United In Prayer

"For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption." Psalm 16:10

I behold a dwelling there and a tabernacle of light, a voice proclaiming "Blessed is the Thief who has freely received the keys to Paradise." I imagined that he was already there, but then I considered how the soul cannot have perception of Paradise without its mate, the body, its instrument and lyre (Saint Ephrem the Syrian - The Hymn of Paradise).