Day: March 9, 2026

The Practice of the Presence of God** #Catholic –

By Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection

**Recommended by Pope Leo XIV**

“Twice in recent weeks, Pope Leo XIV has brought up a book that essentially spells out his spiritual MO. When asked in a Dec. 2 in-flight press conference about what was on his mind during the conclave, Leo credited a book he had read “many years ago” that highlighted “a type of prayer and spirituality where one simply gives his life to the Lord and allows the Lord to lead.”

The book, The Practice of the Presence of God, is only about 100 pages (depending on the edition), but it seems to pack a spiritual punch. It was first published in 1692, the year after the author — simply known as Brother Lawrence, a lay Carmelite brother in France — died at the age of 77.”

A Pope Leo book club? Count me in

BISHOP KEVIN J. SWEENEY

The quote above is from an article written by Carol Zimmerman and published in the National Catholic Reporter on Dec. 19, 2026. I don’t recall the first time that I heard or read that Pope Leo had “recommended” The Practice of the Presence of God,” but it was sometime after Dec. 2, 2025, when, in what was described as, “his first major press conference as pope … Leo, almost seven months into his pontificate, told journalists that if there were one book to help people understand who he is, not written by St. Augustine, it would be The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, a 17th-century Carmelite friar…” In press conference, Pope Leo says US has ‘another way’ besides attacking Venezuela | National Catholic Reporter    

I do remember smiling and being pleasantly surprised that Pope Leo was recommending a book that I remembered well. I did not remember whether or not I had read the book, nor, if I had read some of it, what it said. I had two (or three) very distinct memories of The Practice of the Presence of God.

First, I remembered that Msgr. John Antoncic (a wonderful priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn, may he Rest in Peace) had given a talk to seminarians during my time in the major seminary in Huntington, Long Island (sometime between the fall of 1992 and the spring of 1997). Msgr. Antoncic would have been a priest 25 or more years when he spoke to the seminarians, and he recalled his time in the seminary, in the mid-1960’s, and how he “sat under a tree and read a book called The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. My second clear memory was that I remembered the name of the author. My third memory was that, at some point during my time in the seminary, I had a copy of the book. I believe it had a blue cover with the words of the title and author (and a sketch of a tree?) in yellow or gold.

I remember very little of what Msgr. Antoncic said, but between his mentioning it and having had the copy of the book on my bookshelf for many years (I presume it is in a box somewhere at this point), there was something about that book! So, when I heard Pope Leo’s recommendation, I immediately thought that I should order it on Amazon, which I did not get around to doing. So, I was very happy when someone gave me a (new, updated) copy of it for Christmas. I (finally) read The Practice of the Presence of God in January, while on retreat. Given Pope Leo’s recommendation, you really don’t need my recommendation, but, as you can probably tell by now, I would certainly encourage you to read The Practice of the Presence of God, whether you had never previously read (or heard of) it – or, if it has been a long time since you read it, or heard of it.

I was glad that I came across the article by Carol Zimmerman, as she shares a similar experience of having some memory of the book that came back to her after the pope’s recommendation:

“While editing our coverage of the plane press conference, I thought,”Wait, I know this book,” remembering it because my mom had also been a fan. Later, I pulled out her 1972 edition of The Practice of the Presence of God, with its 60-cent price printed on the cover, from a bookshelf’s pared-down collection of my parents’ religious books from their years of living with us.”

If you click on the link to her article (above), you will see a nice picture of her parents’ “pared down” bookshelf with her Mom’s 1972 edition. In her article, you can also find some helpful biographical information on Brother Lawrence, as well as summaries of the author’s interviews with two Carmelite historians and their thoughts on how the book has remained popular over these more than 300 years, and the book’s relevance for our lives today.

Here is a link to the new/updated (November 2024) version of the book that I received as a Christmas gift, described by Amazon as “The most faithful version of Brother Lawrence’s classic text.”

I am writing this column on the weekend of March 7/8, the Third Sunday of Lent, when we hear and reflect on the Gospel account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan Woman (at the well) – Jn. 4: 5-52, when we hear Jesus say: “… If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water…”

 In the last paragraph of an excellent Preface in this version of The Practice of the Presence of God, Joseph Clampitt offers this reflection on the life and lessons of Brother Lawrence:

“Three hundred years later, his message is still one our world needs to hear. We have been seduced into chasing one high after another: just a few more minutes scrolling social media, one more episode in a binge-watching session, one more shallow Christian book. We drink from wells that don’t satisfy – that were never designed to satisfy! – and wonder when our thirst will be quenched. Only when we drink deeply of Jesus Christ will we find the stream of living water. Brother Lawrence drank constantly from that stream. He was not a peddler of theoretical ideas about God. He only wrote about what he himself had experienced. As you read his words, may his depth of experience become yours as well.” (pg. 4)

I hope and pray, dear Reader, that you may find the time, during this Season of Lent or in the near future, to read the words of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, as recorded in The Practice of the Presence of God.

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– By Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection **Recommended by Pope Leo XIV** “Twice in recent weeks, Pope Leo XIV has brought up a book that essentially spells out his spiritual MO. When asked in a Dec. 2 in-flight press conference about what was on his mind during the conclave, Leo credited a book he had read “many years ago” that highlighted “a type of prayer and spirituality where one simply gives his life to the Lord and allows the Lord to lead.” The book, The Practice of the Presence of God, is only about 100 pages (depending on the edition), but it seems to

Can AI be a tool for virtue? Catholics grapple with Anthropic’s claim of virtuous AI #Catholic –

ROME (OSV News) — In a room full of Dominican friars and Catholic philosophy professors, a priest and AI researcher read aloud excerpts pertaining to ethics from the guiding “constitution” of one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent artificial intelligence companies, drawing laughter from the audience of Thomists.

The moment came on March 6 when Father Jean Gové, coordinator of the European AI Research Group within the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, cited passages from Anthropic’s internal guidelines. The company says it aims for its AI model, Claude, to be a “good, wise, and virtuous agent,” without wanting to define those “ethically loaded terms,” and expresses hope that the AI model might one day possess an understanding of ethics that could surpass human ethical understanding.

“I appreciate the laughter,” Father Gové told the conference. “This is a text coming from one of the leading AI companies, frontier companies in the world. … This is the company that … is doing the most comparatively when it comes to ethics, safety, and governance when it comes to AI. This is where we are. This is the state of play.”

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Father Gové spoke at the two-day academic conference “Artificial Intelligence: A Tool for Virtue?”, held March 5–6 at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum, in Rome. He said theologians, philosophers, academics and the Church are now being invited to engage with companies that hold ideas like these when grappling with the many issues raised by AI.

The conference comes as Catholic institutions are actively engaged with AI ethics. The Vatican issued a document on the technology in 2025, “Antiqua et Nova,” and Pope Leo XIV has made AI a focus since the first days of his pontificate.

Organized by the university’s Thomistic Institute Project for Science and Religion, the conference brought centuries of Dominican engagement with Aristotelian virtue ethics to bear on examining whether AI systems can be designed and used in ways that help people grow in virtue.

The answer, by most accounts, was a cautious and qualified no, though not without nuance.

Virtue requires more than good output

Dominican Father Alejandro Crosthwaite, a professor of social sciences at the Angelicum, argued that genuine virtue requires faculties no AI system possesses.

“Virtue is not correct output,” he said. “It is right reason embodied in a self-determining agent.”

A large language model, he continued, predicts tokens based on statistical patterns. It does not deliberate, does not possess will and does not apprehend the good as something it is ordered toward.

Father Crosthwaite emphasized that AI “is never a moral subject” and that “virtue ultimately belongs to persons.”

“Simulation is epistemic imitation,” he said. “Virtue is ontological possession. This is not a criticism of the technology. It’s simply a clarification of metaphysical categories.”

The more pressing question, he argued, is not whether AI can become virtuous, but what kind of persons AI helps form.

“If AI replaces prudential judgment, prudence weakens in the human person,” he said. “The ultimate question is not whether the machines become wise. It is whether we do.”

A safer tool, if not a virtuous one

Father Gové, who also serves as the Holy See’s representative to the Council of Europe on AI matters, acknowledged that Anthropic’s guidelines, which decline to commit to any specific ethical framework, leave Claude with “no definitions of what is the good,” with “no hierarchy of goods,” and “no end to which good actions are ordered toward.”

Thomistic virtue ethics would not recognize Claude as truly virtuous, he said. But Father Gové stopped short of dismissing Anthropic’s efforts.

“Does this make Claude a tool for virtue? Not exactly,” he said. “I hope it makes Claude a safer tool. So that’s already something, right?” He also argued that AI ethics require “a triadic relationship between tool, virtue, and regulation, policy, governance,” describing the current state of AI governance legislation as a barren desert.

The risk of replacing teachers and friends with AI

Dr. Angela Knobel, a philosophy professor at the University of Dallas and author of “Aquinas and the Infused Moral Virtues,” warned that algorithms can work against virtuous habit formation.

“AI chatbots are doing what video games and TikTok and other things are designed to do,” she said. “They design it to make you want more of the same.”

Knobel pointed to how algorithmic design in social platforms like TikTok track user behavior, saying, “TikTok is programmed to notice not just what you click on, but also what you pause on and don’t click on. And so, if you see the porn that it shows you and you don’t click on it, but you pause on it, it starts showing you more porn until you do click on it, which is, Aristotle tells us, a very good way to encourage you to do what you don’t want to do, right?”

“This is not to say that technology, including AI, can’t be used in helpful ways,” she said. “It’s just to say that it takes effort to make sure you use it in a non-detrimental way.”

She was especially concerned about AI’s potential to displace the irreplaceable role of human teachers and mentors in moral formation. Growing morally and intellectually, she said, is inherently uncomfortable, and “that is not something most of us can or even want to do on our own.”

“You teach someone to write by making them write, by trying to help them see the ways in which what they wrote falls short, and then asking them to do it again,” she said. “Computers are not very good at doing this.”

AI, she concluded, is “closer to an opiate — the kind of thing that requires extreme caution in its use.”

“I think we have to exercise extreme caution to ensure that we do not let it take the place of our teachers and friends, because if we do, and to the extent that we do, we will certainly allow it to make us worse,” she said.

The danger of disconnection

Dominican Sister Catherine Droste, a theology professor at the Angelicum, warned of what she called “the zombie effect” with people absorbed in devices, oblivious to those around them.

“AI has upped the ante,” she said. “At least with Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, et cetera, even though people were using technology, there was still something of a connection related to human beings, which we’ve lost.”

Still, Sister Catherine allowed that AI could be used prudently in certain contexts. “Before you’re using AI, there has to be prudence,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean you cannot use AI prudently in the sense that it can … give some information that can help you to be truly prudent.”

Courtney Mares is Vatican Editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.

– ROME (OSV News) — In a room full of Dominican friars and Catholic philosophy professors, a priest and AI researcher read aloud excerpts pertaining to ethics from the guiding “constitution” of one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent artificial intelligence companies, drawing laughter from the audience of Thomists. The moment came on March 6 when Father Jean Gové, coordinator of the European AI Research Group within the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, cited passages from Anthropic’s internal guidelines. The company says it aims for its AI model, Claude, to be a “good, wise, and virtuous agent,” without wanting to define