The Midnight Office

The Midnight Office (Полуно́щница) is one of the services in the daily liturgical cycle, dedicated to the coming Second Advent of Jesus Christ and the Last Judgment. It is performed at midnight or at any hour of the night before morning, and only once per day. Depending on the day, it may be a daily, Saturday, Sunday, or Paschal (Easter) Midnight Office.

According to the Ustav (Church Rule), the Midnight Office precedes Matins. However, in modern liturgical practice, it is usually celebrated before the Hours. In the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1–13), the Second Coming of the Lord is depicted as the arrival of the Bridegroom “coming at midnight.” Therefore, the Midnight Office serves as a reminder of this future manifestation of the Lord, “as a thief in the night,” to judge us. The entire service consists of hymns portraying this coming of the Lord (such as the troparia: “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh”) and of penitential cries of the soul, awaiting God’s judgment in fear and trembling (notably Psalm 50 and the 17th Kathisma).

The origin of this nighttime service dates back to the early days of the Christian Church. During the persecutions of Christians in the Roman Empire, nighttime was the safest time for worship. At the same time, the Church has always regarded midnight as a particularly suitable time, due to its stillness, for focused, prayerful communion with God and for reflection upon one’s sins and repentance. St. Basil the Great, in his Second Letter to Gregory the Theologian, affirms this perspective on the institution of midnight worship. According to commentators, the Midnight Office was established first of all to remind the faithful of Christ’s midnight prayerful vigil before His voluntary Passion; and secondly, to provide a constant reminder of the day of Christ’s Second Coming, which, according to the Church’s general belief based on the Savior’s parable of the ten virgins, is to occur at midnight.

The Rite of the Midnight Office in Rusʹ and the Sequence of Prayers

In Rusʹ, the rite of the Midnight Office—close in form to the one used today—took shape by the 14th century. A Horologion (Book of Hours) from the collection of the Sophia Library in Novgorod contains three forms of the Midnight Office. A reference to the three-canticled canons sung at the Sunday Midnight Office is found in the 15th-century Psalter with the Order of Services. After the weekday and Saturday Midnight Offices, it includes “The Canon to the Most Holy and Life-Giving Trinity, chanted on Sunday before Matins instead of the Midnight Office,” followed by “refrains after ‘It is Truly Meet’” and a prayer to the Holy Trinity. In this arrangement, the various forms of the Midnight Office have been preserved to this day.

The weekday Midnight Office consists of the reading of the penitential Psalm (Psalm 50), Psalm 118 (the 17th Kathisma), the Creed, the troparia “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh at midnight,” Psalms 120 and 133, and memorial troparia for the departed. The Saturday Midnight Office differs in that, instead of the 17th Kathisma, the 9th Kathisma is read, along with other troparia after the first Trisagion. At the Sunday Midnight Office, the Kathisma is omitted and replaced with a Canon and the ensuing refrains and prayer in honor of the Holy Trinity. An important part of any Midnight Office is the Brotherly Forgiveness. This rite of mutual forgiveness is performed both in communal worship and in private prayer. The abbot asks forgiveness of all the brethren, and the brethren likewise ask forgiveness of the abbot.

Archbishop Symeon of Thessalonica (late 14th–early 15th century) describes the Midnight Office as follows:

At midnight, or shortly thereafter, when the semantron is struck—symbolizing the last trumpet of the Angel—all arise from sleep, as from death. Then, when the priest, representing Christ and bearing His priesthood, blesses in the narthex of the church—as though upon the earth before heaven (for it is fitting that a priest begin the prayers, and he himself, like all others, must begin from God)—then all the brethren say together: “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee,” and begin to read the appointed prayers in order. First, one must render glory to God, and only then proceed to what follows.

Today, the texts of all three types of the Midnight Office can be found in the Horologion or in modern editions of the Old Rite Prayer Book. Like the Compline, the Midnight Office is highly recommended for daily use by every Christian. According to current tradition for private prayer, the Midnight Office is read by the Christian as the first prayer rule upon awakening from sleep—regardless of when that awakening occurs.

Order of the Weekday Midnight Office #

First Part:

Priest: “Blessed is our God…”

Reader: “Amen”; “Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee, for all things”; “O God, cleanse me, a sinner”; “O Heavenly King…”; the Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy Mighty…”); after “Our Father,” “Lord, have mercy” twelve times; then “Having risen from sleep…”; “Come, let us worship…”; Psalm 50: “Have mercy on me, O God…”; the 17th Kathisma; the Creed (Symbol of Faith); the Trisagion through “Our Father”; troparia, beginning with: “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh at midnight…” and others as appointed in the Horologion; “Lord, have mercy” forty times; the prayer “O Thou Who at every season and every hour…”; “Lord, have mercy” three times; “Glory… Both now…”; “More honourable than the cherubim…”; and “In the Name of the Lord, bless, father.”

Priest: “O God, be merciful unto us and bless us…”

Reader: “Amen,” and the prayer: “Master, Lord God, Almighty Father…”

Second Part:

“Come, let us worship…”; then two Psalms: “I lifted up mine eyes to the mountains…” (Psalm 120) and “Behold now, bless ye the Lord…” (Psalm 133); the Trisagion; “Our Father”; Memorial troparia for the departed: “Remember, O Lord, as Thou art good, Thy servants…”; “Thou who in the depths of wisdom…”; Glory: “With the saints give rest…”; Both now: “We bless thee, O God-bearer…”; “Lord, have mercy” twelve times; a final prayer. Then the dismissal follows in the same form as that of the Little Compline.

Saturday Midnight Office

The differences between the Saturday and weekday Midnight Offices are as follows:

1. Instead of the 17th Kathisma, the 9th Kathisma is read;

2. Instead of the troparia “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,” the troparia “Uncreated Nature” and others appropriate to the day are read.

All else follows as in the weekday Midnight Office.

Sunday Midnight Office

The usual beginning is the same as in the weekday Midnight Office. Then Psalm 50 is read.

Priest: “Through the mercy and compassion…”

Reader: Then the Triadic Canon from the Octoechos, with refrains of Gregory of Sinai; the Trisagion through “Our Father,” the Kontakion in the tone of the week; “Lord, have mercy” forty times; Glory… Both now…: “More honourable than the cherubim…”; “In the Name of the Lord, bless, father”:

Priest: “O God, be merciful unto us…” and the prayer: “O Almighty and Life-Giving Holy Trinity…”

Then the dismissal is given as in the weekday Midnight Office, except that the commemoration of the departed is omitted.

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