Compline

I will quit writing on and on about the Breviary, but permit me one last post.
There is no question that my favourite prayer of the day is Compline (aka Night Prayer). I think people may say it is because I am lazy and it is the shortest of the hours! But there has always been something about it: that feeling at the end of a frantic day of activity just before you go to sleep of been able to just surrender into God as opposed to the day when I tend to keep wrestling with Him for control. The short responsory we pray from Scripture every night even says it: Into your hands Lord, I commend my spirit. And then the Antiphon before the canticle: Save us Lord while we are awake; protect us while we sleep; that we may keep watch with Christ and rest with him in peace. I often feel that it is enough to make me want to die in my sleep just to have those as the last words on my lips. The words of the Canticle of Simeon in Luke are the cherry on the top, but I would like to throw out a somewhat dodgy theological opinion on this. Simeon was an old devout man who was promised by God that he would see the Christ before he died and after seeing Jesus, he prayed this prayer (Lk2:29-32) which we pray at Night Prayer:
At last all-powerful Master,
you give leave to your servant
to go in peace, according to your promise.

For my eyes have seen your salvation
which you have prepared for all nations,
the light to enlighten the Gentiles
and give glory to Israel, your people.

There is an element of surrender to this prayer, especially for Simeon. But for us as Christians, is this not also a commission? That we are able to not only die in peace but go out in peace according to God's promise specifically because our eyes have seen our salvation. That this is not a nebulous 'peace' like a tepid pool of water but a simmering pool of lava burning at our core with God's love for the world and consuming all that is impure within us and the world . A peace that is not a passive state of the soul, but an active way of being - of Loving. (with a Christian 'L')

And then finally: The Lord grant us a quiet night and a perfect end.
Amen.