Prayer for my Children

Te lucis ante terminum

Before the end of daylight, Lord

    Dweller in things, we pray you keep

    The custom of your watch when sleep

Annihilates you in our thought.

Untrouble us with dreams; the grim

    Phantasmagoria of the night

    Remove. In sleep the inward sight

Wakes and is powerless to condemn.

And, distant Father, if you hear

    The outcry of a sleeping child,

    Keep soul and body undefiled.

Then, in the absence, you are near.