The other evening, as I was preparing our two-year-old son for bed, it occurred to me that the Gospel Canticle for Compline makes a great bedtime prayer. So I sang it for Samuel. As I started chanting, he looked at me, somewhat perplexed. But then, he started this kind of drone humming accompaniment that sounded a bit like chant, so we went with it. You may know the text of the canticle. There's an antiphon before and after the canticle that reads:

Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping/that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.

And then the canticle itself, sometimes called the Song of Simeon or the Nunc Dimittis:

Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled.

My own eyes have seen the salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of every people:

a light to reveal you to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.

Since I don't know how to attach mp3 audio to this column, I can't sing it for you, so you'll have to look in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 324, for the music.

It's a gorgeous chant to sing before bed. The antiphon is quite a bit like the bedtime prayer I learned as a prayer, but more theologically sound and poetic. The song of Simeon is an apt prayer to pray at any departure, including the departure from wakefulness, because of its confident celebration of promise fulfilled. No wonder it is used regularly throughout the world at Compline, and also now in many worship traditions as the concluding song for Sunday worship.

As we have been raising our children, I have been trying to figure out how to bring the spirituality of the Daily Office into our family life. I don't want to overly romanticize what I'm writing about here, so I include this disclaimer. Our household is often as disorganized and erratic as any other. We try to incorporate song and prayer into our daily routine, but sometimes we fail. 

I think many teachers of the faith knew this about family life, because although the Daily Office can and is sung in a full and time-consuming way in monastic communities (see, for example, the absolutely amazing documentary Die Grosse Stille, most knew that praying the full Daily Office was not possible for those in other vocations or engaged in raising families. Luther, for instance, offers a "simple way to pray" to his barber, which recommends meditation on the basics of the catechism, especially the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, and other portions as there is time. He recommends in the same letter against praying the daily office.

In the Orthodox tradition, for those unable to pray through all 150 psalms each week, there developed a tradition of praying the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner." This prayer is available as a way to pray without ceasing, but it also, according to the tradition, summarizes or can stand in for all the psalms. The Rosary functions in a similar way in the Roman Catholic communion, and is the prayer more popularly prayed as a daily office rather than the full office prayed in monastic communities.

Nevertheless, if we want to sing our faith on a daily basis, if we want to have a soundtrack for our lives that is an alternative to the canned music that is always forced upon us in shopping malls and various public venues, maybe at least some of the songs of the Daily Office, selected and incorporated as we are able and interested, can function as a powerful resource for faith.

So, consider these various options. The Matins tunes and songs are mostly a bit longer and difficult to memorize, but the Venite (Psalm 95:1-7) is certainly worthy of learning by heart. It encourages us to wake up singing, with our minds fixed on the greatness of God as creator. The Psalmist sings:

Come let us sing to the Lord, let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before God's presence with thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to him with psalms...

In hishands are the caverns of the earth; the heights of the hills are also his.

If the Venite proves too difficult, then I recommend adopting a "song for the day." For our son Samuel, it is a song written by Jonathan Rundman called "Hey Hey Samuel", based on the call of Samuel recorded in 1 Samuel, chapter 3. It is good to be reminded each day, all day, that "God is calling us to follow, and God will show us how." We know a famous song text for our second child, Miriam, but are still waiting for someone to write a new tune for ancient song of Miriam, Moses' sister, 

“Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; 

horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.” 

The soundtrack for your life can certainly include many other tracks. Sing the Magnificat in the evening, maybe Marty Haugen's version from Holden Evening Prayer, or Kent Gustavson's new version in Mountain Vespers. 

Another wonderful evening hymn that has doubled as a lullaby for us in our home devotional life is Now the Day is Over by Sabine Baring-Gould, 1867. Believe it or not, the first time I heard this hymn was when we started listening to an album of The Innocence Mission with a cover of the tune on it. I have since learned that it was a classic hymn a generation or two ago, and is slowly making a comeback. You can read the full text of the hymn from the old Lutheran Hymnal. 

In fact, this game of brainstorming a life soundtrack can be played ad infinitum. Think of songs that truly focus your mind on the promise of the gospel, call you to trinitarian benedictions, or put prayers on your lips. Then find ways to sing them as you are waking and as you are falling asleep, and as many of the hours in between as you can.

And don't overlook wordless prayers. Some of the best prayers ever lifted to God "as incense, as the evening sacrifice," were played by the likes of John Coltrane or Andrew Hill. Or Olivier Messiaen. Or the Rosary Sonatas of Paul Biber. You get the game. Feel free to play it.

But then, after you've played for a while, settle in on a few standards. Select hymns that mark the hours in the light of Christ. Imagine if a whole generation of children grew up singing Simeon's Song, the Venite, and the Magnificat. Just those, and no more. Those songs, thrown into the mix with the texts of the catechism, could be enough worship for a lifetime, sung and prayed properly, centered on Christ.