Blessed is the Kingdom

Seeking The Kingdom In All Things

The Sign of the Cross

How can something so simple take us to the core of our beliefs as Christians and Catholics? We make the Sign of the Cross often, but do we really stop and think about its meaning? Where did it come from? Why is it done different ways in different cultures?

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This entry was posted by on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Fr. Christian is the pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Lenoir City, TN.

Comments

  • Cajun Queen

    Great post, I made that observation of the “latin sign of the cross” during this Easter season, as I watch people receive the Eucharist at masses. I was curious too. Here’s some info from Catholic answers forum:
    The Catechism tells us “each time we make the sign of the cross, it strengthens us as we remember that we belong to Christ.”

    Christians were making the sign of the cross at a much earlier date. The theologian Tertullian, writing in A.D. 211, said that “In all our travels and movements in all our coming in and going out, in putting of our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we [Christians] mark our foreheads with the sign [of the cross]” (The Chaplet [Crown] 3). Making the sign of the cross was already an old custom when he wrote. It may well have been common even while the apostles were alive.

  • Fr. Christian Mathis

    Thanks for the information on a date. I wasn’t expecting that question and hadn’t ever researched it.

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