Our Lenten Journey: Signs of the Cross

Our Lenten Journey: Signs of the Cross
This Lenten Season, we’re reflecting as a parish on the sign of the cross, not just as a symbol of our faith or a mark drawn in ashes on our forehead, but as an entrance into prayer. We’ve asked parishioners to share some of their own observations. If you would like to share one of your own, please send it on to Fr. Mike.
 
This reflection is from Christopher Severin, our Interim Music Director, pianist and parishioner:
 
As a convert, I have been struck by the fleshiness of the expression of the Christian faith in the Catholic Church.  Jesus is present sacramentally in tangible ways, and our signs and symbols can have a physical reality.  This led to a deeper understanding of the Sign of the Cross and the role it could play in my ongoing conversion.
 
The moment came at the beginning of a meal, and the context of Jesus’ question to his disciples, “Can you drink the chalice I must drink and bear the cross I must bear?”.  That question seems unanswerable, because it is incomprehensible. 
 
As I made the sign of the cross, I was aware that it was something I was doing to, or on, my body. I was placing an actual cross on my body, with the weight bearing down as on Jesus as he carried it to carry to Calvary. Or, I was placing my body on a cross, as Jesus was placed on a cross at the moment the horror of what was to be became unescapable. This brought a more complete recognition of the cost of my salvation, and the depth of Divine Love. 
 
It would not be honest to say that since that time I have always made the sign of the cross with that gravity, but it remains present even in “routine” practice of the sign.
 
      —Christopher Severin