COMPLINE

Compline continues through Sunday May 19, 2013.

The ancient choral service of Compline is held at 9 pm on Sunday evenings during the academic term. Candles offer the only light; the choir sings from an unseen loft at the north end of the crossing. The earliest formal description of Compline is found in the Rule of Saint Benedict, written in the early seventh century. St. Benedict  described in fewer than thirty words the form Compline would take for the next thousand years. He wanted the prayer kept simple: Psalm, hymn, chapter, blessing, and dismissal. "After Compline," he wrote, "no one may speak."