Compline and Midnight Office

 

    The priest, wearing the epitrachelion, comes out before the holy doors, and having made three reverences, begins:

    Blessed is our God always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

    Reader: Amen. Come, let us worship . . . thrice, and he reads Compline or Midnight Office. Then the priest, having made three reverences, immediately goes into the sanctuary.

    After the troparia, the Trisagion, Our Father . . ., and the exclamation:

    For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.
    Reader: Amen

    At Compline, after More honorable than the Cherubim . . . , the exclamation is :

    Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.

    But at Midnight Office, the exclamation:

    O God, be compassionate unto us, and bless us, and make thy face to shine upon us, and have mercy on us.

    After the troparia, Have mercy on us, O Lord . . . Glory . . . O Lord, have mercy on us . . . Both now . . . Open unto us the door of thy graciousness, O blessed Theotokos . . .

    At Midnight Office the priest says this litany:

    Have mercy on us, 0 God, according to thy great mercy, we pray thee, hearken and have mercy.
    Choir: Lord, have mercy. thrice.

    Again we pray that He will keep this city (or this village), and this holy church (or if it is a monastery, and this holy abode), and every city and country from wrath, famine, pestilence, earthquake, flood, fire, the sword, foreign invasion, and from civil war, and from sudden death; that our good God, who loveth man, may be gracious, favorable, and conciliatory, and turn away and dispel all the wrath stirred up against us and all sickness, and may deliver us from His righteous chastisement which impendeth against us, and may have mercy on us.
Choir: Lord, have mercy. forty times Exclamation:

    Hear us, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth, and of those that are far off upon the sea; and be gracious, be gracious, O Master, unto us sinners and have mercy on us. For thou art a merciful God who lovest man, and unto thee do we send up glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.
    Choir: Amen. Then the priest:

    Glory to thee, O Christ God, our Hope, glory to thee.
    Choir: Glory . . . Now and . . . , Lord, have mercy. thrice, Bless. The priest gives the dismissal:

    May Christ our true God, through the intercessions of His all-immaculate Mother, of our venerable and Godbearing Fathers, and of all the Saints, have mercy on us and save us, for He is good and loveth man.

    At Compline and Midnight Office, after the dismissal, the priest makes a reverence to the brethren, saying:

    Bless me, holy fathers and brethren, and pardon me, a sinner, all wherein I have sinned this day, in deed, in word, in thought, and in all my senses. The brethren then answer:

    May God pardon and have mercy on thee, holy father.

    And they make a reverence, saying this petition:

    Bless me, holy father, and pardon me all wherein I have sinned this day, in deed, in word, in thought, and in all my senses. The priest answers:

    May God, through His grace, pardon and have mercy on us all. And the priest says:

    Let us pray for our [lord, the Most Reverend] Metropolitan Name, for our [lord, the Right Reverend] Bishop Name, and for all our brethren in Christ.
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    For the (title of the highest civil authority), and for all civil authorities.
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    For those who hate us and for those who love us.
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    For those who are merciful to us and those who serve us.
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    For those who have commanded us, the unworthy, to pray for them.
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    For the rescue Of captives,
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    For our absent fathers and brethren,
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    For those who sail upon the sea,
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    For those who lie in infirmities,
    Choir: Lord, have rnercy.

    Let us also pray for the abundance of the fruits of the earth.
    Choir: Lord, have rnercy.

    For every Orthodox Christian soul.
    Choir: Lord, have rnercy.

    Let us bless pious rulers,
    Choir: Lord, have rnercy.

    Orthodox hierarchs and the founders of this holy church (or abode),
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    Our parents, and all our fathers and brethren, the Orthodox, departed before, who lie here and everywhere.
    Choir: Lord, have mercy.

    The Superior: Let us also say of them, (in the Greek, of each other,)
    Choir: Lord, have mercy. thrice

    Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us.
    Choir: Amen.

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    In the holy and great 40-day Fast, instead of the dismissal at Great Compline, this prayer is said by the priest:

    O Master, great in mercy, Lord Jesus Christ our God, through the intercessions of our all-immaculate Lady the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary; through the power of the precious and life-creating Cross; through the protection of the honorable bodiless Powers of heaven; of the honorable, glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John; of the holy, glorious and all-laudable Apostles (or of the holy Apostle and Evangelist name, and of the other holy, glorious and all-laudable Apostles); of our Fathers among the Saints, Ecumenical Great Teachers and Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom; of our Father among the Saints, Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, the Wonderworker; the Holy Equals of the Apostles, Methodius and Cyril, Teachers of the Slavs; [the holy Orthodox Equal of the Apostles, the Great Prince Vladimir;] of the holy, glorious and right-victorious Martyrs; of the holy great Martyr Barbara; [of our venerable and Godbearing Fathers, Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves;] of our Father among the Saints, the Venerable Herman of Alaska, the Wonderworker, and of Saint (name of the Saint of the temple and of the day), of the holy and righteous Forebears of God, Joachim and Anne; and of all the Saints, make our prayer acceptable, grant us forgiveness of our trespasses, shelter us under the shelter of thy wings, drive away from us every enemy and adversary, give peace to our life, O Lord. Have mercy on us and on thy world and save our souls, for thou art good and lovest man.
    Choir: Amen.

    At Midnight office on Sundays after the exclamation, O God, be compassionate to us . . . , the priest reads the prayer to the all-holy Trinity, a composition of Mark, the Monk:

    Omnipotent and life-creating holy Trinity, the Beginning of Light, who through thy goodness alone hast brought forth from nothing every creature and art their Provider and Sustainer, and among thine other ineffable benefits to our earthly generation, dost grant repentance also unto us because of the weakness of our flesh even until death, leave us not to die, miserable in our evil deeds, nor to be the ridicule of the author of evil, of the envious one, the destroyer. Thou seest, on the one hand, 0 Goodhearted One, his snares and enmity against us, and, on the other, our passions, and weakness, and negligence. But, we pray that thine inexhaustible goodness may be wrought upon us who make thee wrathful every day and hour by violating thine honorable and life-creating commandments. But, forgive and pardon all our offenses of our past life and up to the present hour in deed, speech, or in thought. Vouchsafe unto us to end the remainder of our life in repentance and contrition and in keeping thy holy precepts. If, deceived by pleasure, we have sinned in divers manners, and, if seduced by abominable desires, useless and injurious, we have spent our time; if moved by wrath and unreasonable displeasure, we have afflicted any of our brethren; if by our tongue, we have bound ourselves in unavoidable, injurious, and strong snares; if by any of our senses, or by all, willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly, unexpectedly or premeditatedly, we have foolishly erred; if by evil and vain thoughts we have defiled our conscience; and if in any other manner we have sinned, by evil chance or by custom, do thou pardon us and forgive all, O All-compassionate One, most good, and manymercied, and grant us future watchfulness and power to do thy good, and agreeable, and perfect will. Let nocturnal and dark evil deeds be changed to shining repentance, and, walking nobly as in the day, may we unworthy ones, be shown forth cleansed by thy love of man, praising thee and magnifying thee for ever. Amen.

    And the dismissal and the customary pardon (asking for forgiveness). Then the litany: Let us pray for our [lord. . . .]