A Night Prayer

I will lie down in my bed now,

not morbidly,

not fearfully,

as I will one day lie in my grave.

Your arms stretched over me like wings —

under and around, 

mothering me still.

You Jesus,

Beloved,

All-good Son of Mary,

and bright champion over death.

Amen.

fr. stephen morris

The Paramythia Mother of God ~ Night Prayer

This is the 8th century Paramythia Icon of the Mother of God -Comforter. She has her own side-chapel in the Vatopedi Monastery on Mt. Athos in Greece.

It is night. The monks have retired for their rest. The priest has left his stole hooked onto the icon's frame. There are a few candles we may light and a chair to the right where we may sit peacefully for awhile at the end of our own day. A small rug has been placed on the floor before the wonder-working icon where we may kneel or even touch our forehead to the floor. We can feel the silence of this inviting space.

O Lady, 

gratitude for this day ~

  its gift of life,

  energy and stamina,

for the food and water that have sustained me,

for the beautiful and the good I have

  seen or heard,

  tasted or touched,

for the clarity and strength to make any right choice,

for every awareness of God's nearness,

for the love of others ~ love given and received,

for any inspiration and movement towards 

  justice and charity,

for the help of others

  in my weakness,

  my loneliness,

  my indecision,

  anxiety,

  doubt,

  sorrow or sickness.

And O Lady,

Comforter,

I pray for those who are sleepless,

  who will work through this night,

  who keep us safe,

  who rescue others,

  who work in hospitals,

  who tend to children,

for those whose night is ruined with arguing

  and even violence,

for those who stay awake to watch over the dying,

for the children born tonight,

for those away from loved ones,

for wanderers without home or bed,

for night-travelers,

for mourners and those whose night is tear-filled.

Bless my own night time rest now,

may I have a sweet-dream,

and bring me to tomorrow ready and renewed.

Amen.

Night Prayer

PERHAPS WAKING AT MIDNIGHT, or two or three in the morning, monks and nuns follow a prayer schedule that interrupts their sleep. The prayer takes place in the dark because the things of life and death are somehow focused in the night when people are often alone, or terrible sins and crimes are committed under cover of darkness. The monk prays in that awareness. 

Monastics also pray at night as a sign of the world's longing for light in the condition of our global darkness: the waste and destruction, the death and insults to life and human dignity.

Now and again, either because we are  tossing and turning the night away, or because something calls us out of our sleep: a bad dream, a storm, a car alarm, a baby's cry - we might call to mind that monks and nuns are praying. The prayer below invites solidarity with the world at night - even those in need who are far away and personally unknown to us.

And you know, even if we sleep like a rock, the prayer can always be used as a night time prayer before retiring. Somewhere in the world, monks and nuns are awake and praying for the world.

In this time of dark-solitude...Jesus. gladsome light.

Where monastics are awake in prayer...Jesus, Bethlehem's light.

Where children are awake in fear...Jesus, reassuring light.

Where there's night time domestic violence...Jesus, excellent light.

Where people are on the road or in the air...Jesus, who calls himself the light.

By deathbeds and in emergency rooms...Jesus, light of a new day.

With parents over sickbeds...Jesus, comforting light.

With doctors and nurses through the night...Jesus, land of light. 

Where there's sleepless worrying about tomorrow...Jesus, God-bearing light.

Where dark schemes are evolving...Jesus, growth-encouraging light.

Where night shadows conceal exploitation and desperation...Jesus, robed in light.

In the darkness of addiction...Jesus, house of light.

With the homeless poor...Jesus, hope-instilling light.

With prisoners awake...Jesus, joy-restoring light.

With mourners who will bury the dead tomorrow...Jesus, Resurrection light.

With those whose hunger prevents sleep...Jesus, strengthening light.

In prayer for those who are stealing or harming...Jesus, truth-carrying light.

For those whose homes are ruined by war...Jesus, shadow-dispersing light.

For those who intend violence and death tomorrow...Jesus, mind-changing light.

Near those arguing out of hatred, anger and fear...Jesus, healing light.

When physical pain relentlessly sears...Jesus, soothing hand of light.


Now perhaps click on the photo of the young Carthusian novice praying in his hermitage through the night. The monks are chanting the Lord's Prayer in Latin. It is very beautiful.

Link Pater Noster ~ The Lord's Prayer