Pope Leo XIV has shared a reflection on everyday spirituality in the introduction to a new edition of the book *  The Practice of the Presence of God*, by the 17th-century Carmelite friar, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Published by the Vatican Publishing House and available from December 19, 2025, this classic text, along with the works of Saint Augustine, has been one of the most influential in the Pope’s spiritual life.

In his introduction, dated December 11, 2025, Leo XIV describes the path proposed by Friar Lawrence as “simple and arduous at the same time”: it consists of constantly remembering God through small acts of praise, prayer, and adoration in every daily action and thought. This remembrance demands inner purification, asceticism, and conversion of feelings, inspired by the exhortation of Saint Paul: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

The Pope compares Friar Lawrence’s mystical experience to that of great figures like Saint Teresa of Ávila, who spoke of a “God of the pots and pans,” emphasizing that this union with God is accessible to everyone because of its everyday and humble nature. With humor and simplicity, Friar Lawrence recounts how God “tricked” him, finding unexpected joy in monastic life instead of the harsh penance he had anticipated.

Leo XIV emphasizes that this practice generates profound spiritual joy, makes daily tasks lighter, and gives infinite value even to mistakes when they are offered to God. In a turbulent world like ours, the writings of this 17th-century Carmelite convert remain an inspiration: “There is no circumstance that can separate us from God,” the Pope affirms, summarizing Christian ethics in the constant remembrance of His presence, which offers a foretaste of Paradise.

This new edition invites you to rediscover a treasure of Christian spirituality, ideal for those seeking to live their faith in the ordinary with joy and depth.

We are publishing the full text of Pope Leo XIII’s introduction to the book by the Carmelite friar Lawrence, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” in the new edition from the Vatican Publishing House, which will be released on December 19. This book, written by a simple and humble French religious who lived in the 17th century, is a text that, along with others, has marked the spiritual life of Robert Prevost.

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This small book focuses on the experience, or rather, the practice of God’s presence, as experienced and taught by the Carmelite friar Lawrence of the Resurrection, who lived in the 17th century. As I have already mentioned, along with the writings of Saint Augustine and other books, this is one of the texts that has most profoundly influenced my spiritual life and shaped me on the path to knowing and loving the Lord.

The path that Friar Lawrence shows us is both simple and arduous: simple because it requires nothing more than constantly remembering God, with small, continuous acts of praise, prayer, supplication, and adoration in every action and every thought, having Him alone as our horizon, source, and end. Arduous because it demands a path of purification, asceticism, renunciation, and conversion of our innermost being—our mind and our thoughts—much more than our actions. This is what Saint Paul already wrote to the faithful of Philippi: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). Therefore, we must not only align our attitudes and behaviors with God’s, but also our feelings, our very being. In this interiority, we find His presence, the loving and ardent presence of God, so “other” and yet so familiar to our hearts. As Saint Augustine writes, “the new man will sing the new song” ( Discourses  34,1).

The experience of union with God, described in the pages of Fray Lorenzo as a personal relationship made up of encounters and conversations, of hiddenness and surprises, of trusting and total surrender, recalls the experiences of the great mystics, first and foremost Teresa of Ávila, who also bore witness to this intimacy with the Lord to the point of speaking of a “God of the pots and pans.” However, it points to a path accessible to all, precisely because it is simple and every day.

Like many mystics, Brother Lawrence speaks with great humility, but also with humor, because he knows well that everything earthly, even the grandest and most dramatic, is very small before the infinite love of the Lord. Thus, he can say ironically that God has “deceived” him, because he, who perhaps entered the monastery somewhat presumptuously to sacrifice himself and harshly atone for his youthful sins, found instead a life full of joy.

Through the path that Friar Lawrence proposes to us, as the presence of God becomes familiar and occupies our inner space, the joy of being with Him grows, graces and spiritual riches flourish, and even daily tasks become easy and light.

The writings and testimonies of this 17th-century Carmelite convert, who traversed the turbulent events of his century—undoubtedly less violent than our own—with luminous faith, can also be a source of inspiration and help for our lives, men and women of the third millennium. They show us that no circumstance can separate us from God, that each of our actions, each of our occupations, and even each of our mistakes acquire infinite value if lived in God’s presence, continually offered to Him.

All of Christian ethics can truly be summed up in this constant remembrance that God is present: He is here. This remembrance, which is more than mere recall because it involves our feelings and affections, transcends all moralism and any reduction of the Gospel to a mere set of rules, and shows us that, indeed, as Jesus promised, the experience of trusting in God the Father already gives us a hundredfold here on earth. Trusting in God’s presence means tasting a foretaste of Paradise.

Vatican City, December 11, 2025