The Power of the Cross: Good Friday Sermons from the Papal Preacher

For over forty years, the Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, in his role as Preacher to the Papal Household, has delivered a yearly homily in St. Peter’s Basilica during the Good Friday liturgy. He has offered his meditations in the presence of the last three popes: Pope John Paul II from 1980 to 2005, Pope Benedict XVI from 2006 to 2012, and Pope Francis from 2013 to 2022. As in St. John’s Gospel and the early Church, Good Friday marks the hour of the death of Christ and at the same time of his exaltation and his victory over sin and suffering—a day of mourning but even more of rejoicing. The whole Paschal Mystery is commemorated in it. These insightful and moving sermons not only illuminate the mystery of the Lord’s Passion; they are also a precious instrument in view of a New Evangelization in “Spirit and power.” Cardinal Cantalamessa gazes on the cross of Christ in the light of our modern world, and the modern world in the light of Christ’s cross.