing in the slightest the use of any of his faculties, in perfect peace and calm replied:

“There was need of labor on his part also to make himself worthy of such a gift.”

These were his last words.



Posted by Swami Sadasivananda at 10/26/2009 7:27 PM
Categories: CHRISTIANITY - SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

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