Our spir­i­tu­al­i­ty needs revival, but the dis­ci­plines of the Spir­it often go cov­ered with dust, lying unused by Chris­tians because they feel too much like rules. But what if they weren’t rules? What if they were con­ver­sa­tion starters? Invi­ta­tions to dis­cov­er God right now, today?

In Out of the House of Bread author Pre­ston Yancey leads us in a new but old direc­tion of spir­i­tu­al­i­ty engag­ing the sym­bol­ism and expe­ri­ence of spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­plines made plain and acces­si­ble by the bak­ing of bread.

The ben­e­fits of this book of devo­tion include: find­ing a near­ness to the holi­ness of Go and feel­ing and expe­ri­enc­ing the for­give­ness of God. You’ll learn again the dis­ci­plines of cel­e­bra­tion, con­fes­sion, and con­ver­sion, encoun­ter­ing new avenues of prayer along the way. Each chap­ter pairs a spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline or prac­tice with insight to the bak­ing of an extra­or­di­nary loaf of bread. Read­ers encounter ancient prac­tices such as the prayer of exa­m­en, lec­tio div­ina, inter­ces­so­ry prayer, icons, and wonder.

Yancey shows how, like in Broth­er Lawrence’s kitchen The Prac­tice of the Pres­ence of God, that when you lift up your hands to God and pray, God will show up right there in the midst of your work and liveli­hood while you bake.

Out of the House of Bread is a glo­ri­ous cel­e­bra­tion of the sacra­ments and the sea­sons of God, meant as reminders and forms of prayer to take read­ers clos­er to God in wor­ship. An appen­dix about gluten-free and veg­an bread and sug­gest­ed read­ing and art­work for con­tem­pla­tion com­plete the book.

2016