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Coming soon on turning to the mystics.

In this next season, we'll be turning to the teachings of Brother Lawrence of the resurrection.

And Brother Lawrence lived as a lay brother in the Discal's Carmelite Orator in the 17th century in France.

And his book, The Practice of the Presidents,

is one of the great classical works

in the Christian mystical lineage.

So for years in the monastery, he was the cook.

And so he saw the presence of God in the pots and pans of the kitchen.

So it wasn't as if there's prayer,

and then you go do the work in the kitchen. There is the prayer, then there's the prayerful nature

of work in the kitchen, including, if you don't like it, including the divinity of not liking it.

Because we're human beings, we're human beings, and the desire shines in our humanity. So I find these

teachings so beautifully accessible. So I would like to just touch here on what's so touching

to me about his teaching, what I think is the essence, because he invites us to be aware

of moments in our life where we've been graced with the sense of God's presence in our life.

In solitude or silence or intimacy or service to the community or creativity or whatever.

And then when that moment of oneness dissipated, it left within us the desire to abide in the presence of God

and to deepen that.

The insight of Brother Lawrence is that desire

to abide more deeply in the presence of God.

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