A Concord Pastor Comments: NIGHT PRAYER: Saturday 1/23

(Just before posting tonight's prayer I inadvertently deleted

the draft and am unable to recover it. Since I have more work

to do on my homily for tomorrow, I don't have time to start

again on Night Prayer, so I'm reposting an entry from last May.)

It's a blessing, Lord, and for this I'm grateful:
    almost as soon as my head hits the pillow
    - I fall asleep...

In the silent hours of night, bless the Lord...

But so many struggle to get a good night's rest:
     awake for hours, hearts weighed down with worry,
     taunted by thoughts keeping a troubled soul from sleep...

Some have the care of an infant
crying from a crib, thirsty for milk:
     nature's alarm, clocking through the night,
     waking those who give what no one else can offer...

Others care for those who can't care for themselves:
     the weak, the frail in mind and body,
     those who've lost track of night and day, of then and now,
     whose years are long, whose days are short...

In the silent hours of night, bless the Lord...

Some are haunted by memories, dreams and nightmares:

shades of yesterday or fears of tomorrow

     steal a good night's sleep from those who most need rest...

Some keep watch, awake,
defending us at home, abroad:
     standing in harm's way, in vigil for our safety
     lest any terror of the night disturb our peace...

And some, Lord,
for reasons known to you and them alone,
some weep the night away:
     they cry their prayers, pleading for your hand to reach
     and with healing mercy touch and wipe each tear away
   with promise of some peace and a new day soon to come...

In the silent hours of night, bless the Lord...

You neither sleep nor slumber, Lord:

when our tossing and our turning

     keep us awake and steal our rest,
   watch over those you call your own
   and hold us in your arms...

Grant rest and peaceful dreams, Lord,

to all your sons and daughters:

rock our troubled hearts to sleep

and sing a lullaby of peace
to those whom fear keeps wide awake;

let the beating of your heart help us to trust

you'll keep us safe until a new day dawns...

In the silent hours of night, bless the Lord...

Hear my prayer this night
for those who long for sleep beneath the cover of the night

and the the blanket of your love:

those who pray for you to close their eyes

and help them find the rest they so much need...

Amen.

In the silent hours of night...

In the silent hours of night bless the Lord.

O come bless the Lord, all you who serve the Lord,
who stand in the house of the Lord,
in the courts of the house of our God.

Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord through the night.

May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who made both heaven and earth.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.
Amen.