This order and discipline must be sought and found in the morning prayer. It will stand the test at work. Prayer offered in early morning is decisive for the day. The wasted time we are ashamed of, the temptations we succumb to, the weakness and discouragement in our work, the disorder and lack of discipline in our thinking and in our dealings with other people: all these very frequently have their cause in our neglect of morning prayer. The ordering and scheduling of our time will become more secure when it comes from prayer.It's a strange thing, but I have found this to hold true in every circumstance and stage of life. It doesn't get less true as one moves into contemplative ways of praying: somehow it applies even more keenly in the wide lands of silence and stillness.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, with thanks to BibleGateway
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Early in the morning...
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5 comments:
Ah, Mike, thank you. I so needed to read this. How easily I forget...
So true.
My morning prayer in the quiet dark early morn is the most treasured time of my life.
It's so true. Why is it so easy to put off, then?
It's funny, when I am in the habit I can't imagine not having that communing time every day. I LOVE what Bonhoeffer says here. It is like this communing meditation space in the morning extends all the minutes of the rest of the day.
And yet still the days go by one after the other and I have not returned to this discipline. Eeeek!!
(But thanks so much for posting this. Perhaps it will be the needed bottom kick I need to return :)
Thanks, everyone... this seems to have struck a chord with you as it did with me. Really is an essential insight, isn't it?
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