1 Forty days and forty nights
you were fasting in the wild;
forty days and forty nights
tempted, and yet undefiled.
2 Shall not we your sorrow share
and from worldly joys abstain,
fasting with unceasing prayer,
strong with you to suffer pain?
3 Then if Satan on us press,
flesh or spirit to assail,
victor in the wilderness,
grant we may not faint or fail!
4 So shall we have peace divine:
holier gladness ours shall be;
round us, too, shall angels shine,
such as served you faithfully.
5 Keep, O keep us, Savior dear,
ever constant by your side;
that with you we may appear
at the eternal Eastertide.