Begin Your Day with Prayer

Morning. A new day. You open your eyes after hours of sleep and dreams. You open your eyes and don’t give it a second thought, do you not? You wake to another day. No big deal. Hohum. Be happy! You woke up, and you are still alive. You have another day in a string of days that, one day, will come to an end. You only get so many hours, minutes, and seconds, and no more. Finitude,it’s called. Mortality, it’s called.

This is a wonder, this waking up to a new day, and a cause for deep happiness. It’s a wonder that we don’t see the wonder of it all. Your heart knows, but because new days happen over and over and over and…. Your heart knows the wonder of each new day, but how often do you listen to your heart?  You take it for granted. Everyone does. But it is good for us, down deep, if we give ourselves a shake now and then and remember the wonder of it all. The wonderful happiness and joy of having another day to live. Countless people who had yesterday to live don’t have today because yesterday, or last night, they bought the farm. They don’t have today. But you do. It boggles the mind.

          See here. We are not talking about a Pollyanna outlook on life and the world. Maybe you woke up this morning and remembered that you are unemployed. Major bummer. Or maybe you woke up with a terrible cold, or the flu, or some other debilitating infection. Oo. Perhaps you opened your eyes this morning only to know, again, that you have a terminal illness. Perhaps you are old and tired and sick. Every new day isn’t a day on Sunnybrook Farm.

That’s reality, whatever you woke up this morning. That’s reality, and that’s the stuff prayer is made of. So begin your day with prayer. Lie in your bed, or stand at the window, or kneel down, or sit down. Speak silently to the Divine Mystery in your own deepest centre. Speak silently to the Divine Mystery present in love at the heart of the universe and its farthest reaches. Enough of this and you can be happy, no matter what else is going on for you. Absolutely. Because the only true happiness is conscious union with your Creator who is Love.

          Say whatever comes into your noggin, or say a prayer you know by heat. “Our Father…””Hear, O Israel…””Om manipadmiom…”

          “Hail, Mary…””Bless the Lord my soul…””All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.”

          Clam up and give your heart a chance to speak honestly to the Divine Mystery at your own deepest centre. If it is an ordinary day, your prayer may be routine. If it is a day of unemployment or sickness, your prayer may be a prayer of complaint and begging for help or a prayer of anger. All the matters is prayer at the start of the new day. No matter how you feel, each new day is a gift…. And there is no telling, no telling at all, what this day will bring. So be happy. Open yourself to the new day. Open yourself to god’s love through prayer, and be happy.