Just as I thought I must live out my life beset by these difficulties and anxieties
(which in no way lessened my confidence in God and which only increased my faith),

I suddenly found myself changed, and my soul, which up till then was always disturbed,
experienced a profound interior peace as if it had found its center and a place of peace.

Since that time I have walked before God, in simplicity and faith, with humility and love,
and I have labored diligently to do, say and think only what would please Him.

I trust that when I have done all that I can, He will do with me as He wishes...

I have given up all my non-obligatory devotions and prayers,
and concentrate on being always in His holy presence:
I keep myself in His presence by simple attentiveness and a loving gaze upon God
which I can call the actual presence of God or, to put it more clearly,
an habitual, silent and secret conversation of the soul with God...

He talks with me and is delighted with me in a thousand and one ways!
He forgives me and relieves me of my principal bad habits without talking about them.
I beg Him to make me according His heart, and always the more weak and despicable I see myself to be,
the more beloved I am of God.

That is how I look upon myself from time to time in His holy presence.

-Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection
As a young man, Brother Lawrence (+1691)
was a soldier in France who later became a French Carmelite Friar.