The ShinsungHwa of Brother Lawrence (2019)
Brief Explanation of Brother Lawrence’s ShinsungHwa:
In this particular piece, the spiritual core reveals its symbol of light. Energy flows manifest as freely moving lines, expressing the natural movement of unseen forces. An encompassing radiance surrounds the entire form, suggesting a beautiful spiritual presence.
“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.”
_Brother Lawrence
The Kitchen Monk: Brother Lawrence’s Amazing Life Story
Four hundred years ago, there was a monk named Brother Lawrence who worked in his monastery’s kitchen. While the pots clanged and bread baked around him, he’d hum quietly as he peeled potatoes and went about his daily tasks.
Brother Lawrence realized something simple but meaningful: you don’t need to be in a grand church to connect with God. He found that the divine was present in ordinary moments – whether he was washing dishes, preparing meals, or doing any of the everyday work that filled his days.
“We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”
_Brother Lawrence
From Soldier to Servant
Brother Lawrence wasn’t born with a fancy name or royal blood. His real name was Nicolas Herman, and he grew up as a poor peasant boy in a small French village called Hériménil. Life wasn’t easy – his family had very little money, and he barely went to school. When he was just a teenager, something terrible called the Thirty Years’ War was tearing Europe apart.
Like many poor young men, Nicolas joined the army because it promised him food and a little bit of money. But war is never kind to anyone. During one battle, he got badly hurt and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. You might think this would make him angry or sad, but something amazing happened instead.
“He does not ask much of us, merely a thought of Him from time to time, a little act of adoration, sometimes to ask for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, at other times to thank Him for the graces, past and present, He has bestowed on you, in the midst of your troubles to take solace in Him as often as you can. Lift up your heart to Him during your meals and in company; the least little remembrance will always be the most pleasing to Him. One need not cry out very loudly; He is nearer to us than we think.”
_Brother Lawrence
The Tree That Changed Everything
Picture this: 18-year-old Nicolas, tired and cold, standing on a battlefield in winter. All around him, the trees looked dead – no leaves, no flowers, just bare branches reaching toward the gray sky. But as he stared at one particular tree, something clicked in his mind.
“Wait a minute,” he thought. “In just a few months, this same tree will be covered with beautiful green leaves and flowers again.” Suddenly, he understood something powerful about God – just like that tree could come back to life, God could transform any person’s heart, no matter how broken or ordinary they felt.
This simple moment changed Nicolas forever. He said this vision “perfectly set him loose from the world” and filled him with such love for God that it never left him for the next 40 years.
“Do not be discouraged by the resistance you will encounter from your human nature; you must go against your human inclinations. Often, in the beginning, you will think that you are wasting time, but you must go on, be determined and persevere in it until death, despite all the difficulties.”
_Brother Lawrence
Finding His True Home
After leaving the army, Nicolas tried working as a servant for wealthy people. He jokingly called himself “a great awkward fellow who broke everything”. Can you imagine accidentally dropping your boss’s expensive dishes? That was Nicolas! But even though he wasn’t very graceful with fancy things, he had found something much more valuable – a deep friendship with God.
At age 26, Nicolas decided to join a monastery in Paris. He became Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, choosing to honor both Saint Lawrence (an early Christian hero) and his own new life. Since he didn’t have much education, he couldn’t become a priest, but that didn’t bother him at all. He was perfectly happy to serve God by doing simple, everyday work.
“Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues.”
_Brother Lawrence
The Kitchen Saint
For most of his life at the monastery, Brother Lawrence worked in the kitchen. While other monks went to fancy prayer services, he stayed behind, cooking meals, washing pots, and keeping everything clean. But here’s the amazing part – he turned his kitchen into a place of worship.
Brother Lawrence discovered that he could pray while chopping vegetables, praise God while stirring soup, and have deep conversations with the divine while scrubbing floors. He didn’t need beautiful music or stained glass windows. His pots and pans became his instruments, and his simple kitchen became his cathedral.
People started noticing something special about this humble cook. Visitors would come from far away just to talk with him. They could see a joy and peace in his life that they wanted for themselves. What was his secret?
“Prayer is nothing else than a sense of God’s presence.”
_Brother Lawrence
The Practice That Changed Everything
Brother Lawrence called his approach “practicing the presence of God”. This meant training himself to remember that God was always with him, no matter what he was doing. Whether he was peeling an apple or fixing someone’s sandals (his job in later years), he would quietly talk with God in his mind.
He didn’t make it complicated with fancy words or long prayers. Instead, he would simply think, “God, I’m doing this for you” or “Thank you for being with me right now”. He believed that picking up a piece of straw for the love of God was just as valuable as any great deed.
The best part? Brother Lawrence taught that anyone could do this. You don’t need to be super smart or go to a special school. A person working in a kitchen could serve God just as well as someone giving sermons in a church.
Lessons That Last Forever
What made Brother Lawrence’s approach so special was how practical it was. He didn’t worry about whether he was good enough for heaven or stress about making mistakes. Instead, he focused on loving God right now, in this moment, through whatever task was in front of him.
His friends wrote down his conversations and letters, creating a little book called “The Practice of the Presence of God”. Even today, hundreds of years later, people around the world still read his simple wisdom about finding joy in ordinary moments.
Brother Lawrence died peacefully in 1691, but his message lives on. He showed us that you don’t need to do extraordinary things to live an extraordinary life. Sometimes the most amazing discoveries happen not in grand adventures, but in quiet kitchens, where ordinary people learn to see the sacred in the everyday.
