Night Time Prayers

Night Time Prayers, Compline

“Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or

weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who

sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless

the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the

joyous; and all for your love’s sake.” Amen.

St. Augustine of Hippo. Book of Common Prayer p. 134. Church Publishing.

This gift from St. Augustine is one of the night time prayers from compline, an evening service to be read just before bedtime. The brief prayer service can be said by individuals but also by families or groups as a gathering just before retiring. I particularly remember when our friends Barbara and Hap Hoffman came to our house and said compline with our family every night for six weeks while I was recovering from surgery.

In my medical practice, this prayer was meaningful as I could visualize the people I knew working at night at our Children’s Hospital and the patients we were all helping to care for. This prayer also gave me strength when I was on call at the hospital at night, knowing that there were people all over the globe saying these prayers. As compline became a more regular part of my rule of life, I began to visualize people in other professions working at night in grocery stores, restaurants, airlines, police stations. I remembered those dying as well as those mourning the death of a loved one. I began praying for the joyous.

All of these prayers ever so briefly have helped me get out of myself and all my problems as I began praying and thinking about others. This service calms my soul, and is better than any sleeping pill or drug or drink.

There are also beautiful night time prayers in A New Zealand Prayer Book (p. 184, HarperCollins 1989). I especially relate to one line, “what has been done has been done; what has not been done, let it be.”

I keep remembering the CS Lewis quote you will often hear from me, “We do not pray to change God. We pray to change ourselves.” We can be especially vulnerable to change in our night time prayers.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

One Opportunity next week to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coa

Buechner: Surprise Visits

Buechner: Surprise Visits

“Jesus is apt to come, into the very midst of life at its most real and inescapable. Not in a blaze of unearthly light, not in the midst of a sermon, not in the throes of some kind of religious daydream, but . . . at supper time, or walking along a road. This is the element that all the stories about Christ's return to life have in common.. He never approached from on high, but always in the midst, in the midst of people, in the midst of real life and the questions that real life asks.”

Frederick Buechner, originally published in The Magnificent Defeat 1966.

Resurrection Chapel, National Cathedral, Washington DC

Buechner describes how we see Jesus in our lives, in our real lives. We do not necessarily need to go on some great pilgrimage or be in an ancient cathedral. God is all around us in our everydayness. Our ministry as spiritual friends is helping each other see God in our everyday lives.

All of these resurrection stories give us many clues as to where and how to find Jesus. Jesus’s resurrection appearance is a surprise to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, to Mary at the tomb, to the disciples locked in the upper room, to the disciples fishing. It is off of the agenda. Jesus is usually not immediately recognized. Jesus does ordinary things like cooking and eating and walking. Jesus looks like an ordinary person but may do extraordinary things like walking through walls. Jesus still bears his wounds, but they are healed. Jesus feeds us. Jesus calls us by name. Jesus appears to ordinary people. With the exception of Jesus’ appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus appears to those who know him. Most importantly, Jesus speaks truth and love and peace.

If you want to know more about resurrection, meditate again on these resurrection stories which we will soon hear again.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

2 Opportunities in next 2 weeks to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast

Keller, Tillich, Lamott: Faith, Doubts

Keller, Tillich, Lamott: Faith, Doubts

“Observers in the full enjoyment of their bodily senses pity me, but it is because they do not see the golden chamber in my life where I dwell delighted; for, dark as my path may seem to them, I carry a magic light in my heart. Faith, the spiritual strong searchlight, illumines the way, and although sinister doubts lurk in the shadow, I walk unafraid towards the Enchanted Wood where the foliage is always green, where joy abides, where nightingales nest and sing, and where life and death are one in the Presence of the Lord.”

Helen Keller, Midstream: My Later Life, Sun Dial Press 1929.

How beautifully Helen Keller describes faith. Someone who is blind describes faith as light, a light in her heart. She also does not negate doubt. The words of Paul Tillich which Ann Lamott has popularized ring in my ears, “The opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty.” Faith implies believing in something or being in relationship with something that is a mystery, that is not defined by our human understanding.

Our rational minds can just take us so far in understanding faith.

When a person has difficulty with mystery, doubts move in. Our doubts can be stepping stones to a deeper faith as we read and share our doubts with others and learn and experience the mystery together.

I so often speak with spiritual friends about doubt and reassure them that this is not unnatural or the enemy or unhealthy. I tell friends, “Let ‘s talk about the doubts. If you come to a place of unbelief, let me carry your faith, until you are ready to take it back. I am counting on you to do the same for me, when doubts overcome me.”

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

3 Opportunities in next 2 weeks to purchase a signed copy of A Daily Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter
Wordsworth Books, Little Rock, Saturday March 2, 1-3 pm

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Narthex after 8 and 10:30 services on March 3 and March 10

Proceeds from this book go for Hurricane Relief in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast