The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching
Day 1 – Ash Wednesday – Captivated
To Read:
From the Scriptures:
Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”8 And when they raised their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
(Matthew 17v7-8)
From Vicky Beeching:
Captivated
Your laughter it echoes like a joyous thunder
Your whisper it warms me like a summer breeze
Your anger is fiercer than the sun in its splendour
You’re close and yet full of mystery
Ever since the day that I saw Your face
Try as I may, I cannot look away, I cannot look away…
Captivated by You. I am captivated by You
May my life be one unbroken gaze
Fixed upon the beauty of Your face
Beholding is becoming, so as You fill my gaze
I’ll become more like You and my heart is changed
Beholding is becoming, so as You fill my view
Transform me into the likeness of You
This is what I ask, for all my days
That I may, never look away, never look away
Captivated by You. Captivated by You
May my life be one unbroken gaze
Fixed upon your beauty. Fixed upon your beauty
No other could ever be as beautiful
No other could ever steal my heart away (repeats)
Just can’t look away…
I am captivated by You. Captivated by You
May my life be one unbroken gaze
Fixed upon the beauty. Fixed upon the beauty.
Fixed upon the beauty of Your face
Beauty of Your face
To Listen:
To Reflect:
‘…they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.’
For many of us today’s Scripture verses will have been part of the Bible readings that we heard in church this Sunday past. Before the Church goes out into the desert wastes and follows the story of Jesus who sets his mind on a death in Jerusalem (Matthew 16v21-26) we visit the mountaintop and see the glory of God.
The key to travelling the road to Jerusalem and Golgotha, the Garden Tomb and Emmaus, is to do as the disciples did and see ‘no one except Jesus himself alone.’ Or in the Vicky’s words to allow ourselves to be:
Captivated by You
I am captivated by You
May my life be one unbroken gaze
Fixed upon the beauty of Your face
As Amy Grant in one of her songs would remind us, we cannot remain on the Mountain Top, wherever He goes we must follow. To be captivated is not a call to stay but to follow. It is not a call to spend an hour in sweet devotion but to give our lives away in sacrificial service. It is not a call to say, ‘This is a great place for a picnic,’ but to keep our eyes so firmly fixed on Him, His words, His thoughts, His deeds, that we exclude everything else from our purview.
Today is the day we decide, in the word of another song to:
Turn [our] eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
To make a good fist of this we will first need to empty our hands and our vision of that with which it is currently occupied.
Father Andrew SDC, one of the leaders of the Franciscan revival in the Anglican Communion, wrote a Simple Rule of Life for those living outside the walls of the friary.
To be honest it is not that simple at all! Yes, it may not be full of ‘dos’ and ‘do nots’ but instead lays on each of us the holy task of letting go of other things so that we may lay hold of Christ.
Our Beloved, though we are unworthy, is, ‘captivated by us’(!) and our only response must be to allow our hearts to be stolen and spend the next 40 Days at least being ’Captivated by Him’.
To Pray:
O my Creator!
Consume the thorns of all my offences.
Make clean my soul, make holy my mind,
Nail down my being in Thy fear,
Ever keep watch, guard and protect me
From every act and word that destroyeth the soul.
Make me holy, make me clean, set me in order.
Make me comely, give me understanding, give me light.
Show me as the tabernacle of Thy Spirit alone,
And no more the tabernacle of sin,
And make Thy slave a child of light.
For it is Thou that makest holy,
and we know none other that is good but Thee;
Thou art the shining brightness of souls
And to Thee, as is justly due, as God and Master,
We all give glory every day.
(Simeon the Translator – Greek Hieratikon)
To Do:
Choose one thing to stop looking at, thinking about, stop doing, or talking about this Lent and replace it with a conscious time of being Fixed upon the beauty of [Jesus’] face
oooOOOooo
If you would like to find out more about Vicky and her work here is a link to her Wikipedia entry. For a fuller picture her autobiography ‘Undivided’ is highly recommended
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.
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Acknowledgements:
These Reflections, ‘The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beaching’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that their source is acknowledged.
All of the music on the video clips are from YouTube and are © Vicky Beeching.
If you enjoy listening to her songs please consider buying her recordings. A full discography and other information about Vicky can be found on her website vickybeeching.com.
Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Prayers are from A Diary of Prayer compiled by Elizabeth Goudge and are copyright © 1966 The Estate of Elizabeth Goudge.
Suffolk Vicar 