Keep me as the apple of your eye.
      Hide me under the shadow of your Wings.

 

 

  

 

 

Ancient prayer for modern life 

 

The ancient office of Compline comes from the Latin word meaning ‘completion’. It is above all a service of quietness and reflection before our rest at the end of the day.


We have the busiest of lives and try to overcome our busyness with quick-fix solutions - five-minute recipes, ten-minute makeovers, new time-management books and courses - that assume we are the passive victims of this ‘busy’ disease and that busyness is a given, something that happens to us, beyond our control.


Sunday nights can be the hardest nights for working people. Who hasn’t had the Sunday night blues when, faced with another working week, we find it impossible to relax in the last hours of the weekend and sleep badly, dreading the Monday morning alarm?


For centuries the monastic traditions have kept the ‘divine office’, punctuating the day with a rhythm of prayer and reading that invites us to praise God, pray for God’s world and be formed and re-formed by God’s word. These ancient rites call to us today as we try to fit more into our overcrowded days, offering a taste of the space, peace and simplicity that are lacking in our modern lives.


Recent years have seen a rekindling of interest in monasticism and a reconsideration of what its ancient patterns of prayer have to offer in the 21st century. These practices, passed down through centuries of history, are a sublime resource for us if we can only accept their invitation to stop, listen and receive what they offer.

 

At Christ Church we have recently started to say Compline (Night Prayer) together at 9pm on Sunday nights. A short service which includes a Psalm, a reading, silence, prayers and a blessing, it sends us home assured of God’s kindness and safekeeping. Compline offers sanctuary in a complex, stressful world.

 


      The Lord bless us and watch over us;
      The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us;
      The Lord look kindly on us and give us peace.
      Amen.

 

 

 ‘The Monastery’ BBC TV series: http://www.worthabbey.net/bbc/index.html 
National Retreat Association: http://www.retreats.org.uk/index.html