It may seem odd that one of the classics of Christian literature should be written by a man who spent most of his life in the kitchen. Yet it was the very ordinariness of his vocation that Brother Lawrence (1614-1691) felt allowed him, and everyone else, to draw closer to the love and presence of God. Born Nicolas Herman, Brother Lawrence had seen much of life as a soldier in the Thirty Years’ war, but it was only as a monk in a Carmelite monastery in Paris that he claimed to find true tranquillity. The Practice of the Presence of God and Spiritual Maxims are the results of his wisdom; through recorded conversations with his friends and short reflections on the Christian life Brother Lawrence encourages us that spiritual experiences do not have to be found in church and that God is often waiting to meet us in our everyday lives. (Also available in hardcover: 978-1-78139-539-4.)