Marcia Ford "Traditions of the Ancients"

I picked up Marcia Ford's book the last time I was a Powell's Bookstore in Portland and it is a real gem. There has been a lot of ink spilled in the last decade about the historic practices of the Christian Church as evangelicals have begun to discover their historic roots. Most books of this kind focus on the tried and true basics of the monastic tradition such as fasting, sacred reading, scripture memory, constant prayer, and even mindful labor. Ford's book includes these but is set apart by the inclusion of spiritual disciplines practiced by the Jews, the Greek Orthodox, and the Old Catholic Church. For example one spiritual discipline she considers is properly grieving the dead where she explains some of the practices of the Jews in this regard such as rending your garments and what this actually means. Another chapter covers prayer postures. Obviously a particular posture is not required to pray, but Christians pray in a variety a ways each of which make a beautiful devotional statement all their own. One practice I really liked was the "night watch". Ford explains that many of the Church fathers made it a practice to rise for prayer in the middle of the night. They did this to cover the Church while they were sleeping but also because it is so quiet that it is easier to seek the Lord without distraction. She provides some great ideas for how we might approach this when we find ourselves awake in the middle of the night. There are certainly meatier books on this subject in print such as Dallas Willard's The Spirit of the Disciplines or Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline, but Tradition of the Ancients is a great introduction to the topic and holds its own with material not usually given much consideration.