Psalm 69:2
keep watch and rest in peace
O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me. (Psalm 69:2 DR)
This verse may be one of the most liturgical of verses in the Psalms, perhaps even in the entirety of the Scriptures, as it forms the beginning (or near beginning) of each of the Offices in the Divine Office. This plea for God’s aid is accompanied by the sign of the cross, thus forming a powerful way in which to enter into prayer.
And while all prayers certainly do not need to begin with this verse, the sentiment behind it must of course animate all prayer, for we as weak and finite creatures need as much assistance as we can get in prayer. Prayer, after all, isn’t the easiest thing in the world. This is compounded in the modern world by all the distractions and noise which continually surround us, as well as the short attention spans our too busy lives foist upon us.
Yet this is not merely a modern phenomenon. In the Garden of Gethsemane prior to Jesus’ arrest he asks the disciples to keep watch and pray with him
Then he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here, and watch with me. (Matthew 26:38 DR)
After praying for some time and submitting himself to his Father’s will, he returns to his disciples to find them sleeping:
And he cometh to his disciples, and findeth them asleep, and he saith to Peter: What? Could you not watch one hour with me? Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak. (Matthew 26:40-41 DR)
This sequence of events happens three times, and then Jesus finally says to them:
Then he cometh to his disciples, and saith to them: Sleep ye now and take your rest; behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. (Matthew 26:45 DR)
It is of course easy to blame the disciples for falling asleep during Jesus’s agony in the garden, but if we are honest with ourselves we often behave no differently. A few weeks ago I was filling in for a holy hour at Adoration pretty late at night (starting at 11 PM) and had already had a very trying day. As I was attempting to pray I found my eyes getting heavy and my concentration waning. At one moment I had that shock of recognition where my head reared up because I had fallen asleep and was falling over. It was then I recalled this passage and recognized my own weakness, how I am constantly in need of God’s help when I pray.
There is perhaps a bit of a wry allusion to this scene in the conclusion of the Office at Compline. Prior to the Nunc Dimittis there is this antiphon:
Protect us, * Lord, while we are awake and safeguard us while we sleep; that we may keep watch with Christ, and rest in peace. (Compline)
I find this a fascinating antiphon, for at least in my reading of it there is an acknowledgment of our weakness and a plea for God’s assistance in the midst of that. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak, and it is only by availing ourselves of God’s mercy that we can hope to overcome the weakness of the flesh.
For this animation I wanted to go with the sign of the cross, and so I found a series of old illustrations from an old missal or manual. I cut them out in Photoshop and cleaned them up a bit and then brought all the layers into After Effects.
In After Effects I did some scaling and alignment to get them as closely and seamlessly aligned as possible and then just offset the layers to get the stop motion animation.
Enjoy.
O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.
(Psalm 69:2 DR)
View a higher quality version of this gif here: