Advent · Night Prayer
Light in the Dark
Advent is the season of waiting for Christ: remembering his first coming at Bethlehem and watching for his coming again. As the nights grow long, Christians have always prayed for light. Pray this short Night Prayer before sleep each evening of Advent, and watch for a new Light in the Dark Short on our YouTube channel.
The opening
The Lord Almighty grant us a peaceful night and a perfect end. Amen.
The Psalm
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8 · King James Version
The reading
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Isaiah 9:2 · King James Version
The Collect for Advent
Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
The First Sunday of Advent · The Book of Common Prayer
Ancient roots. Thomas Cranmer wrote this prayer for the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, drawing on Romans 13:12: "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."
The closing prayer
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Ancient roots. Christians have prayed this collect at nightfall for well over a thousand years. It appears in the Gelasian Sacramentary, one of the oldest prayer books of the Western Church.
More prayer: Night Prayer (Compline)Ancient prayersEvening Prayer
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