Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection was a seventeenth-century Carmelite lay brother who spent most of his religious life working in the monastery kitchen, washing pots and pans, preparing meals, doing unglamorous work that nobody noticed.
Yet he wrote one of the most influential spiritual classics in Christian history: The Practice of the Presence of God. His teaching is simple: You can find God just as powerfully in ordinary tasks as in formal prayer. He famously wrote: “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer.” And again: “I possess God in as great tranquility in the bustle of my kitchen as I do upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”
Brother Lawrence is the perfect guide for summer, a season that’s often more ordinary and relaxed than the structured rhythms of the rest of the year. If God can be found in a monastery kitchen, God can certainly be found in your summer days.
5 Daily Practices for Practicing Presence
1. Cooking with God
While preparing a meal — whether breakfast, lunch, or dinner — consciously invite God into the process.
- Begin by praying a simple prayer: “Lord, be with me as I chop these vegetables.” Or “God, I offer this meal preparation to You.”
- Then pay attention. Notice the textures as you slice tomatoes. Smell the garlic as you mince it. See the colours of the peppers, the greens, the herbs. Feel the warmth of the stove, the weight of the pan. You are not adding prayer to cooking. Cooking becomes the prayer. The attentiveness itself is worship.
- When the meal is ready, offer it silently to God before serving it: “This food, this moment, this act of nourishment, I offer it all to You.”
2. Commuting with God
Whether you drive, walk, or take public transit to work or when you’re running errands, try this for one week: No music. No podcasts. No phone scrolling. Just be present.
- Notice what you normally miss: the way light hits a building, the expression on someone’s face at the bus stop, the tree you’ve passed a thousand times but never really seen, the sky changing as weather shifts.
- Pray occasionally in this way: “God, You are here on this road with me.” But don’t feel you need to fill the silence with constant words. Just awareness… that you are not alone. God is your companion in this ordinary commute.
Brother Lawrence spent hours walking between the monastery kitchen and the chapel, the refectory and the storage rooms. He treated those ordinary walks as opportunities to practice presence. Your commute can be the same.
3. Cleaning with God
Choose one cleaning task today — washing dishes, sweeping floors, folding laundry, wiping counters — and transform it into contemplative practice. Brother Lawrence wrote: “I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God.” He didn’t resent the work or rush through it. He offered it as an act of love.
- As you wash a dish, fold a towel, or sweep the floor, repeat silently: “For love of You, Lord.” Not constantly, not mechanically, but occasionally.
- Notice how the task changes when you’re not rushing through it to get to something “better.” Notice how presence transforms drudgery into devotion. You’re not making the work holy by adding religious words. The work is already holy because God is present in it.
4. Gardening or Walking with God
If you have access to a garden, spend some time with your hands in the soil. If not, take a walk in your neighbourhood or a park.
- In the garden: Feel the earth, notice the plants growing, pull weeds mindfully, water with attention. You’re not trying to accomplish anything impressive. You’re simply being present to life — the life in the soil, the life in the plants, the Life that sustains everything.
- On a walk: Move at a pace that allows you to actually see what you’re passing. Resist the urge to make it exercise or productivity. This walk is simply about being present to the world as it is, with God who is present in all of it. No words necessary. Just attentiveness. Just companionship with the God who walks with you.
5. Working with God
Whether you work at a desk, in meetings, on a computer, with your hands, or with people, practice brief moments of awareness throughout your workday.
- Before you start a task, pray: “God, help me do this well.” When you’re frustrated, pray: “Lord, give me patience.” When something goes right, pray: “Lord, thank You.”
- Don’t aim for constant prayer in words. Aim for underlying awareness that He is there with you. Even when you are focused on a spreadsheet, a conversation, a problem, He hasn’t left.
Brother Lawrence didn’t pray elaborate prayers while cooking. He simply maintained an awareness that God was present with him in the work. The work itself became prayer. Your spreadsheet, your Zoom call, your client meeting, your phone conversation — these can all be prayer if you bring conscious awareness that you’re not doing them alone. God is present in your work, as an intimate companion.
The Practice Is Simple But Not Easy
Brother Lawrence didn’t promise this would be easy. In fact, he wrote honestly about how his mind wandered constantly at first. He would forget God for hours at a time. Then he’d remember and gently turn his attention back. Over years, the practice became more natural. His awareness of God’s presence became more constant because he practiced. Daily. Patiently.
That’s the invitation for your summer: Practice presence. Not perfectly. Not constantly. Just repeatedly. Choose one or two of these practices. Try them for a week. Notice what shifts. Then try another week.
You are not adding religion to your summer. You are waking up to what’s already true — that God is here. In the cooking and commuting, the cleaning and gardening, the working and walking. Present. Waiting to be noticed.
Brother Lawrence discovered this in a seventeenth-century monastery kitchen. You can discover it in your twenty-first-century ordinary life.