The following is provided as the guidance of the Church for those unable to attend Vespers or Vigil, but who wish to receive the Holy Mysteries.


"If certain people... for a certain reason because of distance and who live in the forests, or even in the cities, but because of the difficulty of walking cannot hear the church hymns and they do not know how to assign the Rule themselves, but have the desire to please God and to cleanse the thoughts of their hearts by prayer and fasting, that by this a Christian soul might be able to obtain for itself joy and sweetness because of the order of prayer and of the Rule, they must, even if only a little do this:


For Compline - 50 Jesus Prayers and 25 prostrations*.


For the Midnight Office (Vigil) - 100 Jesus Prayers and 25 prostrations*."


(Additional Rules are added for Matins and the Hours and other services of preparation).


* Full prostrations to the floor, or small prostrations from the waist for those who are unable to do full prostrations, along with the prayer at each reverence, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner."


Excerpted from the Jordanville Service Book of the Divine Liturgy.