Few Christians can recall all Seven of Our Lord's Last Words on the Cross. Yet these "Seven Words" - brief sentences spoken by Him - give us Our Saviour's sacred parting instructions, messages intended not only for their few immediate hearers on the hill of Calvary, but spoken to all generations by way of Holy Scripture. For nothing that Our Lord said or did is without meaning for each of us today. Despite Jesus' agony on the Cross, these words do not express desperation or anger, but rather the strength of a Person in full command of His faculties to the very end. They are replete with that immense and far-more-than-human love for us which was unquenchable in Our Lord, even by torture and the approach of death, as exemplified in St. John's statement: "He loved them unto the end." (John 13:1).
In this little book, Father Christopher Rengers looks at each of the Seven Last Words for an understanding of their inner meaning, drawing out of them their lessons for us today with regard to forgiveness, care for the dying, zeal for souls, discouragement, fulfillment of obligations, and so forth. No Christian should be ignorant of the Seven Last Words of Christ nor of the meanings which they contain - messages which Our Lord speaks to us across the centuries, and all as recorded in the Holy Gospel.
Imprimatur: Albert Meyer, Archbishop of Milwaukee, November 22, 1957