"O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High"

I've been looking for an appropriate Lenten hymn to teach my children this week and I found this 15th century Latin hymn in an old 1940 Episcopal hymnal. After searching on the internet, I've found several melodies for this hymn (all different from the melody in the hymnal), but I've decided to use this one. You can also try this other version, but without the score, it's more of a challenge to match the words to the melody.

I like this hymn because the words capture a conversation my husband and I had this past week. We were discussing an article that revered Jesus more as a CEO than as Savior. I said, "He didn't come to give us a business model. He came in obedience to God, the Father." My husband added simply, "He came to die." In the inevitable hustle and bustle of life I want my children to reflect this season not only on His obedience and our sin, but also on the fact that, "He came to die."


"O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High"

O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
it fills the heart with ecstasy,
that God, the Son of God, should take
our mortal form for mortals' sake!

He sent no angel to our race
of higher or of lower place,
but wore the robe of human frame
himself, and to this lost world came.

For us baptized, for us he bore
his holy fast and hungered sore,
for us temptation sharp he knew;
for us the tempter overthrew.

For us he prayed; for us he taught;
for us his daily works he wrought;
by words and signs and actions thus
still seeking not himself, but us.

For us to wicked men betrayed,
scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed,
he bore the shameful cross and death,
for us at length gave up his breath.

For us he rose from death again;
for us he went on high to reign;
for us he sent his Spirit here,
to guide, to strengthen and to cheer.

To him whose boundless love has won
salvation for us through his Son,
to God the Father, glory be
both now and through eternity.