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In Constant Prayer (The Ancient Practices) (2008)

by Robert Benson(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0849901138 (ISBN13: 9780849901133)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Thomas Nelson Publishers

review 1: I chose to read and do a book review of Robert Benson’s book “In Constant Prayer” because I wanted to learn how the practice of the Daily Office could impact my prayer life. I come from an evangelical background and I have very little experience with liturgical practices. I didn’t even KNOW what “Daily Office” meant so I was coming to the ideas of this book with a completely blank slate. It was with much expectation that I came to read this book.Benson writes with a very conversational style and the book is easy to read. It is a short book and he tells lots of stories in the book, making what could be a boring subject very easy to study. Those are the pros. But…I was very let down by this book. I felt that I really didn’t learn much about the Daily O... moreffice at all and I didn’t learn much about how the practice of it would impact my life. The gist of the impact, as told by Benson, is that the discipline of practicing the Daily Office would pay off by causing your heart and thoughts to be drawn to God throughout your day. That is a very obvious statement…every spiritual discipline does that. Beyond that point, the stories in the book were general encouragements all pointing to the same idea: it is good to do the Daily Office. So I felt that there was a lot of repetition of that one general idea rather than a deeper look at the practice. Because of that, I finished the book without really feeling drawn to the practice. I might try it out but my desire to do so isn’t because I felt so drawn to the practice because of the book. The book only helped me to understand a little bit more about the structure of the Office, but was not a compelling encouragement to practice it.I give “In Constant Prayer” 3 out of 5 stars.I recieved this book for free through the BookSneeze.com blogger program.
review 2: I did not care for this book. It is fairly well written; but I disagree with the underlying premise of the book. In the opening pages of the book the author suggests that we can get God to answer more of our requests if we will follow a certain pattern of prayer. I believe this to be false. He even cites a certain woman by the name of Bettie who was known to receive more answers to prayers than other people because she followed this prescribed method. The method that Benson prescribes for obtaining God's favor is called the “daily office”. This method of praying is also known as the “liturgy of the hours”, “fixed hour prayer”, and the “divine office” among other names. Basically, this method of praying at specific times of the day is a return to the method of praying that the early Christian monks followed. Benson also maintains that we need to follow prayer patterns outlined in prayer books and repeat these prayers in a rote fashion. I also disagree with this notion because Jesus tells us in Matt 6:7 that “when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words” NKJV. All of this reminds me of my Catholic upbringing when I attended a parochial school. It was not until I accepted Jesus Christ and made Him the Lord of my life that I found true freedom of worshiping God in prayer.(Note: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255) less

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