My first morning's hour belongs to the Lord...

This is the day the LORD has made; 

let us rejoice and be glad in it. - Psalm 118:24

    "The duties and cares of the day ahead crowd about us when we awake in the morning (if they have not already dispelled our night's rest).  Now arises the uneasy question:  How can all this be accommodated in one day?  When will I do this, when that?  How shall I start on this and that? 

    Thus agitated, we would like to run around and rush forth.  We must then take the reins in hand and say, "Take it easy!  Not any of this may touch me now.  My first morning's hour belongs to the Lord.  I will tackle the day's work which He charges me with, and He will give me the power to accomplish it."

    So I will go to the altar of God.  Here it is not a question of my minute, petty affairs, but of the great offering of reconciliation.  I may participate in that, purify myself and be made happy, and lay myself with all my doings and troubles along with the sacrifice on the altar.  And when the Lord comes to me then in Holy Communion, then I may ask Him, "Lord, what do you want of me?" (St Teresa).  And after quiet dialogue, I will go to that which I see as my next duty."

From Essays on Woman,

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Image: Sunrise over Belgian village, Labliau (30 km southwest of Brussels)

“The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it.  It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.  All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.  And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in."  - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity