Ask the Priest: Making the Sign of the Cross
Someone asked recently: As a new Episcopalian, how do I know when to make the sign of the cross?
Making the sign of the cross is a prayer gesture, a way of praying with your body. In teaching children how to pray, it became important to me, to offer a prayer with both words and gestures. Sometimes, we don’t even have the words to pray, but we can still bow our heads, or bring our hands together, or make the sign of the cross as a way to offer our prayers to God. Now to be clear, no one should feel obligated to pray any one way. Just because the person next to you does something, doesn’t mean you should. As every yoga teacher I have ever had, has said, don’t compare yourself to the person next to you. Focus on your own practice. Notice what feels right in your body.
Sometimes kneeling feels like the right way to pray, but for others standing or sitting is more comfortable or natural. In many places during our worship service, you have options and should always feel permission to pray in the way that brings you closer to God. The sign of the cross is a way to ask for God to bless us or protect us or to dedicate our prayer to God. You can make the sign of the cross anytime you would like, if it draws you closer to God in prayer.
However, there are a couple of times that traditionally people will make the sign of the cross.
Whenever we say “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
When the priest offers absolution (God’s forgiveness) after the confession.
When the priest offers God’s blessing at the end of the service.
Some people cross themselves before and/or after receiving Communion.
Others like to dip their fingers in the baptismal font when coming into or exiting the church and touching the water to their forehead and making the sign of the cross as a way to remember their baptism and carry it with them into prayer or out into the world. These small gestures can be little reminders to help re-orient our lives and our bodies back to God.
My favorite gesture of the whole service and one you might see some people make, is the three small crosses before the gospel. Sometimes people make a small cross on their forehead, one on their lips, and one on their heart. This is a way of praying through a gesture, asking God to be with us as we hear the words of Jesus read aloud. This represents the ancient prayer, “God, be in my head and in my thinking; God be in my lips and in my speaking; God be in my heart and in my understanding.”
I encourage you to try making the sign of the cross or praying in a new way. Lent is a great time to try on a new prayer practice. If you do it, and it doesn’t feel right to you, know that you aren’t required to use these gestures. God knows when you are praying and is always listening whether you use a prayer posture, or are just sitting quietly looking out the window. Prayer is a way for you to connect to God who is always near.
