Moonrise over the Garden, Hudson, NC July 2024
Join St. Phoebe School at 8 p.m. ET Sunday-Thursday to pray Compline: Zoom Link for Compline
The rubric of the New Zealand Prayer book invites us to experience this last office of the day in which “we are taken over the threshold from daytime, not in a mood of self-centered spirituality, but as representatives of humanity, acknowledging our creaturehood before God.”
Night Prayer from A New Zealand Prayer Book
Approach
The angels of God guard us through the night,
and quieten the powers of darkness.
The Spirit of God be our guide
to lead us to peace and to glory.
It is but lost labour that we haste to rise up early,
and so late take rest, and eat the bread of anxiety.
For those beloved of God are given gifts even while they sleep.
(silence)
My brothers and sisters,
our help is in the name of the eternal God,
who is making the heavens and the earth.
Dear God,
thank you for all that is good,
for our creation and our humanity,
for the stewardship you have given us of this planet earth,
for the gifts of life and of one another,
for your love which is unbounded and eternal.
O thou, most holy and beloved,
my Companion, my guide upon the way
my bright evening star.
We repent the wrongs we have done:
(silence)
We have wounded your love.
O God, heal us.
We stumble in the darkness.
Light of the world transfigure us.
We forget that we are your home.
Spirit of God, dwell in us.
Eternal Spirit, living God,
in whom we live and move and have our being,
all that we are, have been, and shall be is known to you,
to the very secret of our hearts
and all that rises to trouble us.
Living flame, burn into us,
cleansing wind, blow through us,
fountain of water, well up within us,
that we may love and praise in deed and in truth.
Invocation
Eternal Spirit,
flow through our being and open our lips,
that our mouths may proclaim your praise.
Let us worship the God of love.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Psalm 16
O God, I give you thanks for the wisdom of your counsel,
even at night you have instructed my heart.
I have set your face always before me,
you are at my right hand and I shall not fall.
Therefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices,
my flesh also shall rest secure.
For you will not give me over to the power of death,
nor let your faithful one see the Pit.
In your presence is the fulness of joy,
and from your right hand flow delights for evermore.
Scripture
It is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:6–10
Hymn
God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at my end, and at my departing.
Prayers
Into your hands, O God, I commend my spirit,
for you have redeemed me, O God of truth and love.
Keep me, O God, as the apple of an eye;
hide me under the shadow of your wings.
Preserve us, O God, while waking,
and guard us while sleeping,
that awake we may watch with Christ,
and asleep may rest in your peace.
Song of Simeon
Praise be to God, I have lived to see this day.
God’s promise is fulfilled, and my duty done.
At last you have given me peace,
for I have seen with my own eyes
the salvation you have prepared for all nations –
a light to the world in its darkness
and the glory of your people Israel.
Glory be to God, sustaining, redeeming, sanctifying,
as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen.
Preserve us, O God, while waking,
and guard us while sleeping,
that awake we may watch with Christ,
and asleep may rest in your peace.
Lord, have mercy.
Kyrie eleison.
Christ, have mercy.
Christe eleison.
Lord, have mercy.
Kyrie eleison.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.
I will lie down in peace and take my rest,
for it is in God alone that I dwell unafraid.
Let us bless the Earth-maker, the Pain-bearer, the Life-giver,
let us praise and exalt God above all for ever.
May God’s name be praised beyond the furthest star,
glorified and exalted above all for ever.
Intercession
O living God, in Jesus Christ you were laid in the tomb at this evening hour, and so sanctified the grave to be a bed of hope to your people. Give us courage and faith to die daily to our sin and pride, that even as this flesh and blood decays, our lives still may grow in you, that at our last day our dying may be done so well that we live in you for ever.
We bring now our prayers and intercessions to God. (Prayers offered silently or aloud.)
God our Creator, our centre, our friend,
we thank you for our good life,
for those who are dear to us,
for our dead, and for all who have helped and influenced us.
We thank you for the measure of freedom we have,
and the extent to which we control our lives;
and most of all we thank you for the faith that is in us,
for our awareness of you and our hope in you.
Keep us, we pray you, thankful and hopeful
and useful until our lives shall end.
Amen.
The blessing of God, the eternal goodwill of God, the shalom of God, the wildness and the warmth of God, be among us and between us, now and always.
The divine Spirit dwells in us.
Thanks be to God.
Compline/Night Prayer was prepared by the Rev. Hope Laingen, Deacon in the Diocese of Western North Carolina and St. Phoebe School alum.
Virtual Chapel of St. Phoebe 