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 day and prepares us for a quiet night.

As the psalmist wrote: I lie down in peace and take rest my rest for it is in God alone that I dwell unafraid.

Night Prayer derives its content from the wisdom of the 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 the threshold from daytime, not in a mood of self-centered spirituality, but as representatives of humanity, acknowledging our creaturehood before God.

Here is the introduction (approach) to Night Prayer:

Approach Leader: The angels of God guard us through the night,
People: and quieten the powers of darkness.

Leader: The Spirit of God be our guide
People: to lead us to peace and to glory.

Leader: It is but lost labour that we haste to rise up early, and so late take rest, and eat the bread of anxiety. For those beloved of God are given gifts even while they sleep.

Leader: My brothers and sisters, our help is in the name of the eternal God
People: who is making the heavens and earth.