The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching
Day 3 – Friday after Ash Wednesday – Break Our Hearts
To Read:
From the Scriptures:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another and said,
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said, ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
(Isaiah 6v1-8)
From Vicky Beeching:
Break Our Hearts
It’s time for us to live the songs we sing
And turn our good intentions into action
To bring the kind of worship You desire
And move beyond our self-absorbed distractions
The mountains are shaking
Could this be a great awakening
Break our hearts
With the things that break Yours
Wake us up to see through Your eyes
Break our hearts
With the things that break Yours
And send us out to shine in the darkness
It’s time to move outside our comfort zone
To see beyond our churches and our homes
To change the way we think and how we spend
Until we look like Jesus again
Here I am send me
To be Your hands and feet
Here I am send me I will go
To Listen:
To Reflect:
Was it really 47 years ago, after having had my collar felt by God in St George’s Cathedral Cape Town, that the leader of our Undergraduate Home Group from Christchurch Kenilworth invited me to a weekend retreat in the wonderful seaside resort of Gordon’s Bay. It was a place far enough away from the intensity of the strict apartheid of the city centre for our group, which was always (illegally) mixed race, to gather and breathe the air freely.
It was there that I began to see the price some of my sisters and brothers were paying to walk in the footsteps of Christ. It was there that the words to Isaiah became God’s call to me for the rest of my life. It was there that I knew I could not do this in my own strength. And it was there that my first protest of ‘Domine, non sum dignus,[1] was made. Nothing much has changed!
It is in these first days of Lent each year that I remember again that, ‘I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.’ Who do I think I am trying to live life differently in my 70th year when my only competency down the years has been proving that I am very competent at ‘missing the mark’[2]?
Our Beloved knows our frailties and weaknesses. God knows we are our never worthy. There is no need for chest-thumping and the mumbling of Latin phrases. We are seen. Yet we are still called to serve and to follow. This will not be easy. (It wasn’t easy for Isaiah why should it be easy for us?) But after seeing the glory of God in the temple and being caught up in seraphic worship it must become our life’s journey.
Will we stumble along the way? Of course we will! But each time we fall we will hear once again the call of our Beloved, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And receiving the grace and strength of God go onwards to live transformed lives.
This will take time; there is a reason why Lent is 40 days long. We will get it wrong; but we have the Wonder of the Cross to call us forward. We will not go as fast as we want to; too often it is a case of ‘Like a mighty tortoise, moves the Church of God.’ Rightly are we sometimes called Backward Christian Soldiers…[3]
Yet we will go on because this Lent;
It’s time for us to live the songs we sing
And turn our good intentions into action
And as we move from words, be they of rich worship or oratory we will finally;
…bring the kind of worship You desire
And move beyond our self-absorbed distractions
To Pray:
The Prayer of the Tortoise
A little patience,
O God,
I am coming.
One must take nature as she is!
It was not I who made her!
I do not mean to criticize
this house on my back –
it has its points –
but you must admit, Lord,
it is heavy to carry!
Still,
let us hope that this double enclosure,
my shell and my heart,
will never be quite shut to You.
(Carmen Bernos de Gasztold – Prayers from the Ark)
To Do:
If you haven’t yet got rid of one thing that slows you down on your journey towards Easter plan to do it in the next few days.
If you haven’t yet found that one thing to add to your devotion that will make your journey towards Easter more joyful pray for it to be shown to you in the next few days.
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.
[1] Lord, I am not worthy
[2] In the Hebrew scripture some definitions of the word ‘sin’ are translated as ‘missing the mark’.
[3] See alternative words to ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ here https://finestofthewheat.org/backward-christian-soldiers/
Suffolk Vicar 