On the Acts of the Apostles (Epic) 193

It is a good and worthy and holy thing, and altogether fitting and quite suitable, now to speak of holy vigils and to bestow a discourse upon them, when this very night-watching is being kept by the careful and the religious. Night is blind, and darkness is necessary for bodies, which it holds fast not only as men but even as living creatures in sleep, so that, their strength being repaired by slumber, they may be able while waking to sustain the day's labours. Good is God, who so provided, so ordained, that man, going forth to his work and to his labour until the evening, should have an alternating time in which he might rest from his hard toils and much weariness (Ps. 103:23). Therefore he made the day for work, the night for rest;

and for this, as for all things, we ought to give thanks to him who granted it. But we know that many men, in order either to please their superiors or to gain some private advantage for themselves, set apart a portion of the night for some little work, and reckon it as gain that they were able to labour out of their own sleep. But if in carnal instruments—that is, in things necessary for food and clothing—those who keep watch are not blamed, nay rather are praised; how much more ought we to keep and to love the sacred vigils, so fruitful for spiritual work, fertile in prayers, hymns, and readings, that we may receive a reward from the Lord God?