Practice of the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence)

Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines · Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (Nicolas Herman) · Paris

What it is

A Catholic (Discalced Carmelite) way of prayer in which a person tries to keep a continual, loving awareness of God during every activity, not only at set prayer times. Brother Lawrence (born Nicolas Herman in Lorraine, 1614; died 12 February 1691) was a former soldier who entered the Discalced…

Format

• The tradition gives no fixed stages, session counts or durations; Brother Lawrence explicitly preferred a simple practice over many methods and forms (Seventh Letter: do not bind oneself rigidly to particular rules or forms of devotion). What the texts do describe is a developmental arc in his own…
• Assessment and consent. Take a spiritual history as routine (Vieten et al. 2013, competency 12); ask whether and how the client wants faith included; agree that the therapist supports the client's practice but does not direct it. Format: within ordinary individual sessions; no session count is…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Clinical framing. For the psychotherapist this is a religious practice that belongs to the client, not a therapy. It is used only when a Christian client asks to draw on it, inside spiritually integrated psychotherapy, with consent, in the client's own language and tradition. No published clinical protocol built specifically on Brother Lawrence's practice is described in the sources consulted; the clinician's…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Long, unstructured silence in clients with trauma, dissociation or psychosis risk (see B6, B7). Working: prayer feels less like performance.
• Over-functioning or self-neglect justified as service; guilt for 'not loving enough'. Working: increased engagement, sense of purpose, less resentment.
• Disordered eating, sleep restriction or self-harm framed as penance; scrupulosity. Working: decisions taken freely, with guidance, without health risk.
• Pathologising normal religious experience on one side; missing a treatable depression, psychosis or suicidal crisis on the other. Working: a shared understanding that holds both frames.
• Rumination, repeated reviewing, need for certainty of forgiveness, increased confession frequency (scrupulosity signs per IOCDF; see B5). Working: shorter, calmer reviews and less shame.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.