Brother Lawrence - Spiritual Maxims

"We must go about our labors quietly, calmly, and lovingly, entreating Him to prosper the works of our hands; by thus keeping heart and mind fixed on God, we shall bruise the head of the evil one, and beat down his weapons to the ground."

"In very truth we can render to God no greater or more signal proofs of our trust and faithfulness, than by thus turning from things created to find our joy, though for a single moment, in the creator."

"To worship God in truth is to acknowledge Him to be what He is, and ourselves as what in very fact we are.  To worship Him in truth is to acknowledge with heart-felt sincerity what God in truth is,  -that is to say, infinitely perfect, worthy of infinite adoration, infinitely removed from sin, and so of all the Divine attributes.  That man is little guided by reason, who does not employ all his powers to render to this great God the worship that is His due."

"The union of the soul with God (paraphrased) is intensely active; quicker than fire are its operations, more luminous than the sun, unobscured by any passing cloud.  Yet we can be deceived as to this union by our feelings; it is not a mere fleeting emotion, such as would prompt a passing cry "My God, I love Thee with my heart's full strength"; it is rather a state of soul - if I can but find words- which is deeply spiritual, and yet very simple, which fills us with a joy that is calm indeed, and with a love that is very humble and very reverent, which lifts the soul aloft to heights, where the sense of the love of God constrains it to adore Him, and to embrace Him with a tenderness that cannot be expressed, and which experience alone can teach us to understand.

"God's love is in very truth a consuming fire, burning to ashes all that is contrary to His will:  the soul thus kindled cannot live save in the Presence of God, and this Presence works within the heart a consecrated zeal, a holy ardor, a violent passion to see this God known and loved, and served and worshiped by all His creatures."

"For me the time of action does not differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are together calling for as many different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as when upon my knees as the Blessed Sacrament."

'"We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for the love of Him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before Him, Who has given me the grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king.  It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."

"O Loving-Kindness so old and still so new, I have been too late of loving Thee.  You are young, my brethren; profit therefore I beseech you from my confession, that I cared too little to employ my early years for God.  Consecrate all yours to His Love.  If I had only know Him sooner, if I had only had some one to tell me then what I am telling you, I should not have so long delayed in loving Him.  Believe me, count as lost each day you have not used in loving God."

"Ah, did I know that my heart loved not God, this very instant I would pluck it out."

"If you would go forward in the spiritual life, you must avoid relying on the subtle conclusions and fine reasonings of the unaided intellect.  Unhappy they who seek to satisfy their desire therein!  The Creator is the great teacher of Truth.  We can reason laboriously for many years, but fuller far and deeper is the knowledege of the hidden things of faith and of Himself, which He flashes as light into the heart of the humble."