Pope Leo may not be God's gift to media ratings and computer clicks. When asked for a book to explain the perspective of the first Chicago-born pope, who was elected earlier this year, his answer was: Read a 17th-century monk.
Pope Francis was known for creating media frenzies. Get him in front of the press, and all bets were off about what would be said. Pope Leo is something different. When meeting the press on the way back from Lebanon, Leo talked about a French Carmelite monk who died in 1691 at age 77. Born Nicholas Herman, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection wasn't a great preacher or teacher in the traditional sense, but he was renowned for his peace. I've had his book "The Practice of the Presence of God" for more than a decade, after it was recommended to me by an elderly priest friend, who said it was the key to a Christian life.
Brother Lawrence showed that living for God was possible, with profound simplicity. Leo says it explains his spirituality. When asked for a book that explains him, Leo could have more predictably cited the widely studied "City of God" or "The Confessions" by St. Augustine, being a missionary priest from the religious order that bears his name. But here we are with a work by a monk who had no formal education.
Just the other day, an Uber driver asked me for the confession times at a church where he was dropping me off. We had had a lovely conversation about his 4-year-old's fascination with Elf on the Shelf. In some ways, it's that easy. In the hourly living of life, remember God. In your family life, as you work, in the way you interact with people. Putting aside time to pray and worship on Sunday and every day in ways appropriate to your vocation. Always in balance, never swinging from extremes.
Not everyone can do explicitly religious work for their employment. But everyone can offer their billable hours or washing of dishes or flying of planes or cleaning of hotel rooms -- whatever it is -- to God, in loving gratitude, with a prayer that it all might work to the good and do him honor. It's about being good stewards of what we've been given: our fragile lives and precious time.
A hobbyhorse of mine is that we think of mystics and mysticism as exotic when, in fact, it's simply about union with God. Something as mainstream as the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that's the purpose of the journey of our lives.
So how do you get on and stay on that path? Here's something from Lawrence's book: "Reject all useless thoughts. Reject them the moment they rear their ugly heads and show their useless impertinence. After all, they could clobber your salvation. Reject them all and return to inner communion with God."
Lawrence advised: "[W]e should establish ourselves in God so that we sense His presence. How do we do that? By having frequent conversations with God."
When asked on the plane ride what it was like when it became clear he was going to be elected pope, Leo said: "I resigned myself to the fact when I saw how things were going, and I said that this could be a reality. I took a deep breath, I said: 'Here we go Lord, you're in charge, you lead the way.'"
You don't have to be pope for that prayer to have relevance, and we don't have to overcomplicate things with God to have hope of serenity amid the chaos of life on this Earth.
(Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan's pro-life commission in New York, and is on the board of the University of Mary. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.)
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