praypointAwake at 3 a.m.

Awake at 3 a.m.

Too early to get up. And you already know you are not going back to sleep.

There is nothing to finish here and no order to keep. Say one of these, or part of one, or the same six words for an hour. The page is dark on purpose.

You are in old company

This hour has a prayer of its own, and it is the oldest one the Church has. It is called Vigils — the night office — and for about fifteen hundred years monks have gotten out of bed in the dark to pray it, somewhere around two in the morning, and then gone back to sleep.

They did not do it because the night is difficult. They did it because the night is quiet, and someone should be awake.

The line the whole practice hangs on is one verse of a psalm:

Right now, somewhere, that is being sung. It has not stopped.

When it is fear
Psalm 90. It says the words the terror of the night out loud, which is more than most things will do at this hour.
When it is heavier than that
The De Profundis. Out of the depths — and it does not climb out of them either. It waits.
When you have been lying there a while
Psalm 62, which has a line in it about exactly this and was written by somebody who had done it.
When you cannot hold on to any of it

Which is most of the time, at three in the morning. Then stop reading and say this, and keep saying it.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Half of it going in, half coming out, if that helps. Shorter is fine — Jesus, have mercy on me — and so is losing count, and so is falling asleep in the middle of it. That is not a failed prayer. That is the best possible ending to this page.

More about where it comes from, with three others like it, on Prayers you can carry.

And if morning comes anyway

Then it comes, and you were awake for it. Daily Prayer has a short morning set, about three minutes.

· Douay-Rheims 1899, fetched not transcribed · the Jesus Prayer is ancient, public domain
praypoint · Prayers · Night Prayer