Tonight, the closing prayer of Compline included the petition, “fill this night with your radiance.” And indeed, this evening is full of radiance. There are the budding magnolia blossoms that hang like lanterns against a green-black curtain of leaves. There is the fresh coat of white paint that brightens the St. Teresa statue on the front lawn. There is the thin crescent of moon that glows in the darkening sky.
All of this points to a brighter radiance, the radiance of God, and to the luminosity with which He alone fills the earth and our lives and our hearts. It is a radiance that shines upon both knowledge and mystery, both city and desert, both that which we think we can comprehend and that which is beyond our understanding. It is a luminosity that simultaneously exposes the limits of human knowledge and illuminates a path through the wilderness. May His radiance fill our hearts, and enable us to live as children of the Light.
For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we see light.
Psalm 36:9