About the Author

Despite his lowly position in life and the priory, Brother Lawrence's character attracted many to him. He had a reputation for experiencing profound peace and visitors came to seek spiritual guidance from him.[9] The wisdom he passed on to them, in conversations and in letters, would later become the basis for the book, The Practice of the Presence of God. The conversations had been conducted and recorded by a notable cleric, the Abb� Joseph de Beaufort, who compiled this work after Brother Lawrence died. Frank Charles Laubach (September 2, 1884 - June 11, 1970), from Benton, Pennsylvania was a Congregational Christian missionary educated at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, and a mystic known as "The Apostle to the Illiterates." One of his most widely influential devotional works was a pamphlet entitled "The Game with Minutes." In it, Laubach urged Christians to attempt keeping God in mind for at least one second of every minute of the day. In this way Christians can attempt the attitude of constant prayer spoken of in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. The pamphlet extolled the virtues of a life lived with unceasing focus on God. Laubach's insight came from his experiments in prayer detailed in a collection of his letters published under the title, Letters by a Modern Mystic.