By Sister Renee Yann
“Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, and we will sing for joy.” -Psalm 90: 14
Each morning, every soul is called out of sleep into life, out of darkness into dawn. As surely as the flower is kissed by the sun, as gently as grass is refreshed by the rain, the sparrow is called from its nest, the fox from its hollow. From the Oriental Sunrise, all across the nations, the curtain is drawn back in revelation. Every country is slowly illuminated across seas and deserts, plains and mountains, wars and peace.
Across your own soul, all your personal geographies awaken, lit one by one with the awareness of life. Each person whose breath has crossed your life—be they lover, friend, sister, or the shadow of a stranger momentarily passing on a distant afternoon—each one, this morning, will be struck like a candle by the Morning Spark, by the kindling of God. Will they catch fire with their lives? Will you?
We are ignited by God to live God’s sacred life in our time. We will each unfurl in a vital flame or smolder in the embers of our unawareness. From the depths of our poverty or the shallowness of our wealth, it makes no difference. It is the same Light. We will all be touched.
What differs are the shadows each of us has wrapped about our hearts, those deceptive veils where we hide from the mercifully incisive brilliance of God. What veil might I lay aside today? Distraction, worry, vengeance, resentment, self-importance, laziness, a failure of intention in my choices, the enslavement of a toxic relationship? At this moment in time, what unveiling will allow me to embrace God’s amazing gift of life?
Will I look fully into God’s bright eyes today by facing my own heart? Will I let God look back at me through the hearts of those with whom I share this sunrise?