That at the beginning he had often passed his time appointed for prayer, in rejecting wandering thoughts and falling back into them. That he could never regulate his devotion by certain methods, as some do. That, nevertheless, at first he had meditated for some time, but afterwards that went off, in a manner he could give no account of.

That all bodily mortifications and other exercises are useless, but as they serve to arrive at the union with God by love: that he had well considered this, and found it the shortest way, to go straight to Him by a continual practice of love, and doing all things for His sake.

That we ought to make a great difference between the acts of the understanding and those of the will; that the first were comparatively of little value, and the others all. That our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God.

That all possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. That we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the Blood of Jesus Christ, labouring simply to love Him with all our hearts. That God seemed to have granted the greatest favours to the greatest sinners, as more signal monuments of His mercy.

That the greatest pains or pleasures of this world were not to be compared with what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual state: so that he was careful for nothing, and feared nothing, desiring but one thing only of God, viz., that he might not offend Him.

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. (1906). The practice of the presence of God. (Page 15) London: H. R. Allenson.

On this day...

• John 12 - 2023
• Esther 10 - 2023
• For we believe in our hearts, and utter forth with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord - 2015
• God gave you a mouth, and He meant for you to use it to express some of the wonders that generate inside your being - 2015
• Where does Christianity destroy itself in a given generation? - 2015
• Calvin on Predestination: A Balanced Appeal - 2011
• John Calvin's Last Will and Testament - 2011
• Biography of John Calvin - 2011
• Pleasing the Lord - 2011
• The Basics of Eternal Salvation Through Jesus Christ - 2011