“Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” (Psa 141:2)
“When you begin to feel that sleep is near, turn to the Lord God with your evening prayers, either using the prayers assigned by the holy Church or in your own words, different from those of the assigned prayers. But make sure that your prayers are without fail holy and thorough.
a) First of all thank the Lord God for every blessing that He has afforded you and everyone, for the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, for His sufferings and death, for our being given the holy Faith, for the holy Mysteries, and for all His internal and external, natural and supernatural guidance.
b) Pray that the Lord God may forgive you all your sins committed both this day and in the past days as you forgive all those that have sinned against you. Pray especially fervently that He not allow you to die in your sins.
c) Pray that it may be His pleasure not to allow into your habitation our chief enemy with his malicious snares-dreams that are harmful to the soul and body--but may send you your guardian angel, who always prays for you, teaches you, and protects your soul and body from every evil.
d) Pray that the Lord may bless all those close to heart: your parents, your brothers and sisters, all your family, your relatives, acquaintances, benefactors, friends and enemies and that He may bless all your spiritual and secular superiors.
e) Pray that the Lord may help the poor, those cast down in grief, travellers, the ill, and the aggrieved, that He may comfort the unfortunate, give shelter to orphans, strengthen the dying with hope and give rest to the dead, that He may bless all children, guide all young people towards good deeds, strengthen in holy life all those of a mature age, and make all the elderly a model of holy life, that He may lead all sinners to repentance, [eradicate] the darkness in which the…unbelievers, heretics and schismatics live, that He may enlighten them with His light, bring them all to a knowledge of His truth, guide them all onto the true path of salvation and save them.
Finally, put yourself entirely into the Lord God’s hands, as you would if the present evening were the last in your life and if on rising in the morning you would have to stand before the judgment seat of God. Then make the sign of the cross on yourself and get into bed.”
Metropolitan Gregory (Postikov) of St Petersburg