At Compline

Compline , also known as Complin or Night Prayer, is the final church service (or office) of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours. The English word compline is derived from the Latin completorium, as Compline is the completion of the working day.

Tonight as I write this I am listening to Stile Antico’s Music for Compline.  Somehow I knew that Compline was one of the canonical hours, just like I knew that Matins was also one of the hours. Vespers too.  Maybe I picked it up when I went to the Jesuit university.

While I knew Compline was a church hour, or office, I just didn’t know which one.  Often I use Compline for meditations at the start of my work day.  Rolling out my rubber mat I sit for six to ten minutes and try and clear my mind.  The music obliterates the world around me’s noises, the coughs, the doors opening, etc.

When I arrived at my writing spot this evening there were two women sitting nearby engaged in an overly loud discussion regarding tomatoes and the diabetic diet.  One woman seemed to simply be tolerating the random conversational spurs travelled by the other.  The loud speaking woman was sitting in a green chair facing the window with a magazine of some kind.  As she flipped the rag’s pages it seemed whatever bolded text sitting atop of paragraph became her next talking point.

I had to leave.

I ended up in what is for all intents and purposes a study carrel.  Here I sit staring at three faux blond wood sides panels and a cream colored work surface.  Without hesitation I knew I needed to release my soul from the boundaries of this narrow workspace’s constraints.  What better use of ancient music than to free the soul from my exile?  I am listening to In Pace In Idipsum.  The rough translation of the whole phrase, not just this snippet  is “In peace and into the same I shall rest and sleep” Yeah that sounds good doesn’t it?

Today was a day of time not well spent.  I got up.  I walked to work.  I listened to people profess they had profoundly changed.  I mulled over again and again what I could believe and what I could not believe.  More disbelief today than belief. At lunch I tried to come up with a list of must does before my surgery.  Trouble was my wheels just spun.

Some nights it just makes sense to hang it up early.  There is something to be said for moving into the silent peace early. Tomorrow will be my day for list making.  Tomorrow will be my day for the correction of errors.  Tomorrow will be a day for looking forward. In peace and I shall rest and sleep.

https://youtu.be/UbQF7Cziff4