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THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD
2002 Edition
edited by Lightheart at PracticeGodsPresence.com 

Includes: Editor's Preface Conversations and Letters 

Editor's Preface 

Brother Lawrence was born Nicholas Herman around 1610 in Herimenil,
Lorraine, a Duchy of France.  His birth records were destroyed in a fire at
his parish church during the Thirty Years War, a war in which he fought
as a young soldier.  It was also the war in which he sustained a near
fatal injury to his sciatic nerve.  The injury left him quite crippled
and in chronic pain for the rest of his life.

The details of his early life are few and sketchy.  However, we know he
was educated both at home and by his parish priest whose first name was
Lawrence and who was greatly admired by the young Nicolas.  He was well
read and, from an early age, drawn to a spiritual life of faith and love