Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.
Matthew 4:1–2
Words: Claudia F. Hernaman, Child’s Book of Praise; A Manual of Devotion in Simple Verse 1873.
Music: St. Flavian Day’s Psalter, 1563 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Hernaman (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
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.