What is the grace that Brother Lawrence speaks of in the quote below?  We’re happy when things go our way, and we might think of this as grace, but it’s not.  Happiness is a comparatively simple thing, drawing its energy and existence from temporal success or momentary relationships with other people, or, often in my case, the ability to convince oneself of everyone else’s love and regard.  But grace isn’t really temporal.  For Brother Lawrence, it comes from cultivating and maintaining contact with the eternal.  Often, this means simply living in the moment and reaching out to God in the moment.  This is the grace of a dancer, who’s physical body seems to occupy space in a way that’s different from the rest of us, but mostly because she’s conscious of that space, and her body’s movement through it.  Her grace comes from awareness of present movement and present moment.

In our conversation with God we should also engage in praising, adoring, and loving God incessantly for God’s infinite goodness and perfection. Without being discouraged on account of our sins, we should pray for God’s grace with a perfect confidence, as relying upon the infinite merits of our Lord. Brother Lawrence said that God never failed offering us grace at each action. It never failed except when Brother Lawrence’s thoughts had wandered from a sense of God’s Presence, or he forgot to ask God’s assistance. He said that God always gave us light in our doubts, when we had no other design but to please.