The offering of prayer late in the evening, by laity, religious orders or clergy, often called Compline, has sometimes been described as the ‘goodnight prayer of the Church.’ It rounds off the days and prepares us for a quiet night. As the psalmist wrote:

I lie down in peace and take my rest
for it is in God alone that I dwell unafraid.

Night Prayer derives its content from the wisdom of centuries in Scripture and above all in the psalms, but also from contemporary Christian experience of God. It celebrates the awareness that each of us who tries to pray is a part of the human whole. So we are taken over from the threshold from daytime, not in a mood of self-centered spirituality, but as representatives of humanity, acknowledging our creaturehood before God.