Morning prayer · 26 October

My sleep was sweet

A sleepy cat stretches awake on a windowsill as the first beam of sunrise falls across its open eyes, suggesting eyes lit up fresh from sweet sleep.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, God of our fathers. You turn the shadow of death into morning and light up the earth. You part darkness from light, send the night away, bring back the day. You light up my eyes so I don’t sleep in death. You save me from the terror of the night. You drive sleep from my eyes, and make morning and evening sing your praise. I lay down and slept and got up again, because you held me up. I woke and saw, and my sleep was sweet. Wipe out my wrongs and my sins like a cloud. Make me a child of light, a child of the day, living clear-headed, holy and honest, as in daylight. Keep me from sin today. Amen.

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.

Psalm 3:5 (BSB)

Adapted from Lancelot Andrewes, Private Devotions (tr. J. H. Newman, 1840), in plain words. The verse is from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain). Drawing: Mutter.