In fact, it brought to mind the words of the Psalmist from today's (12/1/2004) Vespers over at Unversalis. In the first Psalm (27), David expresses his one desire:
"One thing I ask of the Lord;after he declares, as did Alan, in other words:
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord
and contemplate His temple."
"The Lord is my light and my help: whom should I fear?and, then, knowing God will hear him, David asks what only one who knows his true place in God's Heart can ask:
The Lord protects my
life: what could terrify me?
When they come to do me harm, to consume my
flesh,
my enemies and my persecutors, it is they who stumble and fall.
...
For he will shelter me in his tent in the time of evils.
He will
hide me in the hidden parts of the tabernacle; then raise me up on a rock..."
Show me your ways, Lord, and guide me along the right path ..."
The NT canticle for tonight (Col 1:12-20) drives home this point, that we are God's Beloved Children, for whom Jesus endured the Cross, that we might be in the Family. What Joy!