Jesus, I Will Ponder Now
This classic Lenten hymn offers devotional thoughts ("ponder") and prayers ("grant") for today's devotion.
Jesus, I will ponder now
On your holy passion;
With your Spirit me endow
For such meditation.
Grant that I in love and faith
May the image cherish
Of your suffering, pain, and death,
That I may not perish.
Make me see your great distress,
Anguish, and affliction,
Bonds and stripes and wretchedness
And your crucifixion;
Make me see how scourge and rod,
Spear and nails, did wound you,
How for them you died, O God,
Who with thorns had crowned you.
Yet, O Lord, not thus alone
Make me see your passion,
But its cause to me make known
And its termination.
Ah! I also and my sin
Wrought your deep affliction;
This indeed the cause has been
Of your crucifixion.
If my sins give me alarm
And my conscience grieve me,
Let your cross my fear disarm,
Peace of conscience give me.
Help me see forgiveness won
By your holy passion.
If for me he slays his Son,
God must have compassion.
“Jesus, I Will Ponder Now,” by Sigmund von Birken, b. 1626, public domain.