The Existential Journey

40 Days with the Final Words of the Condemned

By: Jeff Hood

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

We’re born. We exist. We die. It all seems so clear. Of course, we all know that it’s not. Throughout our lives, we’re doomed to ponder what it all means. Like anyone else, I ponder. For whatever reason, I’ve found great meaning in the final words of those who’ve been executed. Perhaps, it’s because I’ve known so many of them. At present, I’ve seen nine different people executed. Their final words have never left me. In this small volume meant to coincide with the season of Lent, I offer parts of the final words of the last forty people executed in the United States as sort of an existential journey. The short meditations and prayers are more existential than what I would normally construct. Then again, perhaps more existential is closer to the divine than we realize. Indeed, Alfred Lord Tennyson spoke the truth, “There lives more faith in honest doubt…than in half the creeds.”


The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood
February 21, 2025