“One who fears the Lord will accept his discipline; those who get up early will win his favour.“
Ecclesiasticus 31: 14
“Thou shalt not delay to pay thy tithes and thy firstfruits (…).“
Exodus 22: 29
“(…) the monastic bell was intended as a discipline to stretch the heart by always taking you beyond your own agenda to God‘s agenda. (…) (We) experience the monastic bell each morning when our alarm clock rings and we get out of bed and ready ourselves for the day, not because we want to, but because it‘s time.“
Ronald Rolheiser: Domestic Monastery, Darton, Longman and Todd 2019, p. 20; p. 78-79
“Monks don‘t get to sleep, eat, pray, work, or relax when they feel like it, but when it‘s time to do those things. There is an astonishing parallel between that and what happens in our lives, and we can be helped by understanding it. There is an inbuilt monasticism to our lives. (…) Like monks we sleep, rise, eat, pray, and work, not necessarily when we‘d like to, but when it‘s time.“
On Quinquagesima Sunday, the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday, our Brazilian priest preached looking towards the season of Lent, intent on motivating us. One of his admonitions was: Do not neglect the morning prayer.
It is not easy to build a healthy morning routine that remembers God first and serves as a good preparation for the day. Unfortunately it might easily happen to me that the first thing on my mind when I wake up between 5 and 6 a.m. for another day of work sounds a bit like this: “coffee, all I need is coffee…“ And there you go, stumbling half asleep into your kitchen to brew yourself a cup of what your flesh feels it cannot do without – before remembering to raise your soul up to God.
Because my own daily habits after waking up recently exhibited quite some room for improvement, I decided to gather together some inspirational quotes and pieces of advice from the writings of St Francis de Sales and St John Cassian on how to actually begin a new day well…
Advice no. 1: To begin the day with thanksgiving and consecrate our very first thoughts – before doing anything else
“Thank and adore God for His mercy in preserving you through the past night (…).“
St Francis de Sales: Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, TAN Classics, p. 80
“What can I add about the first-fruits which should be offered daily by all who serve Christ faithfully? When men first awake from sleep, and rise eagerly as they revive from slumber, before they conceive in their hearts the emotion of any sense, or admit any memory or anxiety over domestic matters, they should consecrate their very first thoughts as a holocaust to God. Is not this the payment of the first-fruits of their produce, through Jesus Christ the high priest, giving thanks for the benefits of this life and the daily rehearsal of the resurrection? They rise from sleep and offer the sacrifice of their joy to God, calling on him with the first movement of their tongues, to celebrate the praises of his name; opening their sealed lips by singing hymns to him, they are making a sacrifice to God from the works of their lips. To him they bring the first offerings of their hands, their first steps; when leaving their cells they stand and pray, before using their limbs for any purpose of their own. Before doing anything of benefit to themselves, they direct their steps to the honour of God, and halt them for his praise. (…) we do not presume to make use of our bodily and mental powers for our own needs first.“
John Cassian, Abbot of Marseilles: The Collations. Being a Collection of Twenty-Four Conferences Divided into Three Parts, translated by a Father of the Oxford Oratory, Gracewing 2015, p. 464-465
Words from the mouth of Abba Theonas, one of the Desert Fathers, as reported by St John Cassian in his Collations. Sacramentals like holy water, a crucifix, icons, rosaries, prayer ropes and similar visual reminders next to one‘s bed might be helpful for the attempt to get the right order of things straight when waking up and rising.
Then the very first act before the feet hit the ground – before the first cup of coffee or the refreshing shower – could be making the sign of the cross and offering a short and simple morning prayer of thanks and praise.
“Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever; yes, forever and ever. In your goodness, O Lord, keep me from sin today. You are blessed, O Lord, the God of our fathers, Your name is praised and glorified forever. Amen.“
Ancient morning prayer
Followed maybe throughout the first hour of one’s morning routine by various other invocations to greet God, the Blessed Virgin, one‘s guardian angel, the saints; imploring their help and protection; consecrating and offering the day.
The crucial point is that Abba Theonas warns us that the enemy of our souls would want to make us “put ourselves first, or our business, or our cares over the earthly things we need to survive“ (ibid., p. 465), delaying or even completely cancelling the praise of God.
“Love and prayer can only be sustained through ritual, routine, and rhythm.“
Ronald Rolheiser: Domestic Monastery, Darton, Longman and Todd 2019, p. 41; 45
“That‘s why the saints and the great spiritual writers have always said that there is only one nonnegiotiable rule for prayer: ‘Show up! Show up regularly!‘ The ups and downs of our minds and hearts are of secondary importance.“
Advice no. 2: To anticipate the challenges of the day and resolve how to act
“(…) make a pious resolution to embrace all means whereby you may serve God, and promote your own devotion, and on the other hand prepare to shun, resist, and overcome all that may hinder your salvation and the glory of God. Do not rest satisfied with making the resolution, consider beforehand how you will execute it.“
St Francis de Sales: Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, TAN Classics, p. 80
Each day is another chance for good resolutions, virtuous actions, and favorable twists, turns and solutions to our usual problems. But without the appropriate steps along the way it is impossible to meet the set objectives.
Thus, St Francis de Sales counsels us to reflect upon the way of executing what we resolve to do on a given day beforehand. The example he gives is about having to “come into contact with some hasty, passionate person“ and preparing oneself to “meet him with gentle, soothing words“ (ibid., p. 81).
The method of writing a to-do list comes to mind. We map out the day ahead and schedule what‘s due. But beyond that, St Francis de Sales asks us to anticipate the spiritual challenges that wait for us in connection with our temporal duties and undertakings. It would require to preview the potential traps and pitfalls that could trip us up and to make resolutions on how to find our way around them with the aid of God‘s grace.
Advice no. 3: To commit the day to God and pass to our duties with “calm and tranquility“
“After this, humble yourself before God, acknowledging that of yourself you can perform nothing which you propose, either in doing what is good or avoiding what is bad.“
St Francis de Sales: Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, TAN Classics, p. 81; p. 76
“You must accustom yourself to go from prayer to whatever occupations may be involved by your station or profession, even though they may seem far distant from the feelings excited in you by that prayer. Thus the lawyer must go from prayer to his pleadings, the merchant to his trade, the wife to her conjugal and household duties, with perfect calm and tranquility; for since these duties as well as that of prayer are imposed on us by God, we must pass from one to the other in a devout and humble spirit.“
St Francis de Sales, St John Cassian, pray for us!
Post scriptum: Additional advice by St Francis de Sales for the morning prayer routine
“Devote one hour daily to mental prayer – if you can, let it be early in the morning, because then your mind is less cumbered and more vigorous after the night‘s rest.“
St Francis de Sales: Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, TAN Classics, p. 62
What does he mean by “mental prayer“? He explains it to be “the prayer of the heart“, and “drawn from the contemplation of our Savior‘s life and Passion“ (ibid., p. 61), a habitual meditation on Christ, “his life and death being the most suitable, sweet, blessed, and profitable subject which we can choose for our constant meditation“ (ibid., p. 62).
St Francis de Sales recommends three steps of preparation for this type of “mental prayer“: One ought to “place (oneself) in the presence of God“ (ibid., p. 64), then ask of God “grace to serve and worship Him in (one‘s) meditation“ (ibid., p. 67) by using one of the petitions from the Psalms, as the following taken from Psalm 118, as well as invoke one‘s guardian angel and the saints “most especially connected with the subject of (one‘s) meditation“ (ibid.):
“I am thy servant: give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies.“
Psalm 118: 125
The final step of preparation is the “composition of place“, which means “representing to (oneself) by the aid of the imagination the mystery on which we would meditate, as though it were actually going on before our eyes“ (ibid., p. 68).
The meditation itself then consists of “reflections“, “affections“, and “resolutions“.
“It consists of one or more reflections made with the view of exciting our affections towards God and the things of Heaven. (…) Meditation fills our will, the affective part of the soul, with good impulses, such as the love of God and our neighbor, the desire of Heaven and its glories, zeal for the salvation of souls, imitation of the life of our Saviour (…).“
St Francis de Sales: Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, TAN Classics, p. 70-71
One should conclude the “mental prayer“ with an “act of thanksgiving“, an “act of oblation“ – offering to God the sacrifice of His Son and along with it “our own affections and resolutions“ – and an “act of intercession“ (ibid., p. 73) for the Church and the world.
Knowing myself I am, as of now, quite convinced that the only small kind of meditation I might manage to do early in the morning is one that is based on the concrete content of some passages of Sacred Scripture so that I may not lose focus, concentration, and orientation.
“Always give good heed to the Word of God, whether you hear or read it in private, or hearken to it when publicly preached: listen with attention and reverence; seek to profit by it, and do not let the precious words fall unheeded; receive them into your heart as a costly balsam; imitate the Blessed Virgin who ‘kept all the sayings‘ concerning her Son ‘in her heart.‘“
St Francis de Sales: Philothea or An Introduction to the Devout Life, TAN Classics, p. 99
Reading a couple of passages of Sacred Scripture in the morning is a quite verbal and cerebral approach though, and therefore not exactly what St Francis de Sales means by “one hour“ of “mental prayer“ or “meditation“, as this seems to be a much more imaginative, personal, and intimate contemplation of Christ.
St Francis de Sales‘ advice to practice a whole hour of “mental prayer“ every day has always intimated me quite a bit, ever since having read his Introduction to the Devout Life for the first time three years ago. He writes that “unfortunately at the present time it (i.e. this type of prayer) is too much neglected“ (ibid., p. 64). In another place he refers to it as “a gift“ (ibid., p. 63). “Mental prayer“ seems to be something given to some by grace as well as something which can be practiced by all.
I‘ve always wondered how I might ever be able to follow his recommendation to “gather a little nosegay of devotion“ – “some choice flowers“ (ibid., p. 73) selected from the garden of one‘s meditations – early in the morning, as I sit there tired after a night of maybe five or six hours of sleep, on some days a bit grumpy, next to me this cup of coffee while I am trying to get into a state of readiness to face the day ahead. Or during any other time of the day for that matter when one returns to moments of prayer in between other duties and tasks. Well, here is how Ronald Rolheiser in his book Domestic Monastery takes the pressure down and out…
“During all the most active years of our lives we are reminded daily, sometimes hourly, that time is not our own; we are monks practicing a demanding asceticism. There will not always be time to smell the flowers, and we are not always poorer for that fact. Monasticism has its own spiritual payoffs. To be forced to work, to be tied down with duties, to have to get up early, to have little time to call your own, to be burdened with the responsibility of children and the demands of debts and mortgages, to go to bed exhausted after a working day is to be in touch with out humanity. It is too an opportunity to recognize that time is not our own and that any mature spirituality makes a distinction between the season of work and the Sabbath, the sabbatical, the time of unpressured time. Most important of all, recognizing in our duties and pressures the sound of the monastic bell actually helps us to smell the flowers, to give to each instant of our lives the time it deserves – and not necessarily the time I feel like giving it. We are better for the demands that the duties of our state in life put on us, despite constant fatigue. Conversely, the privileged who have all the time in the world are worse off for that, despite their constant opportunity to smell the flowers. These are monastic secrets worth knowing.“
Ronald Rolheiser: Domestic Monastery, Darton, Longman and Todd 2019, p. 82-83