dawn wednesday...

for the week at the beach we'll be sneaking in some prayer/meditation time for the kids. it's something we do each year, but this year we're going to work a little more intentionally from thomas merton's 'a book of hours'. that book gives you a little sequence of prayers or meditations for four times during the day, dawn, day, dusk and dark. there are a bunch of different readings for each time, so we're not going to do all of them (obviously) but i'm working on doing some of them each day and hope that when i'm on the beach i can do all of each time for the whole week. we'll see how it goes! the following section is the prayer we're having our kids read wednesday morning, since most of you will read this wednesday morning(ish) i thought it was appropriate. it's good stuff! stuff i'm finding i just absolutely love reading. i hope you enjoy it! i think i'll probably post some readings and maybe some reflections later that day or the next day. we'll see. for now, enjoy your first dawn wednesday reading :O)

Sunrise is an event that calls forth solemn music in the very depths of man's nature, as if one's whole being had to attune itself to the cosmos and praise God for the new day, praise Him in the name of all the creatures that ever were or ever will be.
I look at the rising sun and feel that now upon me falls the responsibility of seeing what all my ancestors have seen, in the stone age and even before it, praising God before me. Whether or not they praised Him then, for themselves, they must praise Him in me. When the sun rises each one of us is summoned by the living and the dead to praise God.