Jesus is always telling us to wake up, stay awake, be vigilant, and be more alert to a deeper reality. What is meant by that, and how exactly are we “asleep?” Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that we all know how difficult it is for us to be in the present moment and not be asleep to the real riches in our lives. Daily life’s distractions and worries tend to consume us so much that we habitually take for granted what’s most precious to us: our health, the miracle of our senses, the love and friendships that surround us, and the gift of life itself. We go through our daily lives not only with a lack of reflectiveness and gratitude but with a habitual touch of resentment as well, a chronic, grey depression. We are very much asleep, both to God and to our own lives. How do we wake up? An awareness of our mortality does wake us up, as does a stroke, a heart attack, or cancer; but that heightened awareness is easier to sustain for a short season of our lives than it is for twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years. Nobody can sustain that kind of awareness all the time. None of us can live seventy or eighty years as if each day was our last day. Or can we? Spiritual wisdom offers a nuanced answer: We can and can’t! On the one hand, everyday life’s distractions, cares, and pressures will invariably have their way with us, and we will, in effect, fall asleep to what’s deeper and more important inside of life. None of us live each day of our lives as if it were their last day. Our heartaches, headaches, distractions, and busyness invariably lull us to sleep. That’s forgivable; it’s what it means to be human. So we should ensure that we have regular spiritual rituals and spiritual alarm clocks to jolt us back awake so that it doesn’t take a heart attack, a stroke, cancer, or death to wake us up. For this reason, we need to begin each day with prayer, as this is how we maintain alertness to God’s actions.