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Summary
- The shortest traditional evening prayer is the 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s “Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord” (p. 31).
- The 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers orders night prayer as thanks, a look back at the day’s sins, sorrow, prayer for others and a blessing on sleep; five short prayers follow that order.
- Prayers cover a hard day, going to bed angry, worry about tomorrow, loneliness, sleeplessness and bad dreams.
- Traditional texts include Newman’s translation of the Compline hymn (“Let dreams depart and phantoms fly”), a prayer from Orthodox Grand Compline, “O Lord, support us all the day long” and the Orthodox Vespers hymn “O gladsome radiance.”
- Simeon’s prayer, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace” (Luke 2:29), is sung at Catholic Compline and Anglican Evening Prayer.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 4:8; 30:5; 31:5; 55:17; 63:6; 139:12; 141:2; Daniel 6:10; Luke 2:29–30; 24:29; Ephesians 4:26; 1 Peter 5:7; 1 John 1:9). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Evening Prayer, Nunc dimittis, p. 28, and “A Collect for Aid against Perils,” p. 31; Family Prayer, “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), hymn translated by John Henry Newman, p. 73, and antiphon to the Canticle of Simeon, p. 74; Evening Prayers, pp. 82–83. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- 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, “O gladsome radiance,” p. 8; The Office of Grand Compline, pp. 161–162. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
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