Shield the Joyous

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work or watch or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, sooth the suffering, comfort the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Daily Prayer, Night Prayer

This prayer from the service of compline, or night prayer, is one I prayed often during my year of residency as a hospital chaplain. My mind would fill with the people who were working and watching alongside sick and dying people that night, throughout the hospital. I prayed that people who were trying to sleep would be able to sleep; the hardest thing to get in a hospital, often. 

I didn’t know what to make of “shield the joyous.” Years later, a friend of mine wrote a reflection on how God shielded her family’s joy in the midst of suffering. I realized that I’d separated out “the joyous” from the others: the weary, the dying, the suffering, the afflicted; the watch-keepers, the workers and the ones who weep. Now, when I pray this prayer, I remove that separation. Joy is not the privilege of people without pain. It is the mark of resurrection hope that all wounded people carry.   

In this prayer, we ask God to shield the joy and hope of people who are in the midst of unimaginable loss: we pray to a God who is right there with them, and us, in the midst of that loss and joins us in our grief. The joy and hope are not superficial, or a denial of death; they persist, shielded and stronger than death. 

With the people of Waukesha, and all people who come into this Thanksgiving week with both deep gratitude and grief, we pray: 

Watch, O Lord, with all those awake this night.
Watch, O Lord, with all those who weep.
Give your angels and saints
Charge over all who sleep
Tend your ailing ones in your love, Lord.
Rest your weary ones In your love, Lord.
Bless your dying ones In your love, Oh, Lord of all.
Soothe your suffering ones In your love, Lord.
Heal afflicted ones In your love, Lord.
Shield Your joyous ones In your love, Oh, Lord of all.
Hold your grieving ones In your love, Lord.
Help your fallen ones In your love, Lord.
Mend your broken ones In your love, Oh, Lord of all.
Guard your little ones In your love, Lord.
Guide your searching ones In your love, Lord.
Grant us all your peace In your love, Oh, Lord of all.

Watch O Lord, by Marty Haugen


Bishop Anne Edison-Albright