Priest: Let us pray to the Lord

People: Lord have mercy.

O Lord Almighty, the Healer of our souls and bodies, You Who put down and raise up, Who chastise and heal also; do You now, in Your great mercy, visit our brother (sister) (Name), who is sick. Stretch forth Your hand that is full of healing and health, and get him (her) up from his (her) bed, and cure him (her) of his (her) illness. Put away from him (her) the spirit of disease and of every malady, pain, and fever to which he (she) is bound; and if he (she) has sins and transgressions, grant to him (her) remission and forgiveness, in that You love mankind; yes, Lord my God, pity Your creation, through the compassions of Your Only-Begotten Son, together with Your All-Holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit, with Whom You are blessed, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Deacon: Master, give the blessing.

Priest: Blessed is our God always, now and forever and to the ages of ages.

People: Amen.

The Head of the Church is Christ and us humans, we Christians, are the body. The Holy Apostle Paul says: He is the head of the body, of the Church (Colossians 1:18). The Church and Christ are one. The body of the Church cannot exist without its Head. The body of the Church is nourished, sanctified, and lives with Christ. He is the Lord, Omnipotent, Omniscient, everywhere present and filling all things, our staff, our friend, our brother: the pillar and sure foundation of the Church.

The Church is without beginning, without end and eternal, just as the Triune God, her Founder, is without beginning, without end and eternal. She is uncreated just as God is Uncreated. She existed before the ages, before the Angels, before the creation of the world--"before the foundation of the world" as the Holy Apostle Paul says. (Ephesians 1:4). She is an expression of the richly varied Wisdom of God. She is the mystery of mysteries. She was concealed and was revealed "in the last of times" (Col. 2:9). The Church remains unshaken because she is rooted in the love and wise Providence of God.

The "Akathist Hymn" is a profound, devotional poem, which sings the praises of the Holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary. While it is a composite work by more than one of our Ecclesiastical Hymnographers as we know it today, it was formally recited, or rather prayed in the year 626 A.D., in the church of the Theotokos of Vlachernae in Constantinople, on the occasion of the deliverance of the "Queen City" from the siege by the Barbarians.

The Greek word for "Compline" is "Apodeipnon" which literally means "after dinner." There are many prescribed intervals of prayer during the day, and one of them is prayer before sleeping. There is a 'service' of the "Small Compline" which can be read by anyone. It does not require a priest and it does not need to be read in a church. There are many pious Orthodox Christians who pray the "Small Compline" throughout the year.