On the Vigils of the Servants of God

Contents

1. 1Nicetas opens his sermon on vigils: God gave the night for rest, but as people sacrifice sleep for earthly gain, Christians should gladly keep vigils of prayer, hymns and readings.
2. 2Nicetas answers those who object to vigils: the lazy and sleepy should be ashamed, the old may keep vigil sitting, the sick should pray in bed and not disparage others.
3. 3Nicetas asks his hearers to keep vigil on the nights of Saturday and Sunday as a cleansing for the week, without shame, whether they are holy or sinners.
4. 4Nicetas shows the antiquity of vigils from Isaiah and David’s psalms of prayer by night and at midnight.
5. 5Nicetas cites David’s vow not to sleep until he found a place for the Lord and other psalms of night prayer, urging Christians, God’s temple, to love vigils.
6. 6Nicetas finds vigils in the New Testament: Anna, the shepherds, Christ’s parables and commands to watch, his own nights of prayer, and his words in Gethsemane.
7. 7Nicetas cites the apostles’ vigils: Peter freed from prison while the church prayed, Peter’s call to watch, Paul and Silas singing at midnight, and Paul’s exhortation to watch.
8. 8Nicetas describes the benefits of vigils, which drive out fear and vice, strengthen chastity and wound the devil, and says night prayer is more effective than prayer by day.
9. 9Nicetas warns that vigils must be kept with the heart, without overeating or drinking, and without evil thoughts, unlike the wicked who stay awake to do evil.
10. 10Nicetas closes, promising to speak of the singing of hymns and psalms in his next sermon.