'Shall we say Compline tonight?' Compline is used in the Northumbria Community as an optional extra to the Daily Office, but brings a perfect end to the day. Many use it on a regular basis, usually just before retiring to bed. On retreats it can be used to bring time together to a close as the whole household goes into quiet until next morning. These prayers are not lengthy and can be offered in just a few minutes.
It is recommended that a time of quietness should precede Compline, emptying out all the tensions and concerns of the past day and shifting the focus of our attention back to God. Then the sign of the cross can be made silently before starting the spoken prayers.
If you have young children, Compline can be used as bed-time prayers with them or over them, substituting the child's or children's names in the boxed sections whenever they cannot say the prayer for themselves. E.g. 'In peace will Martha lie down, for it is You, O Lord, You alone who makes her to rest secure.'
There is a different form of Compline for each day of the week. Each is named after an individual from the era of the Celtic Saints, serving as another reminder of the example set by 'good ones of old' who inspire us to seek God as they did.
Newsflash
On Sunday the 13th of February 2011 the words of the day 13 meditation were read aloud for the first time in our new 'Nether Springs' at Acton Home Farm. How apt and moving they were as we sat and prayed after this long journey home. This was the first day that the Community had been able to gather at our new Mother House, and the story of Achsah and Othniel was a clear reminder of God's faithfulness and provision for us as a Community after the turmoil of leaving Hetton Hall. Day 13 Meditation - Achsah and Othniel And so it was that Achsah kept urging Othniel her husband
to ask from her father a field.
She lighted from off her ass, and Caleb said to her,
'What is it that you want?'
And she said to him, 'Give me a blessing,
for you have given me this dark, desert land;
now give me also springs of water.'
And her father gave her the upper and the nether springs.
Judges1:14-15
One of the things that many people have commented on is how well the familiar and the new have blended together, Acton Home Farm feels like home. But it's more than this, it also feels like a place of renewed purpose for us where the 'monastic' and the 'missional' sit closer together, as we begin to explore afresh the five monastic disciplines that underpinned our life at Hetton Hall: Worship, Work, Study, Solitude and Community. The physical move to Acton Home Farm is now complete, but the transition into this new chapter of our Community's life is still continuing as we build on the foundations of old, and seek God for his purposes for us in this wonderful place. At the rebuIlding of the Abbey on Iona, George Macleod prayed a prayer that voices our prayers: It is not just the interior of the walls, it is our own inner beings you have renewed. We are your temple not made by hands. We are your body. If every wall should crumble, and every church decay, we are your habitation. Nearer are you than breathing, closer than hands and feet. Ours are the eyes with which you, in the mystery, look out in compassion on the world. So we bless you for this place, for your directing of us, your redeeming of us, and your indwelling. Take us 'outside the camp', Lord, outside holiness, out to where soldiers gamble, and thieves curse, and nations clash at the cross-roads of the world... So shall this building be justified.
The sounds of saws and hammers are giving way to the sounds of chapel bell, prayers and laughter. Come and join with us as we seek God and build a new home together. |
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