good evening and welcome to this little service of compline which ends our day our sunday here at canterbury cathedral it's been a sunny day but a very very windy one and we found a little shelter in the garden to say our closing prayers for the day this is the eve of the feast of st peter and saint paul which we shall keep tomorrow and the lessons that we shall use tomorrow are lessons of both apostles in their prime in terms of their activity and the sense of their vocation a vocation which took them far from home and in the end ended in martyrdom in the city of rome during one of the persecutions but i thought we'd just begin with one of the loveliest passages of saint paul he's writing to the church in philippi i always feel his letter to the philippians is one of the most affectionate of all his letters but here there's a sense of his writing from prison and his intuition that he won't be seeing them again and so he's giving them some last instructions always he relies on what he has shown them there's a phrase in it you know what you've seen in me try to emulate yourself but it's full of beautiful phrases for us also it's written in philippians chapter four and begins at the fourth verse rejoice in the lord always again i will say rejoice let your reasonableness be known to everyone the lord is at hand do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god and the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in christ jesus and finally brothers and sisters whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there is any excellence if there is anything worthy of praise think about these things what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the god of peace will be with you it's a wonderful instruction coming from the great apostles final years of ministry and giving the fruit of all his experience but his instruction always to accompany everything with thanksgiving is one that we should take to heart as we come to the end of this day so let's say compline together and commend not only ourselves but all those whom we love into the hands of god as this sunday draws to a close and the sun begins to set the lord almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end amen be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour whom resist steadfast in the faith but thou o lord have mercy upon us thanks be to god our help is in the name of the lord who have made heaven and earth we reflect upon the hours of this day and bring any sorrow we have for opportunities missed and things done in a way that have given sorrow to others the way in which we might feel that we've missed an opportunity to fulfill our own vocation and god's will for us we confess to god almighty the father the son and the holy ghost before the whole company of heaven that we have sinned exceedingly in thought word and deed through our fault our own fault our own grievous fault therefore we pray god to have mercy upon us almighty god have mercy upon us forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life amen turn us oh god our savior and let thine anger cease from us oh god make speed to save us o lord make haste to help us glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen psalm 91 [Music] whoso dwelleth under the defense of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty i will say unto the lord thou art my hope and my stronghold my god in him will i trust for he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter and from the noisome pestilence he shall defend thee under his wings and thou shall be safe under his feathers his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day for the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor for the sickness that destroy us in the noonday a thousand shall fall beside thee and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee yea with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the ungodly for thou lord art my hope thou has set thine house of defense very high there shall no evil happen unto thee neither shall any plague come neither dwelling for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways they shall bear thee in their hands that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone thou shalt go upon the lion and adder the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet because he has set his love upon me therefore will i deliver him i will set him up because he has known my name he shall call upon me and i will hear him ye i am with him in trouble i will deliver him and bring him to honor with long life will i satisfy him and show him my salvation glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen psalm 134 behold now praise the lord all ye servants of the lord ye that by night stand in the house of the lord even in the courts of the house of our god lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the lord the lord that made heaven and earth give the blessing out of zion glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen thou o lord out in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not o lord our god thanks be to god into thy hands o lord i commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me o lord thou god of truth i commend my spirit glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost into thy hands o lord i commend my spirit so we say the compline hymn before the ending of the day creator of the world we pray that with thy won'ted favor thou wouldst be our guard and keeper now from all ill dreams defend our eyes from nightly fears and fantasies shed underfoot our ghostly foe that no pollution we may know o father that we ask be done through jesus christ thine only son who with the holy ghost and thee doth live and reign eternally amen keep me o lord as the apple of an eye hide me under the shadow of thy wings so at this point in our service we light a candle a candle of remembrance for all whom we have known and loved who have gone on before us to a greater light we give thanks for them and we remember especially any whom we have known who have died recently we think of them commend them to god and also pray for those who are bereaved at this time any who have died from the coronavirus we unfold them all in god's love as we kindle a light for them at this compline service rest eternal grant unto them oh lord and let light perpetual shine upon them save us o lord while waking and guard us while sleeping that awake we may watch with christ and asleep we may rest in peace lord now let is thy thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lighten the gentiles and to be the glory of thy people israel glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen save us so lord while waking and guard us while sleeping that awake we may watch with christ and asleep we may rest in peace lord have mercy upon us christ have mercy upon us lord have mercy upon us so as this day draws to a close we say in whatever way we are used to saying it and in whichever language the prayer our savior taught us our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen we will lay us down in peace and take our rest let us bless the father the son and the holy spirit let us praise and exalt him above all forever blessed art thou o lord in the firmament of heaven and to be praised and glorified and exalted above all forever the almighty and merciful lord guard us and give us his blessing amen safer lord to keep us this night without sin the lord have mercy upon us have mercy upon us o lord let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust is in me lord hear our prayer and let our cry come unto thee let us pray visit we beseech the lord our homes and drive far from them all the snares of the enemy let thy holy angels dwell therein to preserve us in peace and may thy blessing be upon us ever more through jesus christ our lord amen oh lord who by triumphing over the power of darkness did prepare our place in the new jerusalem grant us who have this day given thanks for thy resurrection to praise thee in the eternal city whereof thou art the light where with the father and the holy ghost our livest and reignest one god world without end amen be present oh merciful god and protect us through the silent hours of this night so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this fleeting world may repose upon thy eternal changelessness through jesus christ our lord amen so in a moment of silence we say our own prayers for this night and pray for all whom we love and are on our hearts or in our minds watch so dear lords with those who wake or watch or weep tonight and give thine angels charge over those who sleep tend thy sick ones o lord christ rest thy weary ones bless thy dying ones sooth thy suffering ones pity thine afflicted ones and all for thy love's sake amen unto god's most gracious mercy and protection we commit you the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you his peace and the blessing of god almighty the father the son and the holy spirit be upon you upon those whom you love and those you would pray for this night and always amen so [Music] so we end the day with a poem by robert frost about the birch trees there's one behind me here when i see birches bend to left and right across the lines of straighter darker trees i like to think some boys been swinging them but swinging doesn't bend them down to stay as ice storms do often you must have seen them loaded with ice a sunny winter morning after a rain they click upon themselves as the breeze rises and turn many colored as the stir cracks and crazes their enamel soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells shattering and avalanching on the snow crust such heaps of broken glass to sweep away you'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen they are dragged to the withered bracken by the load and they seem not to break the once they are bowed so low for long they never write themselves you may see their trunks arching in the woods years trailing their leaves on the ground like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair before them over their heads to dry in the sun but i was going to say when truth broke in with all her matter of fact about the ice storm i should prefer to have some boy bend them as he went out and in to fetch the cows some boy too far from town to learn baseball whose only play was what he found himself summer or winter and could play alone one by one he subdued his father's trees by riding them down over and over again until he took the stiffness out of them and not one but hung limp not one was left for him to conquer he learned all there was to learn about not launching out too soon and so not carrying the tree away clear to ground he always kept his poise to the top branches climbing carefully with the same pains you used to fill a cup up to the brim and even above the brim then he flung outward feet first with a swish kicking his way down through the air to the ground so was i once myself a swinger of birches and so i dream of going back to be it's when i'm wary of considerations and life is too much like a pathless wood where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs broken across it and one eye is weeping from a twig having lashed across it open i'd like to get away from earth a while and then come back to it and begin over may no fate willfully misunderstand me and half grant what i wish and snatch me away not to return earth the right place for love i don't know where it's likely to go better i'd like to go by climbing a birch tree and climb back branches up a snow white trunk toward heaven till the tree could bear no more but dipped its top and set me down again that would be good both going and coming back one could do worse than be a swinger of birches robert frost's thanksgiving for the loveliness of a birch tree which we've been seeing all evening with the candle burning in front of it and tigers arrived as well god bless you on this night