O dearest Lord, thy sacred head

O dearest Lord, thy sacred head. Henry Ernest Hardy* (Father Andrew) (1869-1946). Originally opening with the line ‘O dearest Lord, thy sacred brow…’, this hymn was written in 1918 and published in The Mirfield Mission Hymn Book (1922). It was included in Hardy’s The Divine Compassion (1930) in a section of ‘Prayer Poems’, with the title ‘The Sacred Wounds’. It is reminiscent of the crucifix hymns of the 13th century in its approach (see, for example ‘Salve caput cruentatum’*) meditating on Christ’s body on the cross (head, hands, feet, heart). It was printed in A&MR (1950) and in BBCHB (1951), and since that time it has been included in books of all denominations, and in many...