Offered by Dcn. George Kelly

                        Additional Thoughts on Praying the Sign of the Cross

 

The Sign of the Cross is a gesture to heaven, a loving glance.  We call out to God, desiring to trust in: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Sign of the Cross prepares our will to guide our heart and our soul to follow God’s will for us. 

 

The Sign of the Cross helps us recognize that we are not in control and reminds us we are loved by God.  In the final analysis our life is not about us, it is about allowing God to shine through us each day, each action, each breath.

 

 

 

 

The early Church Fathers attested to the use of the sign of the cross.  Tertullian (d. c. 250) described the commonness of the sign of the cross: “In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross” (De corona, 30).

 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386) in his Catechetical Lectures stated, “Let us then not be ashamed to confess the Crucified.  Be the cross our seal, made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in everything; over the bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in our goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are traveling, and when we are at rest” (Catecheses, 13). 

 

 

 

In his short book [The Sign of the Cross], St. Francis de Sales explained The Sign of the Cross and how to make it. He wrote, we start by using our right hand, because it is “the more worthy of the two.”  We use either three fingers to represent the Trinity or five fingers to represent Jesus’ five wounds.

 

By placing our right hand on our forehead, we acknowledge that God the Father is the one from whom all things originate. Next, we thoughtfully move our hand down to our stomach which indicates that Jesus proceeded from the Father.

 

Our prayerful Sign of the Cross concludes from left shoulder to right shoulder to reminds us that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and that the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between Father and Son.

 

 

Think about that the next time you pray the Sign of the Cross.  May Lent 2021 help you grow closer to God, Who is Father, Son & Holy Spirit. When you pray the Sign of the Cross may the Lord fill you with the awareness of eternal love.

 

 

 

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.

May God Be Blessed!