A Resource For Focusing On Jesus This Spring

A review of 'O Sacred Head Now Wounded' by Jonathan Gibson

For the past several years I have been learning more about church history than I ever have before.  There is such a rich history and tradition that we as Protestants sometimes fail to tap into - and that's a shame!  There is so much to learn from Christians who have come before us, so many beautiful thoughts and prayers that we can make our own and pray with brothers or sisters in Christ from ages past.

Because this has been something I have been focused on for several years, for myself and my kids, when I stumbled across Jonathan Gibson's series of liturgical books last fall, my curiosity was piqued.  I bought O Come O Come Emmanual this last November and read it over the Christmas season, and it was such a lovely experience.  Because of that, when I saw that an Easter addition to this series was coming this Spring, I jumped on the chance to review it!

O Scared Head Now Wounded: A Liturgy For Daily Worship From Pascha To Pentecost is a gorgeous book.  The actual book is cloth-bound and looks almost like a hymnal, and it comes in a hardcover purple sleeve with gold edging.  The colors chosen are perfect for Easter in my opinion, and the attention to detail in the design is so well done.  This book is heirloom quality.

Not only would this volume look gorgeous on a bookshelf, but the content is just as rich.  The book starts with chapters explaining the intent of the book, which is to help Christians in reflection and remembering what Christ did for us by His resurrection, as we are commanded to do in Scripture (2 Timothy 2:8).  The focus of this volume is specifically remembering Jesus's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

"We forsake because we forget.  And we forget because we choose to forget - deliberately, willfully, consciously.  We forget our Creator - His covenant and commands, His ways and works and words; we forget our Redeemer - His promises and precepts, His redemption and righteousness." pg. 25

This book is a beautiful tool to help Christians focus their mind on Christ during the season of Easter (ie. Pascha).  The book starts forty days prior to Easter (on Ash Wednesday, though this liturgy is in no way affiliated with the Roman Catholic practice).  Each day there are sixteen elements to this routine (ie. "liturgy" which the dictionary defines as "a customary repertoire of ideas, phrases, or observances" ), which include:

• Meditation - quotes from church history

• Call To Worship - Scripture reading

• Adoration - hymns or psalm singing from church history

• Reading Of The Law - Scripture reading

• Confession Of Sin - prayers from church history

• Assurance Of Pardon - Scripture reading

• Creed - repeated historic Christian creeds

• Praise - Gloria patri or doxology singing

• Catechism - select questions from the Heidleberg or Westminster Shorter catechisms

• Prayer For Illumination - prayers from church history

• Scripture Reading - a Bible reading plan

• Prayer Of Reflection - prayers or praises from church history

• Prayer Of Intercession - prayers from church history, along with prompt to pray for personal requests, your church, and the world

• The Lord's Prayer - from Scripture

• Benediction - weekly benedictions from Scripture

• Postlude - Sing a doxology from Psalm 72

You'll notice how to many of the categories are actually just Scripture readings - this book is saturated in Scripture, and if you used it exclusively for your daily Bible time, you would not be lacking in reading God's word.  When listed out, this seems like alot of categories, but I can say from experience (when I read the Christmas volume) that going through this routine truly only takes about 15-20 minutes each day.

“The aim of this devotional liturgy, designed for daily worship from Pascha to Pentecost, is to prepare us better for the season in which we remember the life, death, burial, resur-rection, and ascension of Jesus, as well as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit— all while we wait for his return. To be clear, the season is not about what we can do for Christ by our work or prayers or fasting; rather, it is about what he has done for us in his work and prayers and fasting — a work that began in his life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and the outpouring of his Holy Spirit, and which will conclude in his return in glory.” pg. 30

Each page gives so much food for thought that you could fill the entire day with reflecting on the material here.  I use the books in this series for my personal quiet time during the appropriate seasons, but I think this liturgy would also work beautifully for use with a family, especially with kids that are a little older (middle school and up), though you could easily explain the concepts to younger kids as well.

It’s especially wonderful to me that this book is about focusing our hearts on Easter.  Christmas gets so much attention because of all the bells and whistles that come with the season, and advent devotionals abound, but there are less books focused on preparing for Resurrection Day - even though it is just as important as Christmas, and in alot of ways is much more of a Christian holiday culturally than Christmas is.

I can't wait to dive into this book in my personal quiet time, starting on Valentine's Day (though there are allowances for missed days in the schedule, so it would be easy to catch up).  If you are looking for a way to more deeply meditate on Jesus's work for us on the cross this Spring, with a Scripture-filled resource that also gives you a taste of the riches of church history, I highly recommend checking out this book! 

Note: I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for a review.  This is my honest opinion.