Category:Compline: Difference between revisions

Compline (Night prayer) is a part of the Divine Office in the Roman Rite that is (traditionally) said or sung before going to bed, especially in monasteries. Sometimes it is celebrated after Vespers (Evening prayer); indeed, in the Anglican Rite Vespers and Compline have been combined in a single service which, when sung, is known as Choral Evensong. In 1970 the Roman Catholic Church replaced the traditional form with the LOTH or Liturgy of the Hours, in which the Psalms are reduced to 1 or 2 in number and placed after the hymn. German Wikipedia (linked below) gives a table comparing the 1911 and 1975 books with Lutheran Night Prayer.

View the Wikipedia article on WP:de Komplet.

Choral celebrations of Compline (sometimes with slight modifications) have grown in recent years, especially in the United States, where there are numerous "Compline choirs" spread throughout the country.

Order of service

The order of service is given thus in the Liber usualis (pp. 267-282, 291-293):

• Benediction, Short Lesson (1 Peter 5:8-9), confession
• Introductory Versicle Deus in adjutorium
• Psalmody with accompanying antiphon (Miserere mihi Domine, replaced with Alleluia in Eastertide). The appointed Psalms for Compline (see also historical Latin Psalters) are

• Hymn, usually Te lucis ante terminum.
• Short Responsory' In manus tuas (with seasonal variations)
• The Canticle Nunc dimittis with its antiphon (usually Salva nos mode 3, but others in modes 1, 4, 5, 7, 8 are found in older books)
• Kyrie, Pater noster, Credo, versicles
• Collect and dismissal
• A Marian antiphon, normally one of:
  • Alma Redemptoris Mater (Advent to Candlemas, 2 February)
  • Ave Regina caelorum (through Lent)
  • Regina caeli (Eastertide)
  • Salve Regina (Post-Pentecost)