Three days to go! – Night Prayer
In a monastery the community gather for prayer throughout the day, traditionally this has been;
Lauds: Dawn or 5am.
Prime: Early Morning or 6am.
Terce: Mid-Morning or 9am.
Sext: Midday or 12 noon.
None: Mid-Afternoon or 3pm.
Vespers: Evening or 6 pm.
Compline: Night or 7pm.
Vigil: Middle of the Night or 2am.
This is not practical or sustainable however for those of us who live outside of the monastery walls. A practice that we have found helpful in our home however is intentionally stopping for night prayer.
At 9pm our sound system rings the bells from Ampleforth Abbey and we know it is time to stop and pray. We have used numerous different apps and prayers to help draw our day to a close but the one we have found the most helpful recently is the New Zealand Night Prayer.
In the “Ora et Labora’ journal we have included this prayer to help you prayerfully and quietly draw your day to a close.
