Christ, Who throughout these forty days

(one verse introduction)

Christ, Who throughout these forty days
For us did fast and pray,
Teach us with you to mourn our sins
And close by you to stay.

As you with Satan did contend,
And did the victory win,
O give us strength in you to fight,
In you to conquer sin.

As you did hunger bear, and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Christ,
To die to self, and chiefly live
By your most holy Word.

And through these days of penitence,
And through your passiontide,
And, evermore in life and death,
Christ, with us abide.

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

Words: Claudia Frances Ibotson Hernaman, 1873
Music: St. Flavian (16thC)
Sequence: Dall Forsythe, The Church of St. John the Evangelist