the great work of sunrise

"the great work of sunrise again today. the awful solemnity of it. the sacredness. unbearable without prayer and worship. I mean unbearable if you really put everything else aside and see what is happening! Many, no doubt, are vaguely aware that it is dawn, but they are protected from the solemnity of it by the neutrilizing worship of their own society, their own world, in which the sun no longer rises and sets." -Thomas Merton