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Summary
- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s family evening prayer, said “a little before bedtime,” asks God to “defend us from all perils and dangers of this night” and ends with the blessing of Numbers 6:24–26 turned to “us.”
- Traditional night prayers are quoted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“At Night”), the Catholic night prayer Compline in the 1888 Manual of Prayers (“Visit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation”) and the Orthodox Vespers in Hapgood’s 1906 translation (“Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this night without sin”).
- Children’s bedtime prayers include “Now I lay me down to sleep,” which Paul Leicester Ford found first printed in the New England Primer of 1737, and “Angel of God, my guardian dear” and “When at night I lay me down” from Lasance’s Catholic Girl’s Guide (1906).
- Eight full prayers cover thanks for the day, protection through the night, sleeping children, a husband or wife, peace after a hard day, a family member far away, someone sick at home and worry that keeps a parent awake.
- Prayer goes alongside medical care for a sick family member, and anyone threatened or hurt at home can call a domestic abuse helpline: 1-800-799-7233 in the US, 0808 2000 247 in England.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 31:49; Numbers 6:24–26; Deuteronomy 6:7; Psalm 4:8; 41:3; 91:5; 121:4; 127:2; Lamentations 3:23; Matthew 18:10; Mark 10:16; Ephesians 4:26; Colossians 3:13; 1 Peter 5:7). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Family Prayer: Evening Prayer, pp. 589–591; Evening (shorter form), p. 593; Additional Prayers, “At Night,” pp. 594–595. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Evening Prayers (Compline), pp. 69–75. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888/page/75/mode/1up
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The All-Night Vigil Service, Great Vespers, p. 9. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- Lasance, F. X. The Catholic Girl’s Guide: Counsels and Devotions for Girls in the Ordinary Walks of Life. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1906. Daily Prayers, p. 446; Evening Prayers, p. 451. https://archive.org/details/catholicgirlsgui0000revf_y2r3
- The New-England Primer Improved for the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English. Boston: Edward Draper, 1777. https://archive.org/details/newenglandprimer00west
- Ford, Paul Leicester. The New-England Primer: A History of Its Origin and Development. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1897. Introduction, p. 46; Variorum, p. 328. https://archive.org/details/newenglandprimer00ford
- National Domestic Violence Hotline. https://www.thehotline.org/
- GOV.UK. “Domestic abuse: how to get help.” https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-abuse-how-to-get-help
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