Prayers, Facebook and Monastic

I've been awake since just before 2:00.  I'm the first person the alarm company calls when the alarm goes off at school.  Just before 2, the company called.  I couldn't fall back asleep, so by 3:00, I was up and at the computer.

I did what I almost always do first thing in the morning:  I checked Facebook.  I was surprised by how many people had been on Facebook between the hours of 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. (EDT) to post about their pain.

As I so often did, I said a small prayer for each person who posted.  I prayed for everybody, whether they had happy news or pain reports.

When I'm up this early, I also think about the monks who are in my same time zone, many of whom report to the chapel for their first set of daily prayers around 3:00 a.m. or so.  They keep watch, while the rest of us sleep.  I have often lulled myself back to sleep with this knowledge.  People may scoff, but I like the idea that at any hour of the day, in a chapel somewhere, monastics pray for the world.

Soon the sun will begin to stain the morning sky, and some monastics will report for Lauds, the service that welcomes the morning.  Down here on the southern tip of the North American continent, we have hazy skies, thanks to the African dust that has travelled across the Atlantic to be with us.  Our sunrise forecast calls for glorious.

As we shift from Vigils to Lauds, let me remember to sing my modern Psalms of joy and concern at every hour.