Day 8: God Is Near in Our Suffering
Catholic Classics
Ascension
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Christian life is not about escaping suffering but discovering God within it. Fr. Gregory and Rebecca reflect on the powerful reality that God is near to us even in our sufferings. They encourage us to continue trusting God through illness, distraction, and uncertainty while learning to desire Him above every consolation. Today, we read Part 2: Tenth Letter, Eleventh Letter, and Twelfth Letter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Father Gregory Pine. And I'm Rebecca Dockertie. And you're listening to the Catholic Classics podcast, where we seek to grow our interior lives by learning from the church's greatest saints and teachers. Each season will read through a great work, explain its spiritual principles, and help you to apply its timeless wisdom to your life. The Catholic Classics podcast is brought to you by Ascension. This season we are reading |
| 0:20.9 | Ascension's exclusive translation of the practice of the presence of God by Brother Lawrence. This is |
| 0:26.2 | day eight. Today we will be reading part two, 10th letter, 11th letter, and 12th letter. A few |
| 0:31.8 | reminders before we get started. The best place to listen to this season is on the Ascension app. On the app, |
| 0:37.3 | you'll find reflection questions, full transcripts, and video episodes for each day. |
| 0:41.3 | It's still completely free to listen on the Ascension app. |
| 0:44.3 | All you need to do is download the app and create an account. |
| 0:47.3 | You can download the Ascension app on your smartphone or tablet by searching Ascension in the App Store, |
| 0:52.3 | or you can listen on your computer by visiting app.assensionpress.com. Before we get into the reading, a quick look at what we're covering today. So we've got the 10th letter, the 11th letter, and the 13th letter. Not just kidding, it's the 12th. So that's all from part two, which are the letters of Brother Lawrence. Now, theme-wise, we're going |
| 1:11.9 | to revisit the practice of the presence of God. As you've noticed in your reading, he talks about it |
| 1:16.1 | at every turn or at every possible opportunity. So we want to reaffirm what we introduced in |
| 1:21.7 | episode three so that we can make sure to get the real heart of the matter right. Let's get |
| 1:26.3 | started. |
| 1:28.8 | Tenth letter. |
| 1:34.7 | Madam, I found it quite difficult to convince myself to write to Monsieur de N. |
| 1:38.6 | I do so only because you and Madame de N wish me to. |
| 1:43.0 | Therefore, please take the trouble to place his address on it and have it delivered. |
| 1:45.5 | I am very pleased with how you place your trust in God. I hope that he may continually increase it in you. We can never place too much |
| 1:51.5 | trust in so good and so faithful a friend who will never fail us, neither in this world nor in the next. |
| 1:58.3 | If Monsieur de N knows how to profit from the loss he has suffered and places all |
| 2:02.2 | his trust in God, he will soon give him another friend, more powerful and with better intentions. |
| 2:08.6 | He disposes of hearts as he wills. Perhaps he was too attached with too much natural affection |
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