One of the joys of examining the lives of the saints is observing how their lives take twists and turns that lead them to the places they are ultimately called to serve. This is the case with both Brother Lawrence, whose life was forever transformed through his experience as a soldier, and Patrick, whose early years as a slave in a foreign country changed the trajectory of his life. Through simple faith and legendary acts, the lives of these two faithful servants of Jesus begin to shine through. And yet, only one will advance to the Saintly Sixteen.
Yesterday, in the biggest margin of victory of Lent Madness 2020 to date, Joseph trounced Joshua 73% to 27% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen, where he'll face the Biblical Elizabeth. None of this gets easier as we move ever closer to the awarding of the Golden Halo.
Time to vote!
Brother Lawrence
Brother Lawrence understands troubling times. Born into poverty in Lorraine, France, around 1614 as Nicholas Herman, he joined the Army during the Thirty Years War in search of regular food and sustenance. Unfortunately, he was spiritually and physically injured by the violence of the battle. It is said that Nicholas first experienced God while staring at a dormant tree in the middle of winter. In that moment, Nicholas realized that God was present and working even in things that appeared to be dead—himself included. His contemplation reawakened his spirit, and Nicholas realized that if God could work in that tree, then God could also work within him and in much of the mundane life around him. Thus, began a journey where Brother Lawrence found God in the simplest of things.
Following his injury, Nicholas joined an upper-class household to serve as a footman. Crippled and awkward, Nicholas reported that he was a clumsy servant, ill-suited to carrying things he was most likely to break. He yearned to be a part of a community in which he could contemplate God. Consequently, he joined the Discalced Carmelite Priory in Paris where he took the name of Brother Lawrence. There he continued to serve others and was often found in the scullery, cooking and doing dishes. During this time, he began to develop his maxims for mundane living, providing the foundation for his book, The Practice of the Presence of God. Brother Lawrence’s book teaches us that even the small things in life are opportunities to pay homage to our Maker.
Brother Lawrence’s contemporaries report that he had an unworldly knack for marrying activity and contemplation. It is said that toward the end of his life, Brother Lawrence achieved living as though it were only God and himself and all his activities solely focused on God.
Brother Lawrence calls us to find God in our chores, our routines, our moments of anger and frustration. Brother Lawrence knows the pain of mental and physical injury and that God is working in the boring, the painful, and the moments we wish we could rush through. Brother Lawrence calls each of us to be fully present with God in every moment, not just those we consider as spiritual. His feast day is January 11.
Collect for Brother Lawrence
Heavenly God, we give thanks for the life and teachings of Brother Lawrence who through his actions, deeds, and words has taught us to believe in and concentrate on God’s continual attention to us that through our growing awareness of God in all things that we may come to realize our dependence on God’s very personal and continuous presence. Amen.
Patrick
As a sixteen-year-old, Patrick herded sheep. He kept guard as the lambs gnawed clover from the field. Patrick took care of a lot of animals, watching for sickness, cleaning out muck, and gathering in wanderers. With all of that work, his forearms were more muscular than a few months before. He had outgrown his boyhood’s lanky frame and expanded into the body of a man.
Patrick changed in other ways as well. His heart pierced as he thought of his family and birthplace. Out in that space, Patrick felt the acute loss of all he loved. He could not escape the ache of his homesickness, and with no one else to turn to, he began to pray. A few months earlier, bandits had captured Patrick and stolen him from his home in Roman Britain. They had moved him to Ireland, where he became a slave. In his desperate captivity, without the distractions of friends or family, he began to rely on God. Patrick converted to Christianity, and his faith grew deep through his trials.
Six grueling years later, Patrick dreamed that a ship was ready for him. He escaped from his captors and returned home. While Patrick was in Britain, he continued to study Christianity and became a priest. Then Patrick had another dream. Someone delivered a letter to him with the heading, “The Voice of the Irish.” In it, the people of Ireland begged him to walk among them again. He felt deeply moved, but he also had nagging doubts about responding to the call. He didn’t have as much education as he wanted.
Though Patrick was not initially welcome in Ireland, he eventually settled in a place where his ministry flourished. He became a bishop, baptizing thousands of people and ordaining priests who started new churches. He encouraged wealthy women to become nuns and ministered to the royalty. His legends include driving snakes out of Ireland and raising thirty-three people from the dead.
Today, festivities abound in his honor on St. Patrick’s Day. In memory of the patron saint of Ireland, exuberant people parade and green beer flows. The most pervasive emblem harkens back to those grazing sheep. People pin clover to their chests, recalling how Patrick plucked the three-leafed plant from the field in order to illustrate the Trinity.
Collect for Patrick
Almighty God, in your providence you chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle to the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that way that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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196 comments on “Brother Lawrence vs. Patrick”
Brother Lawrence practiced what we call today "Mindfulness" This is the same practice of Thich Nhat Hanh and his monks and nuns of Plum Village Buddhist monastery. It is true all we truly have is the present moment and God is in each moment and God is each moment,
Jeanine, I have been through 2 copies of Bro. Lawrence's book; I can attest to the fact that you will be not just inspired beyond measure..., but your paradigm will change, and your 'walk with G-d' will totally change for the better! Blessings & Shalom-Shalom
..., And G-d is in each of us, who believe in HIM and receive HIM as our personal L-rd & Savior! HE lives in us and 'we' live in HIM...!!!!
I agree with Jim W's assessment. I met Brother Lawrence many years ago in my spiritual reawakening as a young mother with a passel of kids and plenty of 'mundane' work; work that was turned to prayer and what I perceive now as spiritual growth. Patrick is a beacon to conversion but Lawrence, for me, is a revelation of the sacred in all things.
How encouraging that so many voters were struck by the idea of finding a spiritual renewal in the mundane. Go, Brother L.!
Can you get Anna Fitch Courie to write about another saint? I was certain I'd vote for Patrick since my Mom was a Byrnes, her Mom a Dempsey, and my Grandfather running a SpeakEasy in Lower Manhattan back-in-the-day, yet no, I went with Lawrence bc AFC's prose was cause for pause. Go Larry!
While I am very proud of my Irish heritage, I just finished hand-washing and drying dishes for an hour. Plus I am an avid gardener who is celebrating the blossoms of my Lenten Roses in my otherwise dormant flower beds. Signs and wonders! Brother Lawrence gets my vote this morning.
I can attest to contemplating God while running the cafeteria-style dishwasher at community suppers. The task is so conducive to it, that there are often multiple volunteers who want to run the machine 🙂
I'm so moved by Brother Lawrence, a saint I knew nothing about. I'm reminded why the practice of Lent Madness is such a blessing for me.
Brother Lawrence's story is so inspiring, I'm sending it to my prison pen pals. I'm sure they will find it encouraging. Life with the Lord is a blessing to all.
So agree Pam!
Aw. The feels.
When your family is named after St. Brigid and you are still a little upset she didn't win a couple of years ago, St. Patrick it is.
It's Brother Lawrence for me! Patrick has enough notoriety! I love seeking GOD in the simple things--the world needs more Lawrence's!!!
This was a tough one. But since I voted for Elizabeth of Hungary to honor that side of my family, i have to equally honor my Irish side. So it's Patrick.
Looks like I might lose this round but had to vote for Patrick. My father had Irish heritage which he of course passed along to me. Had I been male, Patrick was the name I’d have. I already passed on Andrew, the Scottish part of my heritage. But I had to vote for Patrick! Very proud of my ancestral heritage!
I am also voting for Brother Lawrence. Anna’s sentence about finding God “in the boring, the painful, and the moments we wish we could rush through” caught my attention. Between my addiction to my phone and my desire to slow down the rush of my days, I suspect that the “mindfulness” of Brother Lawrence (and our Buddhist friends) is what I need these days. I’m not sure that all makes sense, but I’m hanging my hat on this.
Brother Lawrence for me. And I have learned that the 20 second hand wash is just enough time to say the Lord's Prayer or to sing the doxology. Much more meaningful to me than happy birthday or the abc song.
Great idea!
Thanks, Carol, for the idea of saying the Lord's Prayer or singing the doxology!
And I'm voting for Lawrence because someone (it might have been the man I eventually married) told me about Lawrence and gave me "The Practice of the Presence of God"--praying while shelling beans.
I just could not turn my back on a man who overcame his handicap to build into serving the Lord, and who believed that even the smallest tasks were done in the name of our Father. Not to mention I share my birthday with his feast day! Brother Lawrence it is for me!
You'd think the bracketologists would've put St. Patrick on his day but I guess that would have been too easy to choose. With all the Bradford pear trees coming out in bloom Lawrence seems to bet the one, but my mother so loved Patrick's use of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity he gets my vote today.
I had to go with Brother Lawrence we are all so much better when we can "find God in our chores, our routines, our moments of anger and frustration."
Being French-Irish, this was a hard choice but I had to go with Patrick. Love the legend of the clover and celebrating St. Paddy's Day. Not to mention, I am petrified of snakes so that legend is a win in my book.
Much as I loved our trip to Ireland with its stories of Patrick, I went with Lawrence for finding God in everyday life, even in the boring parts.
This was sooooo difficult! My paternal grandmother was the daughter of Irish immigrants, i grew up in St. Patrick Parish, was educated for 12 years in St. Patrick's School, and as an adult have had very good care at St. Patrick Hospital, so I am greatly indebted to St. Patrick and all the good works and wonderful institutions that his followers have produced. But today I learned for the first time of Brother Lawrence and found myself inspired. I want to read his book and learn more about his way of living with God. So, begging the forgiveness of St. Patrick, I voted for Brother Lawrence.
As interesting as the concept of Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland might be, the truth is that there were never any snakes in Ireland!
I'm sorry that the argument for Patrick was not what it should have been. I recommend Thomas Cahill's book "How the Irish Saved Civilization": without Patrick and his works, we would have lost Christianity as we know it.
I can't not vote for Patrick. I just can't. No matter how much I love and respect (and desperately need to learn from) Br. Lawrence.
But is it weird that I hope I get the chance to vote for Br. Lawrence later? I mean, if he beats out Patrick today, I can see me rallying for Lawrence the whole way through!
Brother Lawrence shares so much reality with me: he saw trees as living messengers of God: I too believe that trees and nature are integral parts of my religious life, and he found God in everyday work. I would like to have known Brother Lawrence. Patrick, I fear, would be too intimidating. He's busy with snakes and bishops.
What a terrible choice to have to make. Each of these saints deserves to be a finalist. In the end, in spite of my Irish heritage, I voted for Brother Lawrence.
Has anybody else noticed that usually the majority of the comments are in favor of the saint who is NOT winning that day? But today Brother Lawrence not only has the votes, he has the comments as well. I certainly voted for him. I have been trying to learn the Practice of the Presence for some forty years. I think I'm maybe a little better than I was when I started, but I have a long way to go.
In any other matchup I would have voted for Lawrence, but hey, I'm Irish. And as most Americans know, if you have even a drop of Irish blood in you, you are Irish.
I had the same reaction - was leaning toward Patrick until it sounded like he had a bias toward the wealthy. Anyway, the older I get, the clumsier I get. St. Lawrence will be a good patron saint for my later years.
Wow...! So beautifully stated - that is the purpose of the life of Christ Jesus [(Yahshuah Ha Moshiach!) Making dead dry bones come to life, with total restoration! ]
Yes..., he [Bro. Lawrence] might have "in his mind" been clumsier due to his war injuries... - but he was "not" to G-d Almighty [G-d waited for him, Bro. Lawrence]..., that was humbling to Bro. Lawrence! So Marjorie..., 'we' might see what 'we' call clumsiness..., but Abba YHWH sees us through the 'blood of Yahshuah Ha Moshiach..., Abba sees us as 'Perfect!"
Right on!
Also, I'm wondering whether the Executive Committee have rigged it so that if Patrick gets far enough, he'll be in a match up on 3/17.
Given my maternal Irish roots, I felt I had to vote for Patrick. I also admire greatly how he, by the grace of God, was able--even in the midst of grueling and lonely slavery--to develop sympathy for his captors, become bold enough to escape from them and return later in life to help them turn to a better way.
I also admire Brother Lawrence and believe we/I have much to learn from his spirituality of the everyday. Nevertheless, I must comment that the collect given for his day is a spiritual and linguistic atrocity that begins by addressing God but then goes on talking glibly about the Deity in the third person. Good Lord, deliver us!
I am Irish as Paddy's pigs and grew up on Patrick's legend. Then Lawrence's life and the image of the dormant tree; getting angry or frustrated in the mundane tasks and unexpected challenges of daily life yet knowing God is present, grabbed me . Brother Lawrence it is.