Category: Choral Compline

Categories
Choral Compline

Thursday 2nd February 2023 – 17:30

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Each day was marked in the western Church by seven offices or services; Compline is the last of them and it’s sung or said before retiring for the night. Saint Patrick’s Cathedral has never been a monastery, but we know that at least some of the monastic offices were sung daily by the college of clergy who made up the Collegiate Church established here in 1191.

The daily offices are based around the recitation of the Bible’s 150 Psalms of David. Compline received its liturgical form from Saint Benedict, who included it in his Rule for the monastic order he founded, the Benedictines. His version was adopted widely, and some parts of it were incorporated into the Evensong of The Book of Common Prayer in 1549, still sung daily in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

You are invited to say the text in bold in English.

Order of Service

Please stand as the Minister sings

Let us pray.

Please remain standing whilst the Choir and Clergy enter the stalls

The Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end. Amen.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith.

But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us; Thanks be to God.

 

The Minister and Choir sing the

Versicles and Responses

O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord’s Name be praised.

Plainsong

Please sit as the Choir sings the 

PSALM 78 vv 1–12 Attendite, popule. Hear my law, O my people: incline your ears unto the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare hard sentences of old; Which we have heard and known: and such as our fathers have told us; That we should not hide them from the children of the generations to come: but to shew the honour of the Lord, his mighty and wonderful works that he hath done. He made a covenant with Jacob, and gave Israel a law: which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children; That their posterity might know it: and the children which were yet unborn; To the intent that when they came up: they might shew their children the same; That they might put their trust in God: and not to forget the works of God, but to keep his commandments; And not to be as their forefathers, a faithless and stubborn generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit cleaved not stedfastly unto God; Like as the children of Ephraim: who being harnessed, and carrying bows, turned themselves back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God: and would not walk in his law; But forgat what he had done: and the wonderful works that he had shewed for them.

Please stand for

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Please sit for the

READING

Please remain seated as the Choir sings 

Office Hymn

Before the ending of the day,
Creator of the world, we pray,
That with thy wonted favour thou
Wouldst be our guard and keeper now.

From all ill dreams defend our eyes,
From nightly fears and fantasies;
Tread under foot our ghostly foe,
That no pollution we may know.

O Father, that we ask be done,
Through Jesus Christ, thine only Son;
Who, with the Holy Ghost and thee
Doth live and reign eternally. Amen.

 

Respond

Keep me as the apple of an eye:
Hide me under the shadow of thy wings.

 

Please stand as the Choir sings 

Gospel Canticle

 

Preserve us, O Lord while waking and guard us while sleeping,

that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.

Service in E-flat; James Healey Willan (1880—1968)

Please remain standing to say the 

APOSTLES’ CREED

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary: suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost: the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints: the forgiveness of sins: the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Minister and Choir sing the 

SUFFRAGES AND RESPONSES

 

Please kneel or sit, according to your custom

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Blessed art thou, Lord God of our fathers;
To be praised and glorified above all for ever.
Let us bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;
Let us praise and magnify him for ever.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven;
To be praised and glorified above all for ever.
The Almighty and most merciful Lord guard us
and give us his blessing. Amen.

 

The Confession

We confess to God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,
that we have sinned in thought, word and deed,
through our own grievous fault.
Wherefore we pray God to have mercy upon us.

Almighty God, have mercy upon us,
forgive us all our sins and deliver us from all evil,
confirm and strengthen us in all goodness,
and bring us to life everlasting;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

The Absolution

May the almighty and most merciful Lord grant unto you pardon and remission of all your sins, time for amendment of life,
and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Versicles and Responses

Wilt thou not turn again and quicken us;

That thy people may rejoice in thee.

O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us;

And grant us thy salvation.

Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this night without sin;

O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.

O Lord, hear our prayer;

And let our cry come unto thee.

The Minister intones the 

Almighty and everliving God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts, by the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the silent hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world, may repose upon thy eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Visit, we beseech thee, O Lord, this place and drive from it all the snares of the enemy; let thy holy angels dwell herein to preserve us in peace; and may thy blessing be upon us evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Plainsong

Please sit as the Choir sings the 

ANTHEM

Light beyond shadow, joy beyond tears, love that is greater when darkest our fears; deeper the peace when the storm is around, dearer the Christ to the lost who is found. Light of the world, Jesus shining! Sins of the world see him dying! In our darkness he is light, in our crying he is love, in the noise of life imparting peace that passes understanding.

John Philip William Dankworth (1927–2010)

Please remain seated for the 

The Dismissal

We will lay us down in peace and take our rest;
For it thou, Lord, only that makest us dwell in safety.

The Lord be with you;
And with thy spirit.

Let us bless the Lord
Thanks be to God.

The Almighty and merciful Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, bless and preserve us. Amen.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Please stand as the Choir and Clergy depart. 

Donations

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