Night Prayer

These are the night prayers which are found in the old English prayer books, originating mainly from Saint Benedict in the 6th century. The words in bold are those which are said or sung in church by all the faithful in unison. This is an ancient tradition of the eastern orthodox Church which can still be seen in the western rite. I have put together and edited these prayers from various sources. The passages from the Bible are basically from the King James Version of 1611, as well as from the Douai-Rheims Version of 1582 and 1610 (see here). After these prayers, one may recite the Salutations (or «Akathist») to the Blessed Virgin, as well as other prayers, such as the one to the guardian angel. I hope this will be helpful for you.

Raphael Papanikolaou

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH COMPLINE

A General Thanksgiving

God pantokrator, father of all compassions, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

The Lord pantokrator grant us a quiet night and a perfect end.
Amen.

Brethren, be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith. (1 Peter 5:8-9)

But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
Thanks be to God.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth. (See Psalms 123:8)

The following or other suitable words of penitence may be used:

I confess to God pantokrator, to blessed Mary ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the Saints, and to you, brethren: that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed: through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore I beseech blessed Mary ever Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all the Saints, and you, brethren, to pray for me to the Lord our God.

O God, make speed to save us:
O Lord, make haste to help us. (See Psalms 69:1)

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son:
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:
world without end. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord’s name be praised.

The following or another suitable hymn may be sung:

To Thee before the close of day,
Creator of the world, we pray,
That, with thy wonted favour, thou
Wouldst be our guard and keeper now.

Prayer is the act from which all other good comes

Often has the Church proclaimed, ‘Prayer is the act from which all other good comes.’1

It may seem strange that, in this statement, the source of all good is ascribed to the act and state of prayer. Certainly, all good comes from God! There is only one source of Good, and of the identity of this source there is no question. Lest any be tempted to forget, it is proclaimed at every Liturgy in the prayer before the ambo: ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from Thee, the Father of Lights’.2 Certainly, there is no other fount from which goodness flows than God Himself, the very essence and heart of Goodness. Good gifts are good only insomuch as they come from Him, for ‘whatever is not God, is nothing’.3

Why, then, the exalted status given to prayer? If all good gifts are from God and Him only, how can we then say, ‘Prayer is the act from which all other good comes’? How is it possible to hold to the divine truth here stated, and still proclaim, as the holy Abba Agathon does in regard to prayer, that by its action it is the reconciliation of man with God, the mother and daughter of tears, a bridge for crossing temptations, a wall of protection from afflictions, a crushing of conflicts, boundless activity, the spring of virtues, the source of spiritual gifts, invisible progress, food of the soul, the enlightening of the mind, an axe for despair, a demonstration of hope, the release from sorrow.

Blessed Child Musa of Rome (May 16)

Saint Musa lived during the fifth century. She was distinguished for her pure life. St Gregory Dialogus included her story in his DIALOGUES, saying that he had heard these things from Musa’s brother Probus.

The Most Holy Theotokos once appeared to Musa in a dream, surrounded by girls dressed in white. She asked her, «Do you wish to live together with these maidens in my court?»

Prayer Before Bed

Some written prayers are simply better than anything you can think of yourself.  There are phrases in this traditional Orthodox “prayer before bed” that speak worlds. “…or seen the beauty of someone and been wounded by it in my heart…”

To the Holy Spirit:

O Lord, the Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth: have compassion and mercy on me, Thy sinful servant! Absolve me, who am unworthy.

«Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me» (St. Patrick’s Breast-Plate)

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

The Creator of the Universe.

 

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,

The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,

The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,

The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

Prayer to the Guardian Angel

O Angel of God, my holy guardian, given to me from heaven, enlighten me this day, and save me from all evil. Instruct me in doing good deeds,

What activates true love?

An icon of Elder Joseph the Hesychast

«When grace is operative in the soul of someone who is praying, then he is flooded with the love of God, so that he can no longer bear what he experiences. Afterwards, this love turns towards the world and man, whom he comes to love so much that he seeks to take upon himself the whole of human pain and misfortune so that everyone else might be freed from it. In general he suffers with every grief and misery, and even for  animals, so that he weeps when he thinks they are suffering. These are the properties of love, but it is prayer that activates them and calls them forth.

A mother’s prayer for her children

Children's Games by Pieter Bruegel (1525-1569)

O God, Creator of all things!

Adding mercy upon mercy, Thou hast deemed me worthy of being a mother; Thy goodness hath endowed me with children so that I may say: these are Thy children! For Thou hast given them life, breathed an immortal soul into them, given them a new birth in a life that is according to Thy will, Thou hast adopted them and received them into the bosom of Thy Church.

O Lord, preserve them in Thy grace, and until the end of their lives deem them worthy of receiving the Holy Mysteries of Thy covenant.

Illumine them with Thy truth.

On the prayer before Communion – Για την προσευχή προ της Θείας Κοινωνίας

Praying Before the Communion, Megara. Painting of Theodoros Rallis 1890

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Every time we come to Communion we say to the Lord that we come to Him Who is the Saviour of sinners, but we also state that we consider ourselves as the greatest of all. How much truth is there in such a statement when we make it? Or how can we make such a statement? Is it true? Can we truly say that we do consider ourselves the worst of all sinners? John of Kronstadt in his «Diary» makes a point which I believe is very important; he says that he also asks himself this very question, and he can answer it in all honesty, because, he says, if others had been given so much love, so much grace, so much Divine revelation as was given to him, they would have borne fruit which he proved unable to bear.

Read more…

Inner prayer

It has been said many times already that real prayer is inner prayer, performed not only in words but also with mind and heart. Prayer of this kind captures the whole attention and keeps it within, in the heart.

Miracles by the Holy Belt of Most Holy Theotokos (Virgin Mary) [Volume 15]

23. The odds of survival were few

«My name is Koulina Glodarenko. I live in Konstanza, Romania, at Mircea cel Batran 152, A, and I am the chief accountant at the hospital.

I am writing to you to inform you about a terrible event which had a good ending with the grace of God.

On the 5 January 1999, my husband, Victor, had a stroke. He was taken to hospital and a few days later his kidneys stopped functioning. The tests showed that his condition was very serious. Even though the doctors used every method to keep him alive, the odds for his survival were very few.

Miracles by the Holy Belt of Most Holy Theotokos (Virgin Mary) [Volume 13]

11. Our Lady saved me

30.3.1998

In an interview with «A.T» newspaper, Sergeant Christos Petropoulos, who is stationed at Petralona Attikis, says that while he was chasing a Romanian convict, he was shot at. The bullet pierced his wallet.

«Do you know what saved me?» he asks. «Our Most Holy Lady did. I have a piece of the ribbon blessed on her Holy Belt kept in my wallet and I never go without it».

20. The dream comes true.

Miracles by the Holy Belt of Most Holy Theotokos (Virgin Mary) [Volume 12]

17. I am feeling better

21.4.1996

Yiannitsa

A year ago I had severe backache. For a while I could not even stand. I went to see a doctor and had a prayer read to me in church. A few days later I felt better. I continued to work, trying to avoid lifting heavy weights. I also went to another doctor and underwent some mecial proceedure.

Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex: the regenerated soul

Wall-Painting in Church of Pantassa at Porto Lagos

Those who are not reborn from on High will never understand those who are. There appears to be nothing outstanding about Christians, who may often seem morbid or hypocritical.

Spiritual Warfare (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

For his invisible warfare or conflict with man, especially by means of sinful thoughts and imaginations, the fallen angel relies on the mutual affinity of the sins one with another. This conflict never ceases day or night, but it becomes specially intense and furious when we stand for prayer.

Glory to Thee for Thy love (prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian)

Glory to Thee for Thy love.

Glory to Thee for Thy mercy.

Glory to Thee for Thy patience.

Glory to Thee for forgiving us all our sins.

Glory to Thee for coming to save our souls.

… As to the temptations that have come

… As to the temptations that have come to you now and those that might come in the future, pay them no particular attention, but take heed that you bear temptation with patience and thanksgiving, praying for those who offend you and calling upon their prayers. You need not fear temptation, for the God Who allows them to befall us will also preserve us amidst them. One must have a good disposition and fervor toward temptations, for through them Christ’s Cross is shown forth upon us; through them we are protected from vices; through them we are preserved in the virtues; and only by means of them is grace given. Do not justify yourself excessively before others, for even the Lord – Truth Himself and Righteousness

Communion of Saints and sinners

Metropolitan Antony of Sourozh

Perhaps in these days that follow the feast of the Resurrection of Christ more than ever can one perceive clearly, passionately, that all the life of the world is one, and all the life of the Church is held in that mysterious communion of saints and sinners, which is the world in becoming. The Liturgy, the common prayers of the Church cannot be understood, apart from this communion of saints and of sinners.

Six precious words

In the Garden of Gethsemane

Six precious words were born

A Father’s gift, from up on high

To soothe a spirit torn.

Read more…

Hesychia – «Watchful, Inner Stillness in Prayer»

A Vatopaidi monk (Mount Athos). Photograph: VatopaidiFriend.

The monks of the Holy Mountain teach us that through ascetic practices we are able to perfect quietude of body and mind and to arrive at a vision of the Uncreated Light of the Godhead. The use of our prayer rope together with the Jesus prayer «Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner» is a means to achieve peace and sorrowful joy within the Christian Life.

A Prayer of Intercession to Saint George

St. George, by the German painter August Macke (1912).

Faithful servant of God and invincible martyr, Saint George; favored by God with the gift of faith, and inflamed with an ardent love of Christ, thou didst fight valiantly against the dragon of pride, falsehood, and deceit.

The Weakness of Man

It is counter-intuitive that God saves man through His own weakness. The irony of the Divine Reversal has provided endless material for the hymnographers of the Church through the centuries. The Strong becomes weak, the Sinless takes on our sin, the Rich becomes poor, God becomes man – the whole of the gospel seems to be a Divine irony.

The King who does not wish to defend Himself with an army

“Do you think that I cannot call upon My Father and He will not provide Me at this moment with more than twelve legions of angels” (St. Matthew 26:53).

Thus spoke the Lord to the disciple who drew the sword to defend his Teacher in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is obvious from these words that the Lord could have defended Himself, if He wanted to, not only from Judas and his company of guards, but also from Pilate and the leaders of the Jews. For the might of one angel is greater than the greatest army of men, much less the might of twelve legions of angels.

A Childs Hymn… a prayer by Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Hear my prayer, O heavenly Father,

Ere I lay me down to sleep;

Bid Thy angels, pure and holy,

Round my bed their vigil keep.

My sins are heavy, but Thy mercy

Far outweighs them, every one;

Down before Thy cross I cast them,

Trusting in Thy help alone.

Read more…

St. Patrick’s Breast-Plate (re-posted from 22/1/10)

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

The Creator of the Universe.

 

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,

The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,

The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,

The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.