Catholic Evening Prayer
Summary
Three things, and you do not need all three on the same night.
What Catholic Evening Prayer Involves
Three things, and you do not need all three on the same night.
The traditional evening prayer, a short prayer of thanks and sorrow said before bed. Two minutes.
The examination of conscience, a brief honest review of the day, usually followed by an Act of Contrition. Two to five minutes.
Vespers and Compline, the Church's own Evening Prayer and Night Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. Ten to fifteen minutes for Vespers, five to eight for Compline.
Prayers first, explanation after.
The Traditional Catholic Evening Prayer
As published by Catholic Answers in a tract carrying a nihil obstat and imprimatur from 2004:
O my God, at the end of this day I thank you most heartily for all the graces I have received from you. I am sorry that I have not made a better use of them. I am sorry for all the sins I have committed against you. Forgive me, O my God, and graciously protect me this night. Blessed Virgin Mary, my dear heavenly mother, take me under your protection. St. Joseph, my dear guardian angel, and all you saints of God, pray for me. Sweet Jesus, have pity on all poor sinners, and save them from hell. Have mercy on the suffering souls in purgatory.
Notice the order: thanks first, then sorrow, then protection, then intercession for other people. That sequence is the whole architecture of a Catholic night, compressed.
Act of Contrition
Traditionally said after the examination of conscience:
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend thee, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.
Prayer to Your Guardian Angel
Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here, ever this night be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.
("Ever this day" in the morning form.)
Hail, Holy Queen
One of the Marian antiphons that traditionally closes the day:
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
How to Make an Examination of Conscience
Catholic Answers describes the daily examination simply: "A daily examination of conscience consists of a brief recounting of our actions during the day. What sins did we commit? Where did we fail? In what areas of our lives can we strive to make virtuous progress? Having determined our failures and sins, we make an act of contrition."
That is the whole method. Three questions and a prayer.
Two things worth saying about it, because the practice gets distorted in both directions.
It is not a nightly self trial. The point is not to generate remorse proportional to your failures; it is to look, name, and hand over. If the examination reliably leaves you worse than it found you, you are doing something other than what the tradition describes, and it is worth raising with a confessor or spiritual director.
And it is not optional decoration on the Office either. The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours puts it inside Night Prayer: "It is praiseworthy to follow the introductory verse with an examination of conscience. In common recitation it is made in silence or inserted into one of the penitential acts given in the Roman Missal" (GILH 86).
The daily examination is distinct from the examination of conscience made before sacramental confession, which is longer and works through the commandments or the precepts of the Church. Both are called by the same name, which is a common source of confusion.
Vespers: The Church's Evening Prayer
The General Instruction quotes the Council: "Lauds as morning prayer and Vespers as evening prayer are the two hinges on which the daily Office turns" (GILH 37). It describes Vespers as celebrated "in the evening when the day is drawing to a close, so that 'we may give thanks for what has been given us during the day, or for the things we have done well during it'" (GILH 39, quoting St. Basil).
Its structure, per GILH 41 to 53:
| Part | What happens |
|---|---|
| Introductory verse | "O God, come to our aid: O Lord, make haste to help us," then the Glory be |
| Hymn | Fitted to the Hour or feast |
| Psalmody | Two psalms suited to the evening, then a canticle from the Epistles or Revelation |
| Reading | Short reading, or a longer one with a congregation |
| Responsory | Optional |
| Magnificat | The Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with its antiphon |
| Petitions | Intercessions for the evening |
| Our Father | Said by all |
| Concluding prayer | From the psalter or the Proper |
The image behind the whole Hour is Psalm 141:2 (NABRE): "Let my prayer be incense before you; my uplifted hands an evening offering."
Compline: Night Prayer
Compline is the shorter and, for most lay Catholics, the more realistic option. GILH 84 defines it plainly: "Compline is the final prayer of the day to be said before going to bed, even if this is after midnight."
Its shape, per GILH 85 to 92:
- Introductory verse, then the Glory be and (outside Lent) the Alleluia
- Examination of conscience, described as praiseworthy at this point
- A hymn
- Psalmody. Psalms evoking confidence in God, and the Instruction permits substituting the Sunday psalms on weekdays, which it notes "is particularly helpful for those who may want to recite Compline from memory"
- Short reading, then the responsory Into your hands
- The Gospel canticle with its antiphon, which GILH 89 calls "the culmination of the whole Hour"
- Concluding prayer
- The blessing The Lord grant us a quiet night, said even when praying alone
- A Marian antiphon, always the Regina Caeli during Eastertide
The Gospel canticle at Compline is the Nunc Dimittis, Luke 2:29-32 (NABRE):
"Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel."
Simeon says this holding the infant Christ, ready to die. Praying it at the end of an ordinary Tuesday is a small, deliberate rehearsal.
A note on psalm numbers. The General Instruction uses the older Greek and Latin numbering, so its "Ps 90" is Psalm 91 in most modern English Bibles including the NABRE ("You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High"), and its "Ps 133" is Psalm 134 ("O come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, you who stand in the house of the LORD through the long hours of night"). Psalm 4 is Psalm 4 in both. If you follow a printed breviary and a modern Bible side by side, this offset is what is confusing you.
The responsory Into your hands is Psalm 31:6. The NABRE footnote on that verse notes it directly: "The verse is used as an antiphon in the Divine Office at Compline, the last prayer of the day." Christ says the same words from the cross in Luke 23:46.
Scripture for the Evening
New American Bible, Revised Edition.
- Psalm 141:2 "Let my prayer be incense before you; my uplifted hands an evening offering."
- Psalm 4:9 "In peace I will lie down and fall asleep, for you alone, Lord, make me secure."
- Psalm 31:6 "Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, Lord, God of truth."
- Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun set on your anger."
That last one is an examination of conscience in eleven words, and the one most likely to make you get out of bed and send a message you have been avoiding.
A Five Minute Catholic Night
- Sign of the Cross
- Two minutes of examination: what did I receive today, where did I fail, what will I do differently
- Act of Contrition
- The traditional evening prayer above, or Psalm 4:9 said slowly
- Guardian Angel prayer
- Sign of the Cross
That is a complete Catholic evening prayer. Compline is better and takes longer. This is what you will actually do at 11:40pm.
The Thing That Ends Most Evening Prayer
The examination of conscience competes with the phone, and the phone wins on most nights because it asks for nothing. You go to bed intending to pray, open something for one minute, and surface at 12:20 having neither prayed nor slept.
If your evening prayer keeps losing to a screen, the fix is structural. FaithLock is an iOS app that blocks chosen apps on a schedule using Apple's Family Controls, so a 10pm lock is a 10pm lock rather than a resolution. When you try to open something during a locked window it shows a Bible verse with a short question about it before going further. Be clear on what it is not: it is iOS only, it has no Compline, no Office and no Catholic prayer texts, and its verse library is the Berean Standard Bible, a Protestant translation without the deuterocanonical books. Pair it with Universalis or Divine Office rather than expecting it to do their job. Our catholic prayer app comparison covers those.
Get FaithLock on the App Store
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Catholic prayer before bed? Most commonly the traditional evening prayer beginning "O my God, at the end of this day I thank you most heartily for all the graces I have received from you," said with the Sign of the Cross, an Act of Contrition and the Guardian Angel prayer. Night Prayer (Compline) from the Liturgy of the Hours is the longer, liturgical version.
How do you do an examination of conscience at night? Briefly review the day: what you did, where you failed, and where you could grow. Then make an Act of Contrition. The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours places it right after the opening verse of Night Prayer, made in silence (GILH 86). Five minutes is plenty for a daily examination; the longer form belongs before confession.
What is Compline? Night Prayer, the last Hour of the Liturgy of the Hours, "the final prayer of the day to be said before going to bed, even if this is after midnight" (GILH 84). It runs five to eight minutes and ends with the Nunc Dimittis, a blessing for a quiet night, and a Marian antiphon.
What is the difference between Vespers and Compline? Vespers is Evening Prayer, one of the two principal Hours of the day, prayed as evening falls and centered on the Magnificat. Compline is Night Prayer, shorter, prayed immediately before sleep, and centered on the Nunc Dimittis. Praying both is normal; praying only Compline is a very common lay practice.
Do I have to pray Compline in Latin? No. The Liturgy of the Hours is prayed in the vernacular throughout the English speaking world, and the Latin option exists for those who want it. Apps such as Universalis, Divine Office and iBreviary present the English text by default.
The Verdict
Skip Vespers and pray Compline. It is short, it is nearly the same every night, and the General Instruction explicitly allows substituting the Sunday psalms so you can eventually pray it from memory in the dark, which is the point. If even that is too much for now, the two minute examination and an Act of Contrition are a real Catholic evening prayer and always have been.
Sources: Catholic Answers, Common Catholic Prayers (nihil obstat and imprimatur, 2004), checked 2026-08-16 · General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours nn. 37, 39, 41-53, 84-92, checked 2026-08-16 · Scripture and the Psalm 31:6 note: NABRE via BibleGateway, checked 2026-08-16
Related: catholic morning prayer · catholic prayer app · divine mercy chaplet · catholic screen time · prayer for evening prayer
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Catholic prayer before bed?
Most commonly the traditional evening prayer beginning "O my God, at the end of this day I thank you most heartily for all the graces I have received from you," said with the Sign of the Cross, an Act of Contrition and the Guardian Angel prayer. Night Prayer (Compline) from the Liturgy of the Hours is the longer, liturgical version.
How do you do an examination of conscience at night?
Briefly review the day: what you did, where you failed, and where you could grow. Then make an Act of Contrition. The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours places it right after the opening verse of Night Prayer, made in silence (GILH 86). Five minutes is plenty for a daily examination; the longer form belongs before confession.
What is Compline?
Night Prayer, the last Hour of the Liturgy of the Hours, "the final prayer of the day to be said before going to bed, even if this is after midnight" (GILH 84). It runs five to eight minutes and ends with the Nunc Dimittis, a blessing for a quiet night, and a Marian antiphon.
What is the difference between Vespers and Compline?
Vespers is Evening Prayer, one of the two principal Hours of the day, prayed as evening falls and centered on the Magnificat. Compline is Night Prayer, shorter, prayed immediately before sleep, and centered on the Nunc Dimittis. Praying both is normal; praying only Compline is a very common lay practice.
Do I have to pray Compline in Latin?
No. The Liturgy of the Hours is prayed in the vernacular throughout the English speaking world, and the Latin option exists for those who want it. Apps such as Universalis, Divine Office and iBreviary present the English text by default.
Start building a daily Scripture habit
Join Christians replacing scrolling with Scripture.
Try FaithLock Free