It is cockcrow, the time when light just begins to break through the darkness, and the time for Matins. But don't go out and buy your rooster just yet (Fr Yuri is still trying to return his!) — the goal of this series is to help you enact the services of the daily cycle at home in a practical and sustainable way.

Thematically, Matins is the mirror image of Vespers, straddling the transition now from dark to light. This transition is a sacramental moment, a transformational act we are all invited to be the priests of, offering up the darkness that God would be able to do something within and through it, and turn it again into light. In essence, this is the Christian life!

Regardless of the time you rise, Fr Geoffrey and Fr Yuri offer practical advice for enacting this service, stilling ourselves in the midst of what is and what will come, turning to God and placing our trust utterly in Him.