Nicholas Herman, better known as Brother Lawrence, found himself working in the kitchen of a busy monastery. Earlier he had experienced a Damascus road type conversion as he stood and gazed at a fruit tree that 'spoke to him more eloquently than any sermon. He was persuaded, just by looking, that the Creator must be good and was overwhelmed by a sense of God's all consuming love. He gave his life to the service of God and joined the Carmelite monastery in Paris.

The kitchen is the busiest part of the monastery, the monks who work there get up an hour or so before the first office of the day. It was a pressure chamber, definitely the 'fast lane' yet Brother Lawrence managed to keep his serenity no matter what. He felt as tranquil and at peace in the kitchen as he did when he was on his knees in the monastery chapel. So how did he do it? Because he believed that we may encounter God anywhere. He wrote 'There is no place on earth where we cannot draw near to God.'