6. the day:evening and morning:interlude

"the heavens declare the glory of god,
the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork:
day discourses of it to day,
night to night hands on the knowledge." (Psalm 19:1-2)

in a section of his delightfully insightful book prayer shapes believing called "hinges of daily prayer," leonel h. mitchell more or less proves scholastically that evening and morning prayer "have a different status" from other times of prayer, quoting from the second vatican council's constitution on sacred liturgy that "[they]are the two hinges on which the daily office turns. they must be considered as the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such;" from robert taft, s.j., that "the offices at the begenning and end of day are . . . ritual moments symbolic of the whole of time . . . . they are our priest prayer as god's priestly people for our needs and those of the entire world. this is what liturgy means . . . . as a matter of fact, this is what life means;" and from the taize community, that "the liturgy of the church, the daily office, is part of the heavenly liturgy, of the office of christ and the angels, presenting before the throne of the father the prayersof the saints, toether with their own praise and intercessions."

of course, only we silly people need this proof, this reminder. the rest of the animal kingdom, knows and celebrates. at dusk and at dawn there is always a pause, a change in dance and song. i have watched, at black bass lake in arkansas, young white-tailed does dance their lauds as the sun lightens the mists of the new creation. and one midsummer, one in which the full moon and the solstice coincided, making very high tides that swallowed the beaches of hope island at the southern end of puget sound, i read vespers each evening in a madrona that overhung the water, i on one branch, and each evening for a week, a raven on another. we came, i think, to begin to understand each other's alien chants.

each of those evenings we both, man and raven, were given the amazing gifts of darkness and pregnancy, water and the mother. and each mornining, as i would boil water for the tea with which i toasted the rising son, sent to "guide our feet into the way of peace," (luke 1:79b) that raven, who came to share his oat meal with me, and i were given the amazing gifts of light and birth, warmth and the father.