Getting up early in the morning during winter does require some fortitude. It helps being a runner and ‘needing’ to get up and train. To those that venture out early there are some spectacular rewards, and I would argue some great benefits to those who are keen to start each day on a spiritual high.

The prayers Philip J Newell’s Celtic Benediction - Morning and Night Prayer seem to be written with an innate knowledge of what the early morning is like. The prayer for Wednesday [there are morning and evening prayers of each day of the week] has some beautiful turns of phrase:

“For the first showings of the morning light

and the emerging outline of the day

thanks be to you, O God.

For earth’s colours drawn forth by the sun

its brilliance piercing the clouds of darkness

and shimmering through leaves and flowing waters

thanks be to you.

Show to me this day

amidst life’s dark streaks and wrong and suffering

the light that endures in every person.

Dispel the confusions that cling close to my souls

that I may see with eyes washed by your grace

that I may see myself and all people

with eyes cleansed by the freshness of the new day’s light