The very first sign of dawn’s light drives sleep from our eyelids, and when the first grey daylight breaks forth, it scatters the shadows of our dreams.
Then every bird that can sing, sitting among the branches before it takes flight, bears witness to the presence of dawn.
For by a movement of its own wings it shakes off the silence as it shakes away the vanity of sleep, and in the morning twilight looks forward to the bright sunshine;
those who are still sleeping it rouses by its own voice.
In the same way, as the light of the Gospel floods the house of the universal Church, let the mist of sluggishness fade like night, and let every vain activity, like a tent pitched in a dreamland, be folded up;
let the inspired songs of our teachers resound from the highest branches of the pulpit, bearing their own witness to the presence of the heavenly light. (Dn Pantolean, LIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN, p 107)
[According to the notes in the book, nothing is known for certain about Deacon Pantolean; his sermon is listed in a collection of Patristic sermons but who he was or when he lived is not known.]
Fraternized 