Before the Gospel is read, the Gospel Book is carried from the altar to the middle of the nave the part of the church where the congregation sits and read by the Deacon, if present. This signifies that we hope God will be on our minds, on our lips, and in our hearts. Over the course of three years virtually every passage of The Holy Bible is read in Episcopal worship.
Ours is a very biblical service! Following the reading of the Scriptures a sermon is preached. The main task of the preacher is to explicate the texts just read. If a priest is faithful to this challenge, he or she will never run out of things to preach about! Following the sermon, we recite the Nicene Creed.
What is a creed? The Nicene Creed is the creed of the universal Church and is used at the Eucharist. During the Confession we kneel to signify our sorrow for our sins and as a sign of respect before God. We then pass the Peace.
This simple gesture has tremendous power when it comes to our memory banks. The sign of the cross is a reminder of the marker of our baptism. It connects us to all the saints and apostles and martrys, reaching far into antiquity.
When was a time that the sign of the cross mattered—really mattered to you? Where is a place that you can begin to incorporate the sign of the Cross—and its meaning—in your life in a new way? She occasionally finds time to write about the obscurities of life, medicine, faith, and the Episcopal Church on her blog, Kirkepiscatoid. Via Wikipedia. Do Episcopalians have a crucifix? What did the sign say on the cross?
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The reality is, though, that when we cross ourselves, we open ourselves up not only for prayer, but we open ourselves up for being a prayer. We have created a symbol of Jesus through movement and feel its shape through our kinesthetic perception. We have declared the power of our baptism not simply as a saver of our own soul, but of the salvation of the world. In the three motions we make after touching our forehead, we affirm our belief in the Holy Trinity.
Both our Old Testament reading and our Gospel reading today talk about Moses lifting up the bronze serpent on a pole, in the wilderness. When we make the sign of the cross, we are lifting Jesus up to heal a broken world. Perhaps most importantly, by making this symbol in front of us before we take our next step, we are opening up the rest of our day to the idea that God sanctifies the world—not just our steps, but the air we breathe and the places we will go during the day.
If you are already in the habit of making the sign of the cross, take a few extra seconds over the next few days to simply use it to make room for a bit of prayer. If you are not in the habit, give it a try for a few days and pay attention to what you notice in your own body, or in your next step, or in the world right in front of your own nose. Maria Evans splits her week between being a pathologist and laboratory director in Kirksville, MO, and gratefully serving in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri.
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