An evening prayer for protection
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Text: Book of Common Prayer (1662), public domain.
In Latin
Illumina, quaesumus, Domine, tenebras nostras: et totius huius noctis insidias tu a nobis repelle propitius. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
About this prayer
The third collect at Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. Thomas Cranmer translated it in 1549 from Illumina, quaesumus, a Latin collect said at Compline, the night prayer of the medieval Sarum rite. It asks God for light and protection through the hours of darkness and is a natural prayer before sleep.