Evening Hymn

We bless thee now, O my Christ, thou Word of God,
Light of light without beginning, Bestower of the Spirit, 
We bless thee, threefold light of undivided glory,
Thou has vanquished the darkness and brought forth the light,
to create everything in it.

Thou has given solidity to matter,

moulding the face of the world,

and the shape of its beauty therein.

Thou hast enlightened the human spirit,

endowing it with reasoning and wisdom.

Everywhere is to be found the reflection of eternal light,

so that in the light the human spirit

may find its splendour and become entirely light.

Thou has illuminated the sky with spangled lights,

The night and the day thou hast commanded to alternate in peace 

by giving them, for rule, brotherly love.

Night puts an end to the body's toil,

Day awakens us again to our work,

to our business that engrosses us.

But we are fleeing the darkness,

we are hastening to the day that never wanes,

to the day that will never know the sorrow of the dusk.

Grant to mine eyelids a light sleep,

that my voice remain not long dumb.

Thy creation shall keep watch to sing psalms with the angels,

May my sleep ever be peopled by thy presence...

Even parted from the body my spirit sings thy praise

O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

To thee be glory and power

for ever and ever.

Amen.

- Gregory Nazianzen (329 A.D. - 390 A.D.), Dogmatic Poems, as quoted in The Roots of Christian Mysticism by Olivier Clement