Night
Compline: My Hope Is the Father
“I will both lie down in peace and sleep: for thou, Lord, only hast caused me to dwell securely.”Psalm 4:8
Reflection
Compline is the Church's prayer “after supper,” the last service before sleep. Near its end come three short prayers worth learning by heart. The first is by a monk named Antiochus. It asks for rest of body and soul, a watchful mind and a sober heart, sleep free from dark imaginings, and the grace to rise again ready to pray. The second asks the Mother of God to carry our prayers to her Son. The third bears the name of St Ioannikios the Great, a monk who died in 846: three lines that place the whole night under the Holy Trinity. If you remember nothing else tonight, remember those three lines. Text from Isabel Hapgood's Service Book (1906), from the Office of Great Compline, lightly modernized.
A prayer
And grant unto us, O Master, as we lay us down to sleep, repose both of body and of soul, and preserve us from the gloomy slumber of sin, and from every dark and nocturnal sensuality. Calm the impulses of carnal desires; quench the fiery darts of the Evil One which are craftily directed against us. Assuage the rebellions of our flesh. Still our every earthly and material anxiety; and grant unto us, O God, a watchful mind, a chaste reason, a sober heart, sleep gentle and free from every vision of the Devil; and raise us up again at the hour of prayer, strengthened in your precepts, and holding steadfastly within us the memory of your commandments. Grant that all the night long we may sing praises unto you, and that we may hymn, and bless, and glorify your all-honourable and majestic Name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. O exceeding glorious, ever-virgin Mother of Christ our God, bear our petitions unto your Son and our God, and implore him that, through you, he will save our souls. The Father is my hope; the Son is my refuge; the Holy Spirit is my protector. O Holy Trinity, glory to you. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Carry this with you
As you lie down, say the prayer of St Ioannikios once more, slowly: one breath for each line.