Night prayers
Night and evening prayers across the Christian traditions: Compline, Evensong, and bedtime.
Night prayer is the oldest evening pattern in Christian devotion. Each tradition closes the day with its own office, and the prayers below run from the formal to the simplest bedtime forms taught to children.
Compline in the Catholic tradition
Compline is the last office of the day, said before sleep. It closes with one of the four Marian antiphons, of which the Salve Regina is the best known, sung from Trinity Sunday until Advent.
Small Compline in the Orthodox tradition
The Orthodox evening office is Small Compline, preceded by Vespers. The Trisagion Prayers open it, and the Pre-Communion prayer of Symeon the New Theologian is said on the night before receiving the Eucharist.
Evening Prayer and Evensong in the Anglican tradition
Evening Prayer is the second of the two daily offices in the Book of Common Prayer, sung as Evensong in cathedrals and collegiate chapels. The Collect for Aid Against All Perils asks God to lighten the darkness of the coming night.
Evening prayer in the Protestant tradition
Luther's Evening Prayer, appointed in the Small Catechism of 1529, is the counterpart to his morning prayer: brief, domestic, and meant to be said at the bedside rather than in church.
Bedtime prayers for families and children
The simplest night prayers are often the ones people keep longest. A bedtime prayer, the prayer to the guardian angel, and Psalm 23 are commonly the first prayers a child learns and the last a person forgets.