In Constant Prayer (Ancient Practices) [Hardcover]

Robert Benson (Author), Phyllis Tickle (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Ancient Practices | Publication Date: May 6, 2008

What does it mean to pray without ceasing? Is it really that important to pray as the early Christians did?

Released concurrently with Brian McLaren's series introduction, Robert Benson's In Constant Prayer explores the ancient practice of fixed-hour prayer, a structure for our lives where we can live in continuous awareness of God's presence and reality. This classic discipline of praying at fixed times during the day and night has transformed the lives of millions around the world. Learn what the apostle Paul meant when he encouraged the Thessalonian church to "pray without ceasing, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

The Ancient Practices is a new eight-book series from Thomas Nelson Publishers, with staggered releases on individual titles through February 2010. Though various books have covered some of these spiritual disciplines, there has never been an attempt at a definitive series until now. Immensely compelling and readable, each classic book will feature a foreword by Phyllis Tickle.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849901138
• ISBN-13: 978-0849901133
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #802,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I come from a family of writers and publishers and other folks who spent much of their lives working with and around writers and musicians and producers and artists. One of my grandfathers was a poet and a publisher and my father was a writer and a speaker. My grandmother loved poetry and novels and used to invite me to her house to play Scrabble. Words and sentences and stories have mattered most to me for most all my life
I grew up in a small bedroom community just outside Nashville, Tennessee. I left once to study English literature in California and again for a couple of years and a couple of cold winters to write advertising in Chicago, but all in all, Tennessee is home to me. While I was in Chicago I published my first book, Private Visions in Public Places, a coffee table book with someone else's photographs of the city. I got off the escalator one day in Water Tower Place and saw a bookstore window with a big display of the book. I have never recovered.
In between California and Chicago, I spent almost ten years heading up the marketing team for The Benson Company in Nashville, the major religious music firm that bore the family name. There followed several years as a freelance writer and editor, and two years on the staff of Upper Room Books. I graduated from The Academy for Spiritual Formation, a two-year program of study and prayer in community with some sixty people from across the South and also became a member of The Friends of Silence & of the Poor, an international prayer community.
Somewhere in there, I began to find my own voice. I had always written ' journals, bad adolescent poetry, advertising, even ghostwriting a couple of books. I even made a living at it. One day I discovered that I could no longer write for hire, because I could not get my own voice out of my head and it was time to begin to write my own stories.
I write two kinds of books about one thing ' paying attention.
I write about paying attention for the things that can point us to the Sacred in our lives. About the longings that we have for home and community and a sense of belonging in our lives. About practice and ritual and work and contemplation and the way that such things can be constant reminders of who we are and who we are to become.
One kind of book that I writes is overtly religious. They are books that are written for readers who are interested in discussing such things in the traditional language that the Church uses ' the language of spirituality and prayer and liturgy, the language of religion.
The second kind of book is less overtly religious. They are written to try and discover the holy, if you will, that is to be found in the ordinary. They are written about more general subjects, everything from baseball to gardening to travel
So now there is a body of work that has been published to favorable reviews from The New York Times, USA Today, and other major newspapers, critical acclaim from the publishing community as evidenced by the reviews in Publishers' Weekly, BookPage, and other reviewers, and notable comments from other writers in the field of spirituality. All of which is pretty surprising to me.
I have somehow managed to stumble into living almost exactly the kind of life to which I have been drawn since I was old enough to wonder about what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I live in Nashville still where I write every day in a small studio in our back garden, see my children and their friends every time I get a chance, and take seriously the call to participate in the prayer that sanctifies the day and the work of the world. I am married to the literary agent Sara Fortenberry, for whom I am gratefully yard man, travel companion and head librarian. And I get to say yes a few times a year to opportunities to lead seminars and retreats on prayer, silence, writing, and spirituality, subjects I have led dozens of retreats on around the country in recent years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gently prayerful introduction to liturgical prayer, October 16, 2008

By 

Sister Anne "nunblogger" (C H I C A G O) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Constant Prayer (Ancient Practices) (Hardcover)

This is an introduction to the whole concept of what we Catholics call the Liturgy of the Hours. Benson was brought up in the Nazarene tradition (he's now Episcopalian) and writes for a non-Catholic readership, but I suspect that many Catholics could profit from this beautifully written presentation. (It helps that Benson is a poet.)
Benson noted in an early chapter that on his morning drive to the store to pick up the papers he reads daily (hey, writers have to read!), he would pass several houses of worship. At that early hour, between 6:30 and 7:00 each morning, he noticed that the parking lots were busy as worshipers streamed back to their cars and went off to work. They were beginning the day with prayer as a community. He also noted that the houses of worship were: a mosque, a synagogue, and a Catholic Church. The churches of his own tradition were not the sites of such daily activity. But many Protestants are beginning to adopt the ancient prayer that Catholics and Orthodox Christians inherited from Judaism. And many Catholics are learning how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, or are joining in morning prayer in their parish before daily Mass.
It never was supposed to be just for monks, deacons and priests: we are all supposed to be participating in the prayer that the Body of Christ (that would be us) offers to the Father. Believe it or not, for about a thousand years, everyone was expected to come to Church daily for morning prayer: it was part of being a believer! That started getting lost at the time of the Renaissance; the Reformation finished the job in many places. (I recall from reading that at least in Italy in the late 1800's, parishioners were expected on Sundays to attend not just the Mass, but also Evening Prayer in their local Church.)
Benson's book comes some years after he published a kind of introductory version of "fixed-hour" prayerbook. It offered first steps in what the ancient monks (and also Vatican II) spoke of as sanctifying the whole day. His book, and a similar one by Phyllis Tickle, enjoyed a really good distribution. What I think we are beginning to see in these years is a rediscovery of the value of what is called by many names: the Divine Office, the Breviary, Lauds and Vespers, fixed-time prayer. It would be an important renewal in Christian living: we seem to be one of the first generations of Christians who do not typically recollect ourselves two, three or the biblical seven times a day in prayer--not the "gimme" kind of prayer, but the prayer of simple praise. And in the Liturgy of the Hours, that praise does not have to depend on one's feelings of exaltation or gladness: the words of praise and thanks have been given to us right in the book of Psalms, which the Hours use as the primary prayer book.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Life Changing, May 16, 2008

By 

Diane Noble (Southern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Constant Prayer (Ancient Practices) (Hardcover)

I "inhaled" IN CONSTANT PRAYER my first time through, and now I'm rereading it, savoring every page. Already, it has completely changed my approach to and understanding of the sacredness of praying the daily office. I've just ordered three more copies to give away as gifts. Thank you, Robert, for the gift you have given us in this book. It is a treasure.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a very very basic introduction, October 10, 2008

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Constant Prayer (Ancient Practices) (Hardcover)

Okay, the author states that this is not a book for everyone - I certainly agree. The target audience appears to be Christians outside the liturgical system, minimally familar with prayer other than petitionary and intercessory, unused to a corporate rather than individual orientation and who want to explore their "spiritual development" in a more organized way.

To this particular audience, Benson's neighborly and verbose style is, perhaps, both appropriate and effective. Without any "preachiness" he disarms most objections to the practice of praying the liturgical hours. As one from a tradition where Morning and Evening prayer has long been part of the parish life, I found his constant reference to prayerbooks being daunting (very true) rather than offering practical advice on how to learn to navigate them a bit annoying.

However, I loved Benson's discription of getting his morning paper - passing Muslim, Jewish and Catholic congregations just leaving morning prayer. Perhaps, it is because I could easily be in those congregations, that I found Benson's book to be a nice essay expanded into a book length tome.