The Evening Prayer

My first lessons about prayer came from my Mother.  From her I learned to make my bed an altar, to kneel down before going to sleep, and praying the prayer many of us learned which began with "Now I lay me down to sleep..."   To look back at the beginning of my prayer experience is to see this prayer as my first evening prayer.  In the more formal life of the church the evening prayer is called the Compline.  Compline refers to the last liturgical prayer of the day and in some ways might be called the church's official bedtime prayer.   

It has been some time now since I prayed the prayer my mother taught me.  She would be fine with the change since the real lesson she taught was the lasting one which was to pray.  I do, however, still find myself with an evening ritual before going to sleep.  As I linger between being awake and being asleep I often remember a simple prayer learned from the Celtic tradition which says, "I lie down this night with God and God lies down with me.  I lie down this night with Christ and Christ lies down with me.  I lie down this night with Spirit and the Spirit lies down with me.  God, the Son, and Holy Spirit be lying down with me."      

Some might find the prayer unacceptable, maybe even theologically unsound, but it gives me a moment of remembering that even in the midst of unconscious sleep, I am not alone.  Asleep I may be, but still am I in the presence and the care of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  If such are my last conscious thoughts before the sleep which is entered into on the way Home to the Father as my Mother's first prayer taught me could happen, then my last thoughts here will be of the One who will surely carry me safely Home.