The Habitual Sense of God's Presence

How the habitual sense of God's Presence was found

SINCE you desire so earnestly that I should communicate to you the method by which I
arrived at that habitual sense of GOD's Presence, which our LORD, of His mercy, has
been pleased to vouchsafe to me; I must tell you, that it is with great difficulty that I am
prevailed on by your importunities; and now I do it only upon the terms, that you show
my letter to nobody. If I knew that you would let it be seen, all the desire that I have for
your advancement would not be able to determine me to it. The account I can give you
is:
Having found in many books different methods of going to GOD, and divers practices
of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me, than facilitate what I
sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly GOD's.
This made me resolve to give the all for the All: so after having given myself wholly to
GOD, to make all the satisfaction I could for my sins, I renounced, for the love of Him,
everything that was not He; and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the
world. Sometimes I considered myself before Him as a poor criminal at the feet of his
judge; at other times I beheld Him in my heart as my FATHER, as my GOD: I
worshipped Him the oftenest that I could, keeping my mind in His holy Presence, and
recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him. I found no small pain in this
exercise, and yet I continued it, notwithstanding all the difficulties that occurred,
without troubling or disquieting myself when my mind had wandered involuntarily. I
made this my business, as much all the day long as at the appointed times of prayer; for
at all times, every hour, every minute, even in the height of my business, I drove away
from my mind everything that was capable of interrupting my thought of GOD.
Such has been my common practice ever since I entered into religion; and though I have
done it very imperfectly, yet I have found great advantages by it. These, I well know,
are to be imputed to the mere mercy and goodness of GOD, because we can do nothing
without Him; and I still less than any. But when we are faithful to keep ourselves in His
holy Presence, and set Him always before us, this not only hinders our offending Him,
and doing anything that may displease Him, at least willfully, but it also begets in us a
holy freedom, and if I may so speak, a familiarity with GOD, wherewith we ask, and
that successfully, the graces we stand in need of. In fine, by often repeating these acts,
they become habitual, and the presence of GOD is rendered as it were natural to us.
Give Him thanks, if you please, with me, for His great goodness towards me, which I
can never sufficiently admire, for the many favors He has done to so miserable a sinner
as I am. May all things praise Him. Amen.

**from Brother Lawrence; The Practice of The Presence of God; First Letter