After midnight and before dawn, comes a time which belongs to no day. It begins beyond the point of deepest darkness and runs to the edge of dawn. The Portuguese have a special name for this time. They call it Madrugada. This is a time when time hangs still. Some say it is the coldest part of any night. Yet it is the time when the change from night to day happens. This photo here gives an idea of what I am talking about (found on www.viaggiareliberi.it/nicaragua). Madrugada is also photographically wonderful since the light is so much cleaner than at sunset. I have since adopted this Portuguese word too into my personal vocabulary because I feel that it depicts nicely the element of change in our life. We are daily put through so many changes that we either adapt or we flounder. So many people over a certain age tend to live in the past because it gives them a sense of belonging and security, a link to a place, a time, a situation when they might have achieved something. Sometimes these were small things which people barely noticed, sometimes greater things too that everyone knew about. But at the same time we learn that life makes us move on. And not look back too much. Betty Mahalik said that "To live a great life is to discover the life you have right now, instead of trying to invent a whole new life." Yet today life encourages us to live in the present....remember that ad "Life is Now!"? Yet is that the right philosophy to face up to living in the toughness of this Twentyfirst century?
To me such a concept that life is now seems too empty because I think that through it we are not open to allowing anything to really happen in our life...contrary to that Madrugada moment in between night and day, where nothing is what it is supposed to be, where we can dream. And hope. Because it is where the new day is being born. It is an exciting time indeed, especially if you've been out walking on a seafront at that time awaiting the first rays of the new day to break the darkness that was. Madrugada has its own special magic which many of us miss in the hustle and bustle of our lives. And our rush to achieve. Because the new day is what it is, not like yesterday, but the offshoot from it, heralding the new to lead us on. Jerry Rice puts it nicely for me: "Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't."
But this pre-dawn time is really a very spiritual time indeed. When I am dragged out of bed at this hour by my wife to go out walking - the excuse is the exercise we need to do! - I really feel the serenity of nature, of the seas lapping on the rocks, and I realise that this is all the Almighty Good's work. Madrugada is a time when I really feel at one with the One who matters. It is a time when I feel I can think about my life in general and often find that this peacefulness helps me find the route to solutions to situations facing me.
Interestingly Madrugada is also to be found in Scripture. I came across the following in the current issue of "Bible Alive": "In the midst of reporting for us the signs and wonders of Christ's life, the evangelist Mark captures for us something of the interior life of Jesus - the key no doubt to his life and ministry: "And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place and there he prayed" (Mark 1,v 35). It seems that Jesus' entire life had its sources in these early morning times of prayer and communion with his Father. Jesus was a prayer warrior. He knew that his Father was truly omnipotent and had the power to do anything, to change anyone and to intervene in any circumstance. So what is intersting is the time of day that Jesus prayed - very early in the morning while it was still dark. The Church has never been prescriptive about when we should pray: only that we should pray. However perhaps the best time to receive our spiritual nourishment is early in the morning before the day begins. If Jesus received strength, consolation and wisdom from his Father's presence then we can be sure that it's where we need to find ours. Prayer was the road Jesus walked to be with his Father and prayer is the road we must walk as well."
Perhaps the best part of the Madrugada thought process is that with dawn comes food, the nourishment that will drive us on for the day ahead. And I was amused to note that this is also borne out in the Gospel of John where we find written that just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach...and that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!". When they got out of their boat onto land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it, and bread. And Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast" with which he came and took the bread and the fish and gave it to them! (John 21, 4,9.12,13) (Image from http://www.joyfulheart.com/).
Perhaps because my mind was already thinking of this Madrugada post last week, I was struck by a reading at an early morning(!) mass about Jesus preaching and healing all day yet at the end of the day, tired as he was, he still found the time and felt the need to be alone to pray to his father. And not just a short prayer but he was up all night praying and listening to his Father. The celebrant, Mgr Victor Grech, stressed that if Jesus found the need to pray to his Father how much more should we feel the need to pray, and not just for a quick few minutes but to spend long, quiet, periods with Him who matters, finding time to listen to what the Lord has to tell us.
So next time you're up early, wherever you are in the world, let's share a spiritual Madrugada together!
