STUMP » Articles » Good Friday: The Last Seven Words » 18 April 2014, 09:53

Not only do Catholics get Mozart, we get Haydn, too.

The Last Seven Words from the Cross are often the subject of meditations on Good Friday. They’re not seven individual words (though that’s how this set is often referred to), but seven separate remarks made by Christ while on the cross, taken from the Passion stories in the gospels.

As per Wikipedia, the seven sayings are:

1. Luke 23:34: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

2. Luke 23:43: Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

3. John 19:26–27: Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother.

4. Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34 My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

5. John 19:28: I thirst.

6. John 19:29-30: It is finished.

7. Luke 23:46: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

When I used to work in Manhattan, I would go to the Church of Our Saviour to listen to Fr. Rutler’s meditations on these sayings, preceding the Good Friday service (during which the altar is stripped, and other things are removed from the sanctuary)

Thoughts on the Last Seven Words by Father Rutler, 2008

Fr. Rutler is now at the Church of St. Michael on West 34th Street, and he will be doing his traditional Good Friday thoughts from noon to 3pm. One need not be there the entire time. There are pauses between each “Word” to provide for people to meditate, enter, or leave as needed.