A woman wipes the face of Jesus
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you:
Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. So marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. [Isaiah 53:2b-3, 14b, 4-5]
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts:
Show the light of your countenance,
and we shall be saved. [Psalm 80:19]
O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
That my heart fresh ardor gaining
And a purer love attaining,
May with thee acceptance find.