God, come to my assistance.
 - Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
 -  as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.
Amen. Alleluia.


HYMN
We Praise You, Father For Your Gifts
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
This World, My God, Is Held Within Your Hand
Now At The Daylight's Ending
O Christ, You Are The Light And Day
All Praise To You, O God, This Night
The Master Came To Bring Good News
Te Lucis Ante Terminum
Christe, Qui, Splendor Et Dies


PSALMODY

Antiphon: Day and night I cry to you, my God.

Lord my God, I call for help by day;
I cry at night before you.
Let my prayer come into your presence.
O turn your ear to my cry.

For my soul is filled with evils;
my life is on the brink of the grave.
I am reckoned as one in the tomb;
I have reached the end of my strength,

Like one alone among the dead,
like the slain lying in their graves,
like those you remember no more,
cut off, as they are, from your hand.

You have laid me in the depths of the tomb,
in places that are dark, in the depths.
Your anger weighs down upon me;
I am drowned beneath your waves.

You have taken away my friends
and made me hateful in their sight.
Imprisoned, I cannot escape;
my eyes are sunken with grief.

I call to you, Lord, all the day long;
to you I stretch out my hands.
Will you work your wonders for the dead?
Will the shades stand and praise you?

Will your love be told in the grave
or your faithfulness among the dead?
Will your wonders be known in the dark
or your justice in the land of oblivion?

As for me, Lord, I call to you for help;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Lord, why do you reject me?
Why do you hide your face?

Wretched, close to death from my youth,
I have borne your trials; I am numb.
Your fury has swept down upon me;
your terrors have utterly destroyed me.

They surround me all the day like a flood,
they assail me all together.
Friend and neighbor you have taken away:
my one companion is darkness.

Antiphon: Day and night I cry to you, my God.


READING           Jeremiah 14: 9a
You are in our midst, O Lord, your name we bear: do not forsake us, O Lord, our God!


RESPONSORY
Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.
 - Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.
You have redeemed us, Lord God of truth.
 - I commend my spirit.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
 - Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.


GOSPEL CANTICLE            Luke 2:29-32

Antiphon: Protect us Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now and will be for ever.

Antiphon: Protect us Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.


PRAYER
All-powerful God,
keep us united with your Son
in his death and burial
so that we may rise to new life with him,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever.


BLESSING
May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death. Amen.

Or:

The divine help remain with us always,
- and with those who are absent from us.


Antiphon of the Blessed Virgin Mary