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Support Us All the Day Long

O Lord, support us all the day long
till the shadows lengthen
and the evening comes
and the busy world is hushed
and the fever of life is over
and our work is done.
Then in your mercy,
grant us a safe lodging
and a holy rest
and peace at the last.

Source: John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Variant:

May he support us all the day long
till the shades lengthen
and the evening comes
and the busy world is hushed
and the fever of life is over
and our work is done.
Then in his mercy
may he give us a safe lodging
and a holy rest
and peace at the last.

Source of this version: http://stoswaldsoswestry.org.uk/prayer-room/morning-and-evening-prayers/

Keep Watch, Dear Lord

220px-sandro_botticelli_050 Keep watch, dear Lord,
with those who wake,
or watch or weep this night,
and give your angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend the sick,
give rest to the weary,
sustain the dying,
calm the suffering,
and pity the distressed;
all for your love’s sake,
O Christ our Redeemer. Amen

Source: Attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo, 354-430

Source of this version: http://parishofcrawley.org/?page_id=54

Graphic by Sandro Botticeli from Wikipedia.com.

A Prayer for Protection

Visit this place, O Lord, we pray,
and drive far from it the snares of the enemy;
may your holy angels dwell with us and guard us in peace,
and may your blessing be always upon us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Source: Closing prayer for Compline (Church of England)

Source of this version: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/daily2/night/compline.aspx

Also found here: http://www.beliefnet.com/prayers/christian/protection/prayer-for-protection.aspx#WlCAQPoKyzFUKA0U.99

An Evening Prayer

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

Source: An Ancient Collect, sixth century

Source of this version: Freely modified from Prayers of the Early Church, edited by J. Manning Potts, 1953

An Evening Prayer

O God our Father,
by your mercy and might
the world turns safely into darkness
and returns again to light:
We give into your hands our unfinished tasks,
our unsolved problems,
and our unfulfilled hopes,
knowing that only that what you bless will prosper.

To your great love and protection
we commit each other and all those we love,
knowing that you alone are our sure defender;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen

Source: The Church of South India, Book of Common Worship

Source of this version: Modified from http://presidentialprayerteam.com/featured-store-item-2/

Also found here: https://sites.google.com/site/benkelnav/

A Prayer to Follow Christ’s Will

Grant me your grace, most merciful Jesus,
that your grace may be with me,
work in me, and continue with me to the end.

Grant me always
to want and desire whatever is most acceptable to you
and pleases you best.

Let your will be mine,
and let my will always follow yours
and agree perfectly with it.

Let there be between you and me but one will,
so that I may love what you love and abhor what you hate.
Grant that I may die to all things that are in the world
and, for your sake, love to be despised,
and not to be known by the world.
Grant that I may rest in you above all other things,
and that my heart may be at peace in you.

You are the true peace of the heart.
You are its only rest.
Outside of you,
all things are hard and uneasy.

In this peace, the same peace that is in you,
the one sovereign eternal Good,
I will sleep, and I will rest. Amen.

Source: Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Book 3
Source of this version: Freely modified from Prayers of the Middle Ages, edited by J. Manning Potts, 1954. 2

The last paragraph may be a reference or quote of Psalm 4:8.

Prayer to the Christchild

O good Jesus,
the Word of the Father,
brightness of the Father’s glory,
whom angels desire to behold;
teach me to do your will,
that guided by your good Spirit,
I may come to that blessed city
where there is everlasting day
where all are of one spirit;
where there is certain security
and secure eternity
and eternal tranquility
and quiet felicity
and happy sweetness
and sweet pleasantness;
where you,
with the Father and the Holy Spirit
live and reign,
now and forever.

Source: St. Gregory, d. 638

Source of this version: Modified from http://catholictradition.org/Christmas/christ-child13.htm

God Be in My Head

6069369723_ee697728eb_z_d God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at my end, and at my departing.

Source: Attributed to Old Sarum Primer, also attributed to Pynson’s Horae, 1514

Source of this version: http://www.hymnary.org/text/god_be_in_my_head_and_in_my_under

Graphic: Page from an English Psalter, from Flickr, Walters Art Museum, Public Domain.

In You Alone do I Have All

God, of your goodness, give me yourself,
for you are sufficient for me.
I cannot properly ask anything less,
to be worthy of you.
If I were to ask anything less
I should always be in want,
for in you alone do I have all.

Source: Julian of Norwich, d. 1443

Source of this version: Modified from http://www.beliefnet.com/prayers/christian/comfort/i-have-all-in-god.aspx#miyhOGfJa0pdHywi.99

Late Have I Loved You

220px-sandro_botticelli_050 Late have I loved you,
Beauty so ancient and so new,
late have I loved you!

Lo, you were within,
but I outside, seeking there for you,
and upon the shapely things you have made
I rushed headlong,
I, misshapen.
You were with me but I was not with you.
They held me back far from you,
those things which would have no being
were they not in you.

You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;
you flared, blazed, banished my blindness;
you lavished your fragrance,
I gasped, and now I pant for you;
I tasted you, and I hunger and thirst;
you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

Source: St. Augustine of Hippo, 354-430, Confessions, X, 27

Source of this version: http://www.deeper-devotion.net/augustine-confessions.html

“Now I pant for you” may be a reference to Psalm 42:1

“I tasted you” may be a reference to Psalm 34:8

Graphic by Sandro Botticeli from Wikipedia.com.

Another version, freely modified from Prayers of the Early Church, edited by J. Manning Potts, 1953

For Illumination

Late have I loved you,
Eternal Truth and Goodness.
Late have I sought you, my Father!
But you did seek me,
and when you shined forth on me,
then I knew you and learned to love you.
I thank you, my Light,
that you have shined on me,
and taught my soul what you wanted me to be,
and turned your face in pity to me.
You, Lord, have become my Hope,
my Comfort, my Strength, my All!
In you my soul rejoices.
The darkness vanished from before my eyes,
and I saw you,
the Son of Righteousness.
When I loved darkness, I did not know you,
but wandered on from night to night.
But you led me out of that blindness.
You took me by the hand and called me to you,
and now I can thank you,
and your mighty voice which has penetrated to my inmost heart. Amen.