On Early Rising, a Counsel from Fénelon, and Unhurried Time

A Note from Me

There’s a practice I’ve returned to again and again for the last twenty years. You won’t find it in any classic list of disciplines. Yet I’ve seen it tucked into letters of spiritual direction, hidden in footnotes, passed along quietly like a secret. It isn’t dramatic, but it has helped me so much.

The practice is simple: getting up early.

In my Rule of Life I name it this way:

Early Rising

Early rising is how I make space for meditative prayer and study. It’s how I seek first the kingdom of God.

Some years that has meant 5:00 a.m., other seasons 6:00 or even 7:00 in the summer. The clock shifts, but the heart of it stays the same. Early rising is what allows me to begin unhurried, to seek God first. It is a keystone habit, one that sets others in motion too.

I’ve come to see it as a kind of abstinence—an ascetical practice of self-denial. By giving up a measure of sleep, I gain space for God. The trade is costly in its own way, but the return is greater: time set apart for prayer, for quiet, for steady attention.

When I miss it, I feel it. The day moves faster, my attention scatters. But when I keep it, I find margin—space to breathe, to listen, to be.

After so many years, I can’t live without it.

I don’t practice it perfectly, but I do practice it persistently.

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A Voice from the Past

“You greatly need certain free hours to be given to prayer and recollection (deep reflection). Try to steal some such hours, and be sure that such little parings of time will be your best treasures. Above all, try to save your mornings; defend them like a besieged city! Make vigorous sallies (sudden attacks) upon all intruders, clear out the trenches, and then shut yourself up within your keep!

—François Fénelon, The Complete Fenelon

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A Question to Carry

Do you have a daily or weekly practice that gives you unhurried time?

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Thanks for reading,

—Jon