Many of you know the name, Brother Lawrence. If you have not read his book The Practice of the Presence of God, you have probably heard a preacher or teacher speak of Brother Lawrence. He served in the kitchen of his monastery and said he experienced the presence of God as clearly in washing pots and pans as in the Blessed Sacrament. Though known as Brother Lawrence, his name was Nicholas Herman. He was born into a peasant family in Lorraine, France, in 1611. At the age of eighteen, he awakened to the presence of God in nature by gazing upon a bare tree in winter and thinking about its coming renewal. Later he became a professional soldier but was wounded and retired from the army; thereafter walking with a severe limp that troubled him throughout the rest of his life. Sometime later, he a…