If GOD doesn’t build the house,

the builders only build shacks.

If GOD doesn’t guard the city,

the night watchman might as well nap.

It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late,

and work your worried fingers to the bone.

Don’t you know he enjoys

giving rest to those he loves?

Don’t you see that children are GOD’s best gift?

the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?

Like a warrior’s fistful of arrows

are the children of a vigorous youth.

Oh, how blessed are you parents,

with your quivers full of children!

Your enemies don’t stand a chance against you;

you’ll sweep them right off your doorstep.

PSALM 127

The first great fact which emerges from our civilization is that today everything has become “means.”

There is no longer an “end”; we do not know whither we are going. We have forgotten our collective ends, and we possess great means: we set huge machines in motion in order to arrive nowhere.

JACQUE SELLUL