Looking carefully at the liturgical wealth of our Orthodox Church, we note endless points in which watchfulness is mentioned or commented on: in the daily sacred services (Midnight Office, Orthros, Hours, Vespers, Compline), in the prayers of the Divine Liturgy, in the Great Canon, in the hymnology of the Octoechos, the Triodion and the Menaia.
The worship of our Orthodox Church is a profoundly contrite worship, a worship of returning into our true, deeper self. In other words, our worship is a neptic worship.
In the service of the Midnight Office, after Psalm 119, (24) there is a sublime troparion which is also chanted contritely during Holy Week:
Behold, the Bridegroom comes in the middle
of the night; and blessed is the servant whom He
shall find watching, but unworthy is he whom He
shall find in slothfulness. Beware, then, O my soul,
and be not overcome by sleep, lest thou be given
over to death and shut out from the kingdom. But
return to soberness and cry aloud: Holy, holy, holy,
art Thou, O God: through the Theotokos have
mercy upon us.
Immediately after this follows a Doxasticon, also inspired by the parable of the ten virgins:
Keep in mind the fearful day and be Vigilant,
my soul. Kindle thy lamp and cause it to burn
brightly with the oil of compassion. For thou dost
not know when thou shalt hear the cry, “Behold,
thy Bridegroom!” Be watchful, then, my soul, and
do not slumber, lest thou be left outside knocking
at the door like the five virgins, but continue wakeful,
and so with the rich oil of mercy in thy lamp go
out to meet Christ thy God; and may He grant to
thee the divine bridal chamber of His glory.
In a special service of the Midnight Office we ask of the Lord, after the evening rest and beginning of the new day, to cleanse us, to make us temples of the Holy Spirit, and to grant us a vigilant heart and a sober mind, so that, no longer asleep in the soul, but awake and alert, we may work His commandments and taste the joy of His divine bridal chamber:
Almighty Lord … grant us to pass the night of the whole present life with a wakeful heart and sober thought…
In the third of the twelve mystical prayers of the Orthros service the priest prays on behalf of all the faithful ” … Enlighten the eyes of our intelligencethat we may never fall asleep unto death in sin … “.
In the prayer of the bowing of heads during Vespers the priest prays that the Lord keep us ” … from every enemy, from every adverse operation of the devil, and from vain thoughts and evil imaginations”.
In the prayer: “O Thou Who in all times and places … “, which we read during the service of the Midnight Office, Hours, Compline, etc., there is a neptic aspect to the phrases, “set our minds aright, cleanse our thoughts”.
In the daily evening prayer of the Compline we beseech the Lord for “a watchful mind, a sober heart”, in other words, alert, filled with vigilance in the spiritual battle with filthy satanic thoughts, which often have their repercussion in our dreams at night.
Additionally, there are many neptic expressions in the Great Compline. We quote two:
«Enlighten my eyes, O Christ God, lest I sleep
to death; lest my enemies say: “I prevailed over him”».
We beseech Christ to enlighten the eyes of our soul because a great danger always lies in wait for all fighters: the sleep of death. If he finds us sleeping, the enemy will say maliciously about each one of us: “I prevailed over him- I beat him, I defeated him”. And the enemy is vigilant, as another prayer from the Compline states:
“O Lord, Thou knowest well the alertness of
mine invisible enemies and the weakness of mine
own wretched body, for Thou Thyself hast fashioned
me. Wherefore I entrust my soul to Thine
hands, cover me with the wings of Thy bounty, lest
I sleep to death; enlighten my spirit with the delight
of Thy divine word; awaken me at the time of
Thy glory, for Thou alone art a gracious God and
the Lover of Mankind”.
All the “Hymns of Light” (Photagogica) which are recited during Great Lent are known for their neptic content.
~ Watchfulness and Prayer, Themes from the Philokalia, Number 1, 2nd Edition, Publications of the Holy Monastery of St Gregory Palamas, Koufalia, Thessaloniki, Hellas
24. Ps. 118. LXX.
