"That got me thinking…"

I’ve been using a great book during Lent: Praying the Hours in Ordinary Life. It’s an amazing tool, beautifully written. There are poems and artwork, an easy about each of the “hours” (there are eight, the traditional hours that monks will stop and pray). It’s incredibly accessible, easy to use and it’s been a true companion recently.

Here is an excerpt from the essay on “None” (pronounced like “Cone”), which is typically prayed at the end of the afternoon/end of the work day.

How beautiful this dappled, soft hour of light, and yet heartbreaking. Grey at the temples, the hour of None is melancholy, a time to power things we thought would always be with us. We crave contact with something transcendent at this time of day precisely because temporal things are dissolving into shadow…suspense is natural at this ninth hour…when the light plays among the shadows..and we are haunted by old dreams. The gentle challenge of None is not to give up, for there is time left.