The Shepherd, July 2004
Adapted from
“THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE CHURCH SERVICES”
By the Priest N. R. Antonov
Continuation
PART FOUR
The Order and Explanation of the All-Night Vigil
§ 91. The Evening Services. The evening services sanctify the passing moments of the evening and night. First among these services we have Vespers. The hour of Vespers reminds the faithful of the very first evening on earth and of the moment when time began to be calculated, that is at the creation of the world. [And the evening and the morning were the first day - Genesis 1:5]. For this reason in Vespers, the Old Testament psalmic verses recall the creation of the world and of man. This original commemoration is augmented by New Testament commemorations relating to the life of Jesus Christ and the Saints. Thus in the order of Vespers, besides the psalms we have changeable hymns from the weekly and the yearly cycle of church services.
The second evening service is called Compline. In the Greek, its name indicates that it is chanted “after Supper” as it does in the Russian translation. [Our English name for it probably derives from the Latin, to complete, indicating that it ends the cycle of services in the normal day, being said before going to bed]. It contains supplications that we might enjoy peaceful and undisturbed sleep. And as sleep is an image of death, the service of Compline brings to mind for those praying remembrance of death and the resurrection which will follow it.
The third evening services is called the Midnight Service or Nocturns. It is called this because properly it is served at midnight, although, in practice, it is often served at some other time in the night hours. The content of the prayers inspire the faithful ever to be ready for the day of the Dread Judgment, which will come unexpectedly like “the bridegroom in the middle of the night.” The composition of Nocturns also reminds the faithful of the Lord, Who, on coming to His voluntary Passion, prayed at night in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Lastly, numbered among the evening services, we must number the All-Night Vigil, which often, and much more accurately, is simply called the Vigil. Of all the evening services, the Vigil is perhaps the best known among the lay people, because it is celebrated on the eves of Sundays (in Russian practice) and the greater feasts, times when all conscientious lay people try to attend the services. Vespers, Compline and Nocturns would be used on ferial days, when naturally lay people are less likely to attend. The Vigil is a composite service, made up of Vespers, Mattins and the First Hour.
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