Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Ash Wednesday

Lord, who throughout these forty days for us didst fast and pray,
teach us with thee to mourn our sins and close by thee to stay.

As thou with Satan didst contend, and didst the victory win,
O give us strength in thee to fight, in thee to conquer sin.

As thou didst hunger bear, and thirst, so teach us, gracious Lord,
to die to self and chiefly live by thy most holy word.

And through these days of penitence, and through thy passiontide,
yea, evermore in life and death, Jesus, with us abide.

Abide with us, that so, this life of suffering over past,
an Easter of unending joy we may attain at last.

-Claudia F. Hernaman, 1873

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