Across the ravine, a dog barks. Songbirds are coming back to Ottawa. I heard one singing at dawn this morning. What a glorious thing it is to pray first thing and to experience this stillness, this quickened attention to the now.

Why--if the rewards are so great--is it so hard to establish as a regular pattern? So often I read the newspaper first, or my email. I can always pray later, I tell myself. Often I do. But there's something about doing my prayers before I indulge those other interests. It's as if I'm saying: You, Lord, are the most important part of my day, the One on whom everything else rests. You come first. Help me to present myself, my body as a living sacrifice today.