Worship

Each Wednesday at my congregation’s midweek Lenten services we have sung this beautiful Lenten hymn, (both text and tune written in the 17th century), which has been a favorite of mine for a half century-plus:

On my heart imprint Your image,
Blessed Jesus, King of grace,
That life’s riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may Your work erase;
Let the clear inscription be:
Jesus, crucified for me,
Is my life, my hope’s foundation,
And my glory and salvation.
LSB 422/LBW 102
Text: Thomas Hansen Kingo, 1634-1703; tr. Peer O. Stroemme, 1856-1921, alt.
Tune: Johann Balthasar Koenig, 1691-1758

It’s a beautiful prayer that sums up the daily struggle against sin (life’s riches, cares, and pleasures) and the power imprinted on us to overcome temptation: Jesus, crucified for me – to whom we are joined in baptism.

Another hymn I commend to readers for Holy Week meditation is written by a Benedictine sister in the 20th century (Dolores Duffner, OSB, b. 1939) and appropriate both for Christ the King and, in my opinion, Palm Sunday (click on the title to listen): O Christ, what can it mean for us. It’s been a favorite of mine for a mere two decades (at most).

Christians claim Christ as King, yes; but One who “came,
the law of love to bring;
a diff’rent rule of righteousness,
a diff’rent kind of king.” (ELW 431)

Thanks be to God!

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Banner photo: By Rhoda Schuler, Palm Sunday, 2026