For those who are not familiar follow these four easy steps after dipping your fingers in Holy Water, or just do it now in front of your computer.
1. Touch you forehead and say “In the name of the Father,”
2. Touch waistline (some do it closer to the sternum) in center and say, “And of the Son,”
3. Touch left shoulder (Orthodox reverse directions here on the shoulders) and say, “And of the Holy
4. Touch your right shoulder and say “Spirit. Amen.”
I’m serious! Try it!
When preparing something as the person whose turn it was to do the prayer service for our monthly Catholic Daughters’ meeting, I came across this and used it. It’s an interesting take on it.
The sign of the Cross:
We Catholics make the sign of the Cross so many times that possibly it*s lost its powerful message. There*s a book written entirely on this prayer by, Burt Ghezzi, called *The Sign of the Cross: Recovering the Power of the Ancient Prayer.* In it, Ghezzi says that there are six reasons to make the sign of the Cross
1. It*s the mini Creed * as the creed is the profession of our faith in the Triune God, declaring our belief in Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and what He has done for us, Creation, redemption, and establishing the Church. We are making ourselves aware of God*s presence.
2. A renewal of our baptism; making the sign of the cross reminds us of our own baptism that we died with Christ on the cross and rose with Him in new life sacramentaly. We are asking for graces to continue in the role collaborating with Christ in rescuing our brothers and sisters from sin and death.
3. The sign of the cross is the mark of discipleship; when we make this sign we affirm our loyalty to God and denying that we belong to ourselves. That we are His soldiers commissioned to work with Him in advancing His kingdom on earth.
4. It*s an acceptance of suffering. Jesus promised us that suffering would be a normal part of a disciple*s life (Lk 9:23-24), at the same time, it comforts us with the realization that Jesus, who endured the cross for us, now supports us and we should celebrate this in this prayer
5. The Sign of the Cross is a 2-edged move against the devil. On one level, making this sign is a defensive move declaring that we won*t be swayed by the evil influences and on another level it is an offense weapon helping us advance the kingdom of God together with Christ and the Holy Spirit
6. The sign of the cross is a victory over the flesh. In the New Testament the word flesh sums up all the evil inclination of our old nature even after our baptism, but making the sign expresses our decision to crucify these desires of the flesh and to live by the spirit. Our Church Fathers taught that the Sign of the Cross diffused the force of powerful temptations such as anger and lust.
I am sorry scbision - I am not sure why your post was removed other that you are not catholic? Moderator please let us know the reason.
I am also not sure Religion Moderator why my original post was removed. It was no an unusual question and it related to the original post. Please put it back in - I am a Catholic in the Catholic Caucus and there should be no reason to remove my post.
I am not trying to stir the pot here but let’s be reasonable when removing posts. My question was in good faith - not trying to pit religion against religion.
Thank you -
Your post was removed because you mentioned the belief of non-Catholics, in this case your husband. Once the belief of non-members are mentioned, they have an interest in speaking for themselves.
So my choice is either to remove the caucus protection or remove the post that caused the non-members to want to speak for themselves. I chose the latter.
