Imagine knowing you only have several more hours to live. Picture the faces of your loved ones gathered around you. Allow the emotions to rise up in your heart. What would you say? John 13–17 records Jesus’ last words to the disciples before His death, revealing what was most important to Him. When we study those words and prayers today, we enter deep into the heart of Jesus and come away changed: overwhelmed by the love of God, inspired to follow Him, and empowered to spread the gospel. His Last Words is an 7-week Bible study that plumbs the depths of Jesus’ final teachings to the disciples. It features: A verse-by-verse study of John 13–17 and portions of John 18–21 Five lessons each week, one set aside for reflection and prayer Discussion questions for small groups Two weeks for review, reflection, and application and more Jesus’ last words are words of eternal life—powerful and full of love. If you’ve been longing for more intimacy in your relationship with God, more meaning in your life, and more boldness in your witness, His Last Words will draw you into just what you need: the Word of God.

Who of us can possibly imagine the excruciating pain of being crucified? But further, who would imagine that in the midst of this ghastly punishment that brings on unrelenting headaches and mental disorientation, a crucified man would actually give thought to the needs of others? This book explores in detail the nature of crucifixion and then invites the reader to listen in stunned silence to the amazing seven sayings of Jesus of Nazareth while hanging on the cross, as he focuses his attention on others in the first three sayings, and only then on his own distressing situation. His last four sayings give expression to his utter spiritual and physical anguish and conclude with a cry of victory and then a cry in which he commits himself to God.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham explores the seven last sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, combining rich historical and theological insights to reflect on the true heart of the Christian story. For Jon Meacham, as for believers worldwide, the events of Good Friday and Easter reveal essential truths about Christianity. A former vestryman of Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Meacham delves into that intersection of faith and history in this meditation on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross. Beginning with “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” and ending with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Meacham captures for the reader how these words epitomize Jesus’s message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus’s final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world. Writing in a tone more intimate than any of his previous works, Jon Meacham returns us to the moment that transformed Jesus from a historical figure into the proclaimed Son of God, worshiped by billions.

A profound and lively reflection on Christ's last words Addresses many everyday concerns: marriage, liturgy, suffering, vocations, etc The sacred mysteries of Christ crucified carefully explored through the lens of sacred art An invaluable companion a beautiful resource you will return to throughout the year Archbishop of New York An ideal gift for Catholics and for those who wish to understand the mystery of the Cross of Christ. Well suited for adult catechetical instruction and RCIA Foreword by His Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop of New York

The cross is regarded as Jesus Christ’s great work of salvation. But is it also a work of creation? Excitingly plumbing Scripture and Christian tradition, Andrew McGowan shows that it is. “Each of Jesus’s seven words from the cross can be understood as a creative act, as a new divine work,” he writes. From the cross, Jesus works forgiveness, bestows Paradise, enacts human relationship, identifies completely with humanity, fulfills Scripture, and reenacts Sabbath. From early days, Christians—for good reason—linked the original seven days of creation with creation and re-creation at the apex of salvation. Seven Last Words recovers this linkage in all its power and perennial freshness. But that is not all. In addition to surveying the seven last words Jesus spoke, McGowan insists that at the cross “the eternal Word not only speaks, but listens.” And so he turns to the “conversations” spoken not only from but to the cross. Here he opens new vistas on the words of Judas, Dismas (the criminal crucified beside Jesus), Mary, God the Father, Longinus (the centurion), and Nicodemus, and ruminates fascinatingly on the accompanying silence of the angels. Profound and endlessly edifying, Seven Last Words will richly repay reading and rereading.

In Cross-Shattered Christ, theologian Stanley Hauerwas offers a moving reflection on Jesus's final words from the cross. This small and powerful volume is theologically poignant and steeped in humility. Hauerwas's pithy discussion opens our ears to the language of Scripture while opening our hearts to a truer vision of God. Touching in original and surprising ways on subjects such as praying the Psalms and our need to be remembered by Jesus, Hauerwas emphasizes Christ's humanity as well as the sheer "differentness" of God. Ideal for personal devotion during Lent and throughout the year, Cross-Shattered Christ offers a transformative reading of Jesus's words that goes directly to the heart of the gospel.