Bro. Lawrence

1) The three characteristics that attract me the most are his radical change to God, his "let go and let God"attitude, and lastly, his relation to others. The first one, his radical conversion towards God, intrigues me because his change came through something that we so often reduce to a cycle that life must go through. Too rarely do we slow down enough to consider the one who created those cycles, and the effect that pattern has on the rest of the world, or could have on the world. The second one, his "'Let go and let God'" attitude is very hard for humanity to do. For some reason we always want to have control, and I would say even more so today. We want to do what we want to, and only submit when we know the immediate consequences. A good example is how everyone goes 5-10 mph over the speed limit at least when driving. The last one, his relation to other people, is also like the second one. Bro Lawrence doesn't allow popular opinion to decide how he sees the world. At first, this seems to be the opposite of the second characteristic, but when you look a little bit closer, most people go with the flow so they don't "suffer the consequences" as it were. Instead, Bro Lawrence stands in the middle of the flow, trying to exemplify what's correct, and how God wants us to relate to people.

2) I dislike his easiness towards his life, how he says our love for God "eventually coming to a deep knowledge of God..., where 'life seems to be but one long unbroken practice of His divine presence.'", and lastly, and his advice to a sick friend. The first one I don't like because we are all imperfect, and therefore make mistakes. While this is true, Lawrence seems to be almost perfect in his relation to God. It makes it hard to read because while he seems to do everything right when things go wrong, I'm here doing everything wrong. The second thing I dislike because it sounds good ideally, but in today, we do the same thing almost every day, and almost can't help forgetting where we are in today, and have to remind ourselves constantly to stay attentive. And finally the last one I don't like, probably because I am reading it wrong. When he tells his friend to "Leave off human remedies, and resign yourself entirely to the providence of God. While it is true God can and often times will heal the sick, he has also created a world that while it can make the sick, can also often times heal it. Also, we are called by God to take care of our bodies the best we can, so if someone is sick because they had a pound of sugar the day before, God may not heal them immediately because they caused their sickness. Along with that, God sometimes needs to bring someone down in order for them to look up to Him.

3) In this section, Tessa compares Brother Lawrence's beliefs on life to those of Saint Teresa. They agree on things like God's love, the value inside each of us, our connection with the divine, and the devotions we have today.