St. Alphonsus de Liguori on The Seven last Words of Jesus...

Popular Lenten devotions have often used the last words of Jesus from the cross as a way of inculcating a deeper awareness of what took place at Calvary. These reflections on the ’seven last words’ take the gospel accounts of Christ’s passion as their point of departure and encourage an active use of the imagination to envision Jesus’ death before our eyes. The goal is to enable us to place ourselves ’in the scene’ so that the final words of the word-made-flesh might have their full impact.

The great value of this devotional exercise did not escape the notice of St Alphonsus, who always gave centre stage in his writings to the Passion and death of the Lord. He sees the seven last words as an especially helpful way of gaining access to the story of the crucified Lord. In 1773, he published a work entitled Considerations on the Passion of Jesus Christ. where he devoted an entire chapter to the topic. A look at his treatment of Jesus’ final words reveals a deep sensitivity to the spirituality of the Passion, one that invites us to share in a more intimate relationship with the suffering Saviour and the cross from which he hangs.

THE FIRST WORD:

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