O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
A Daily Liturgy for the Lenten Season
Last month, Crossway sent me a copy of O Sacred Head, Now Wounded: A Liturgy for Daily Worship from Pascha to Pentecost in exchange for an honest review. A few weeks ago, we discussed the season of Lent. This book was one of the resources I recommended in that post, and I am very excited to be reviewing for you all now.
So, what do I like about O Sacred Head, Now Wounded? Well, as with virtually anything Crossway publishes, this book is absolutely gorgeous. It comes in a helpful slipcase that protects the book itself and looks great on display. The cover is cloth over board (which Crossway does really well) and features a symbol of the cross and crown of thorns (reminding us of the point of the Lenten season). The text is laid out well, and I love what they did with the inside cover.
Beyond just the looks, O Sacred Head Now Wounded contains some incredibly helpful content. Jonathan Gibson begins this work with an introduction to the book itself as well as the Lenten season as a whole. He reminds us of the biblical importance of remembering Jesus and how recognizing a time like Lent can help us accomplish that. He then provides an overview of the format for the daily worship that follows.
The second part of the book contains the 48 days of liturgy. Each day, the reader is guided through a meditation from church history, a call to worship, a psalm or hymn of adoration, a reading of the law, a prayer of confession, an assurance of pardon, a historic creed, a song of praise, a select catechism question, a prayer of illumination, Scripture reading, prayers of reflection and intercession, the Lord’s Prayer, and a closing benediction and doxology. This guide for daily worship provides plenty of biblical material to meditate and reflect on (which is the whole point of the Lenten season, after all).
The book closes with some appendices. There is a list of tunes for the hymns and psalms contained throughout the daily worship. There is also a Bible reading plan that contains 48 days of reading. Finally, an index is included that discusses the authors, hymns, and liturgies contained throughout this book.
Is there anything I don’t like about O Sacred Head, Now Wounded? Not really. There are a few things that I would like to mention here, however.
First, the daily worship sections are quite long. The first 42 days range from 7 to 8 pages long, while the readings for Holy Week itself can be 10 pages. This isn’t a problem with the book. After all, Lent is all about giving up certain things so that we can devote greater time and attention to spiritual development as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. However, it is something to keep in mind when picking up this volume. If you are not used to having daily worship time, it might be best to start small. Perhaps choose certain parts of each day to do and work up to incorporating all the readings (this may be especially important to do if you have smaller children and want to use these readings for family worship).
Second, I find it interesting that Crossway included three ribbons on O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. Again, this isn’t a problem or criticism; I just find it interesting. Unless you want to keep one ribbon where the format is explained, one on the current day, and the final ribbon in one of the appendices, you really only need one ribbon. Maybe the point was to have a ribbon for each of those sections. Regardless, this is still a beautiful book, and the ribbons contribute to both the aesthetics and function of this volume.
I pray this review was a blessing to you. If you would like to order a copy of O Sacred Head, Now Wounded: A Liturgy for Daily Worship from Pascha to Pentecost, make sure to check out Crossway’s website.
While this copy arrived a bit too late for me to use it for the whole season of Lent, I am planning to do the daily worship sections for Holy Week. Subscribe to hear more about that later on.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Caleb Friske