Devotional for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

 Today's cross: Made from tin and turquoise by the monks 

at the Mount Carmel Hermitage in Christoval, Texas.

Charles Wesley, 1749

OH, THAT I could repent!
Oh, that I could believe!
Thou, by thy voice, the marble rent,
The rock in sunder cleave!
Thou, by thy two-edg’d sword,
My soul and spirit part;
Strike with the hammer of thy word,
And break my stubborn heart.

Saviour, and Prince of peace,
The double grace bestow;
Unloose the bands of wickedness,
And let the captive go:
Grant me my sins to feel,
And then the load remove:-
Wound, and pour’d, my wounds to heal,
The balm of pard’ning love.

For thine own mercy's sake,
The hind’rance now remove;
And into thy protection take
The prisoner of thy love;
In every trying hour,
Stand by my feeble soul,
And screen me from my nature’s pow’r,
Till thou hast made me whole.

This is thy will, I know,
That I should holy be;
Should let my sins this moment go,
This moment turn to thee:
Oh, might I now embrace
Thine all-sufficient power!
And never more to sin give place,
And never grieve thee more!