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Good Morning. The Spanish mystic, St John of the Cross, says the soul at dawn is like a sparrow on a rooftop, turning itself towards the Spirit of Love. It’s a poetic image. Yet, as we discovered only last week, dozens of Muslim worshippers paid the ultimate price while worshipping God at dawn when they were shot dead during prayers at a mosque in Nigeria.

Each day, though, is an opportunity to renew our lives before God: to put the past behind us and re-orient ourselves using the divine compass. I like the description of a Christian as someone who says: ‘Today I am beginning again,’ a statement that finds its source in the resurrection of Christ. No sin, no mistake, no regret has the last word as we focus on the mercy of God rather than those things that plague us with feelings of guilt or shame. God is no tormentor of the human conscience.

Each day we’re encouraged to set off again along a spiritual path which will never be devoid of trial or temptation. This is what conversion is all about: to begin again without fear. The Christian life can only be understood in terms of continually renewed conversion. And in this respect our lives become literally revolutionized. Revolution comes from the Latin, revolutus, to turn around. Christianity is about turning around again and again. In the words of Gregory of Nyssa, in the Christian life we go forward ‘from beginning to beginning, across beginnings that never end.’ Creator God, as this new day dawns, may the morning star rise in our hearts to bring us the light of life and lead us towards the everlasting day.’ Amen.