“The angel of the Lord is on guard round those who fear him, and he rescues them” (Psalm 33:8)

The angel is on guard. He stands by, he watches, he protects. He is the guardian by night and the companion by day. We are always surrounded by dangers, worried by threats, weakened by doubts. That is why he is always alert, always ready to raise the alarm, to wake up the camp, to stop the enemy. He watches. Now I can sleep in peace.

Sometimes I wake up under uneasy fears which grow longer with the shadows of the night. Am I doing well what I am doing? Will I finish my work in time? Will everything come out well? Should I not have accepted what I rejected, or rejected what I accepted? Did I do well to get into that? Am I in time to get out of it? Will I have the strength to finish it? Is this not time for me to put aside so many responsibilities and withdraw and rest? Since when will I have to worry about the whole world, which is lost without help, and which is worse now that when I entered it? Why should I keep answering questions I have no answer to and tackling problems I have no solution for? Is not all I have done useless and void? Is it not silly of me to keep bent on achieving what cannot be achieved? The rush of doubts preys easily on my helpless imagination in the night solitude. Terror in the midst of the silence of the camp.

During the day the very work and the succession of tasks one after another distract the mind, keep worries away, and prevent thought. But the vigil of the night leaves me defenceless before the combined attack of all my doubts and fears and complexes and shyness. The clever enemy attacks in the darkness when a noise sounds like a storm and a shadow looks like an army. Wedges of unrest to disturb the necessary rest. Who will help me?