It is my hope that this small book will acquaint many readers with a Christian custom that has roots deeper in the common history of our faith than anyone knows. The action may at first seem awkward; it may take time to acquire the gracefulness of those who have woven it through their prayers for decades. But there is hardly a more visible way to “take up your cross,” as the Gospel of Matthew says (Matthew 10:38), than this, and join the company of those who in all ages have borne witness to Christ before the world.
—Frederica Mathewes-Green (from the Introduction)
