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Prayers

The Compline prayer of St Basil

A prayer credited to St Basil the Great, said at Great Compline, the night service of the great fasts. It asks God to keep us safe through the night.

Picture: Briton Rivière, Daniel in the Lions’ Den, 1872 (a warmed copy)

The words of the prayer

Plain English

Lord, Lord, You have saved usfrom every arrow that flies by day;save us also from everythingthat stalks in the darkness.Accept the lifting up of our handsas an evening sacrifice.

Grant that we may pass through this nightwithout blame and without being tempted by evil,and set us free from all the turmoil and fearthat the devil brings upon us.

Give our souls sorrow for sin,and turn our thoughts to the questioningwe will face at Your fearful and just judgment.

Nail down our flesh with the fear of You,and put to death what is earthly in us,so that even in the stillness of sleepwe may be filled with lightby the sight of Your judgments.

Take away from us every unseemly imaginingand every harmful desire.

Raise us up at the time of prayer,firm in the faithand growing in Your commandments,by the good will and the goodnessof Your only-begotten Son,with Whom You are blessed,together with Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit,now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.

Traditional wording, 1891

Lord, O Lord, Who savest us from every arrow that flieth by day,save us from every danger that lurketh in darkness.Accept the lifting up of our hands as an evening sacrifice.

Let us pass through the watches of the night without defilement and without temptation,and deliver us from restlessness and fear of the devil.

Let the repentance of our souls and the examination of our intentionsin the light of Thy terrible and righteous judgmentbe pleasing before Thee.

Penetrate our flesh with fear of Thee,and mortify our earthly members,so that in our sleep we may be enlightened with the vision of Thy judgment.

Remove far from us every unseemly imagination and every harmful lust.

And rouse us at the hour of prayer,strengthened in faith and advanced in Thy commandments.Through the satisfaction and goodness of Thine only-begotten Son,with Whom, and with Thy most holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit,Thou art blessed, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, checked against the Church Slavonic, with Shann’s 1891 English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Euchology, 1891.

Shann’s English parts from the Greek and the Slavonic in two places. Where they ask God to give our souls sorrow for sin and to turn our thoughts to His judgment, Shann asks that our repentance be pleasing to Him. Where they end “by the good will” of the Son, Shann has “satisfaction”.

When it is said

It is said at Great Compline, the Church’s service before sleep in the great fasts such as Lent. On other evenings the shorter Little Compline takes its place.

It comes after the priest’s blessing, “Through the prayers of our holy Fathers”, and closes the first part of the service.

Where it comes from

Author by tradition

Built on Psalm 91

The prayer opens on the words of Psalm 91, which is read earlier in the same service. The psalm promises that you need not fear “the arrow that flies by day” or “the pestilence that stalks in the darkness.” The prayer names God as the One Who has already saved us from every arrow of the day, and it asks Him to save us from whatever stalks in the dark.

G. V. Shann, Euchology (1891), The Great Compline; Psalm 91:5-6

Credited to St Basil

The Church Slavonic book of hours heads this prayer with the name of St Basil the Great, and the translator G. V. Shann printed it in English in 1891 as the “Prayer of Basil the Great.” A study of the service published by the Church of Greece calls it Basil’s too. The study singles it out as the prayer that sums up all the faithful ask of God before sleep.

Chasoslov (Church Slavonic), Great Compline, Azbuka Very; G. V. Shann, Euchology (1891), pp. 69-70; Metropolitan Georgios of Kitros and Pantelis Lekkos, Οι Ακολουθίες του Αποδείπνου και του Μεσονυκτικού, Church of Greece

What the words mean

“Nail down our flesh”?

Two of the prayer’s hardest lines come straight from Scripture. “Nail down our flesh with the fear of You” is Psalm 119:120 as the Greek Bible words it, where the psalmist goes on to say he fears God’s judgments. “Put to death what is earthly in us” is Paul’s command in Colossians 3:5, where he lists what he means: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed.

Psalm 119:120; Colossians 3:5

The Scripture in it

You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the calamity that destroys at noon.

Psalm 91:5-6 Quoted The arrow that flies by day and the danger in the dark, from the psalm read earlier in the same service.

May my prayer be set before You like incense; my uplifted hands, like the evening offering.

Psalm 141:2 Quoted The psalm’s picture of lifted hands as an evening offering.

My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.

Psalm 119:120 Quoted The Greek Bible’s wording of this verse gives the prayer its line about the fear of God holding the flesh fast.

Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:5 Quoted Paul’s call to put to death what is earthly in us.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Го́споди Го́споди, избавле́й на́с от вся́кия стрелы́ летя́щия во дни́, изба́ви на́с и от вся́кия ве́щи во тьме́ преходя́щия.

Приими́ же́ртву вече́рнюю ру́к на́ших воздея́ние.

Сподо́би же на́с и нощно́е по́прище без поро́ка прейти́, неискуше́ны от злы́х.

И изба́ви на́с от вся́каго смуще́ния и боя́зни, я́же от диа́вола на́м прибыва́ющия.

Да́руй душа́м на́шим умиле́ние, и помысло́м на́шим попече́ние, е́же на стра́шнем и пра́веднем Твое́м суде́ испыта́ния.

Пригвозди́ стра́ху Твоему́ пло́ти на́ша, и умертви́ у́ды на́ша су́щия на земли́: да и со́нным безмо́лвием просвети́мся зре́нием суде́б Твои́х.

Отими́ же от на́с вся́кое мечта́ние неподо́бное, и по́хоть вре́дну.

Возста́ви же на́с во вре́мя моли́твы, утвержде́ны в ве́ре, и преспева́ющия в за́поведех Твои́х, благоволе́нием, и бла́гостию Единоро́днаго Сы́на Твоего́: с Ни́мже благослове́н еси́, с Пресвяты́м, и Благи́м, и Животворя́щим Твои́м Ду́хом, ны́не и при́сно, и во ве́ки веко́в, ами́нь.

From the Church Slavonic book of hours (Chasoslov), Great Compline, on Azbuka Very.

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