Brother Lawrence: Session 1

Turning to the Mystics with James Finley

Center for Action and Contemplation

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the first session which focuses on Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. In the tenor of the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, James Finley reads passages from Carmen Acevedo Butcher's translation of Brother Lawrence's Practice of the Presence, reflects on core themes, and finishes with a meditative practice. Resources: Turning to the Mystics is a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. To learn more about James Finley, visit his faculty profile ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. The transcript for this episode can be found here. The book we will be using this season can be⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠found here⁠⁠. Connect with us: Have a question you'd like Jim or Kirsten to answer about this season? Email us: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠ Send us a voicemail: ⁠⁠cac.org/voicemail⁠⁠ We'll be accepting questions for our Listener Questions episode until November 7, 2025. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at ⁠⁠https://cac.org/support-cac/podcasts/⁠⁠ Thank you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation.
0:04.0	To learn more, visit cac.org.
0:09.6	Greetings. I'm Jim Finley.
0:13.1	Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.
0:39.7	Greetings, everyone, and welcome to our time together, turning for trustworthy guidance found in the teachings of the Christian mystic brother Lawrence in his treasured book practicing the presence of God. Carmen Acevedo Butcher translates this classic work and titles it, Practice of the Presence. And in these reflections,
0:47.0	I'll be using her translation and also being very much helped by her in-depth insights into the work.
0:55.7	So with that then, I want to begin at the very beginning of the book, which are the maxims,
1:01.3	the same.
1:02.5	These weren't found until later.
1:04.4	So in the older translations, the one I had at the monastery, it didn't include the maxims.
1:09.9	So this is more of a complete version of the work. And I want to start with include the maxims so this is more of a complete
1:10.9	version of the work and I want to start with the spiritual maxims and I'm
1:15.0	going to start with the very first one which is everything is possible and this is
1:20.0	on page 46 I'll read the passage and then comment on it, reflect upon it.
1:29.0	Everything is possible for those who believe, even more for those who hope, still more
1:37.0	for those who love, and most of all, for all those who practice and persevere in these three
1:43.6	powerful paths.
1:45.6	I'd like to reflect on this.
1:47.6	And I'd like to observe something about Brother Lawrence and how he teaches.
1:52.7	As we look at the other mystics that we've been exploring together in this series,
1:57.9	say, for example, disgals Carmelite, Lay Brother,
2:01.5	and so Discards Carmelite
	...

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