A Window of Grace and Gratitude

In a moment of casual conversation, I was once asked to name my favorite time of day, as in morning, evening, not a specific mark on the clock. Already somebody in the group had said “Morning” and someone else “Dawn.” Others claimed the same or added new categories and then it came to me. “Dusk,” I said. “I like dusk best of all.” “Really?” I was asked. “You like dusk? But the day is over; everything’s done. It’s too melancholy, kind of sad.” And I thought to myself…and still believe…that dusk is a beautiful, most often calm, “quieting” time of day. The jolt of awakening, the heat of activity, afternoons of meeting deadlines…all done. Dusk, that time just before the sun slips away in the west, just before gray turns to black and shadows disappear into night, is a time when fairy dust and angels’ wings fill the air. I choose Dusk.

I might, though, suggest another name for this special time of day: Vespers. That word appears in the title of Frank J. Cunningham’s book “Vesper Time: The Spiritual Practice of Growing Older.” Published by Orbis, it’s worth a look. Early in the little volume, the author comments on the spiritual practice of prayer in this way: “prayer is much more than addressing volumes of words to God. It means being open to God’s presence in everything we do. Or put another way, everything we do can be prayer.” My kind of book! In case you can’t find your dictionary, Vespers, or evening prayer, is an observance of the day’s progression. “A time of lighting the lamps just before darkness descends,” Cunningham writes. Sounds a lot like “Dusk”. In the Liturgy of the Hours, Vespers is a beautiful time.

And so I make my case for looking upon the Vespers time of life as a potentially beautiful moment. Of course, you have to go easy on the “organ recitals”…my left knee, my right hip, my sciatica…and look at life through a window of Grace and Gratitude. I’m told that the view through that window is remarkable. And it is.

In case you haven’t reached the Vespers time of your life, you’ll get there. When you do, throw open the window and wave at the wonder.