A phrase in the epistle for today, “aware of God,” grabs my attention and won’t let go. It speaks to me of the spiritual practice described by Brother Lawrence which we know as “practicing the presence of God.” Br. Lawrence, a 17^(th) century Discalced Carmelite lay brother, came to realize that, as the plaque in my prayer room reads, “Bidden or unbidden, God is present,” that it is in the common, everyday things of life that we may become aware of and experience the presence of God. He was a kitchen worker in the monastery and said he could be just as aware of God while he was peeling potatoes in the kitchen, as he was joining his brothers in the chapel for their hours of prayer through the day. For Br. Lawrence, it was not the sacredness of the task, but the intention behind it that opened the way for the awareness of God’s presence to dawn upon us. That means doing whatever we do, here and now, day by day, for the love of God, intending our work to honor God, to glorify God’s name.

We find a similar practice in the Celtic Christian tradition, where every activity through the day, from stirring up the fire in the morning to smooring it at night, was offered to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The had prayers for washing, for milking and churning, for grinding corn, for making cloth, for work on farms or at sea, for journeying, and on and on. They were aware of God involved in every daily reality, not excluded from it as we often try to do in our lives today.

Becoming aware of God in our daily lives requires our mindfulness, paying attention to what we are doing at the time, not thinking about what we are going to do next, or about what someone said yesterday that disturbed us. It is now that God is present. It is now that we may become aware of God if we open our hearts to accept the Divine Presence in every present moment.

A prayer from the New Zealand Prayer Book recognizes the need for our awareness of God’s presence in our daily lives:

“Grant that we may walk in your presence:

your love in our hearts,

your truth in our minds,

your strength in our wills;

until, at the end of the journey,

we may know the joy of homecoming

and the welcome of your embrace,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”