Shine your love on us each dawn and gladden all our days.
Liturgy of the Hours

Day break is my favorite time of the day. I’m usually out on my 3 mile walk—weather permitting. Much of my 45 minute walk is spent in communion with God. The setting is conducive of conversation with my Friend. While not every sunrise is brilliantly beautiful, it is not necessary. It is possible to talk with my Friend under any circumstance. But often the sky looks like stained a glass window, the panorama seems to be painted with every color of the spectrum and yet the whole blends together as if part of a planned design, reminding me of the passage from Revelations 15:2, “Then I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire.”

Texas mornings can be foggy, overcast or just blah but always punctuated by the call of birds, the scampering of squirrels and occasionally with honking ducks. Sometimes mist rises gently from the nearby park reminding me to give praise and thanksgiving for sacred in all that I am experiencing; to, as author Macrina Wiederkehr so beautifully says, “raise high the chalice of my day in any kind of weather”. Each of the weather presentations leads me to prayer of all varieties. But often enough dawn will give me a present and when this happens, I feel very close to God.

I find a special joy watching the echo of the First Creation and loveliness fills my morning and the ensuing day. “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness.…to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78-79

Bringer of the Dawn

I awake with gratitude for my life

May I bring the gift of your goodness

To all I meet today. Joyce Rupp

Donnie Hawley