Videte!

"Look!"

If Lent is about remembering it is also about looking. So in keeping with the Latin imperatives: Videte!

"And I will pour out . . . a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn." (Zechariah 12:10 - St. John the Evangelist points us to the prophecy, with Jesus on the cross, John 19:37)

"When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"
Isaac Watts

1. When I survey the wondrous cross
   On which the Prince of glory died,
   My richest gain I count but loss,
   And pour contempt on all my pride.
2. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
   Save in the death of Christ my God!
   All the vain things that charm me most,
   I sacrifice them to His blood.
3. See from His head, His hands, His feet,
   Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
   Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
   Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
4. Were the whole realm of nature mine,
   That were a present far too small;
   Love so amazing, so divine,
   Demands my soul, my life, my all.

(I've posted an English choir, in part because the tune here, ROCKINGHAM, is not what we normally sing in the U.S. - not in my experience, at least - and so I think you may hear this familiar hymn with fresh ears.)

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you;
My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.
(Psalm 63:1-4