Why do Catholics Make the Sign of the Cross?

As social beings, we often use signs and symbols to communicate with each other. For example, a simple hand shake can imply trust, friendship, and gratitude. Additionally, the "thumbs up" can convey both sarcasm and/or approval. Even sports like Baseball, Rugby, and Football use symbols that convey strategies and suggestions. However, symbols and gestures are also important for our relationship with God.

You see, God speaks to us through what we can see, touch, taste, and hear. As St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in the thirteenth century, “grace builds on nature.” That is, the action and presence of God often has a very practical way of communicating to and blessing us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God” who makes us holy, and we, in turn, offer worship and praise to God through our actions and gestures (“Catechism,” art. #1148).

The Sign of the Cross as we know it today is both a symbol and a form of prayer that has been used as early as the seventh century. Through it we bless God, adore him, and ask for his assistance. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that the Sign of the Cross should be made frequently and reverently by beginning each day, each prayer, and each activity “with the Sign of the Cross: ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen’” (art. #2157).

As Baptized persons, we have been marked with the “imprint of Christ,” who has redeemed us by his suffering and death (art. #1235). We are called to be holy, and his cross gives us the grace--the strength--to overcome the many temptations we face. The grace won for us by Christ’s cross enables us to be what we are called to be: saints. We are called to transform the world; we are called to “set the world ablaze with Christ’s love” (St. Catherine of Sienna), and the Sign of the Cross reminds us of this.

That is why we make the Sign of the Cross: it reminds of our Redemption, our Sanctification, and our Mission as baptized Christians. When we make the Sign of the Cross we are reminded of Christ’s death and resurrection; we pray that he would continue to strengthen us against temptation; and we proclaim with our gestures the healing power of God’s love. The Sign of the Cross is a means through which God chooses to speak to us, and through which we choose to speak to others about our Catholic faith.

Recommended Reading:

The Catholic Encyclopedia

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catholic Educator’s Resource Centre

Fr. Maciel, The Legionaries, and Regnum Christi

"If you want your sins 'covered' by the Lord (cf. Ps. 32:1), do not display your virtues to others. For whatever we do with our virtues, God will also do with our sins." - St. Mark the Ascetic

It is no secret that the Legion and, necessarily, Regnum Christi have quailed at reporting the failings, or rumoured failings, of their altruistic founder. From an outsider's perspective, Maciel was practically deified by the members of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi.


They weren't allowed to speak, lest entertain, anything negative about him. Anyone who did bring up some dirt was affectively vilified as slanderous gossipmongers. Additionally, there were official policies that made sure no one spoke ill of Maciel by way of quasi-secretive vows or promises; furthermore, these policies were vehemently denied and labeled as--here is comes again--slanderous lies propounded by jealous orders and disgruntled former members. That is, of course, until Pope Benedict XVI told them not to have such secrets among themselves. Only then were they able to mention that these oaths may have existed, but this was only ever mentioned in passing.


Why couldn't they say anything bad about their Benevolent Founder? What's more, why all the secrets and denials of policies and practices? I can only assume that fear was the basis.


Their entire spirituality and mission was founded on the person and writings of Maciel, but this foundation was so shaky that they had to pretend it was infallible, lest the foundation crumble. They went so far as to shun dissenters--family members or long-time friends who may have "bought into" the so-called lies and rumours propounded by jealous orders (some even named the Jesuits) and former members, who were "obviously bitter"--people who had been blinded by the lure of the devil and unwittingly or not became his tools in the destruction of the Kingdom of God, or so saith the Legion.


That is why St. Mark's above quote, in light of the recent scandal, fits so well--and why the scandal is of no surprise for those of us who have been following the "rumours and lies" for quite some time.


Virtues Extolled; Truth Exposed


For years both Regnum Christi and the Legion tried so hard to keep his reputation spotless that they lost any sense of humanity along the way. They presented a view of sanctity that was based on the person of Maciel but remained shallow, at best--particularly since his antics have become more widely known. They did this by touting his flawless writings and insisting that he was a great man--without hard evidence, only verbal testimony. They extolled his writings and sanctified his character at the same time as they made it impossible to speak--and to think--of his faults.


What we need to remember is that a saint, while on earth, is far from perfect. While holy card depictions may inspire zeal, they often miss the humanity of the person painted. Such was the portrayal of Maciel and the Legionary culture: crisp, pious, spotless men in absolute perfect imitation of The Man, Maciel. However, by focussing so much on outward piety, and making it impossible to even think Maciel could be anything less than flawless, they seemed to have missed the necessity--and countless opportunities--for an internal cleansing.


The Legion was perfect, then, because of the outward piety, the countless vocations, the many apostolates, and the infallible writings and immaculate character of Maciel. In other words, the Legion was holy because of what it did, not because of what it was.


Such a spirituality infers that at long as the outside of the cup is kept clean, there is no need to scrub the grime that became caked onto its inner bowl. It gives this false air which claims that as long as we do stuff in the name of Jesus, he will remember us on the day of judgement (Matthew 7, anyone?).


Look at the bulk of their defence: they insist that we look at the "fruit" of more vocations and countless apostolates (countless, at times, because their members deny having any affiliation with Regnum Christi). While more vocations are superficially a good thing, coupled with this major error in the treatment of Maciel, and his very own lifestyle, one needs to question whether the formation offered to the numerous vocations and countless apostolates bears any substance or genuine conversion. In an exterior conversion, such as what is propounded by the Legion's lack of introspection, there is no Via Crucis, there is no nitty-gritty in this gospel, only outward piety and starched linens.


However, the message of the real Gospel is that Christ came to save the lost--the ones with grass-stains on their jeans, with their left thumb over their right, who bow awkwardly, and who come across as crass or callous. He came for the prostitute, the thief, and the disgraced. He came for you and me in the midst of our human frailty, as we wrestle with our lusts, our greed, and our pride. Ironically, Christ came to save the disgraced Maciel and not the impeccable, deified Maciel.

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10).

I understand that the Legion and Regnum Christi would disagree with my characterization of their Gospel message. And I understand that there are a lot of very good, holy people who are members of the Legion and its affiliates. Nonetheless, in their deliberate portrayal of Maciel as a spotless virgin or an unblemished lamb--an inviolate victim--their spirituality became akin to that of the Pharisees and Sadducees during the time of Christ. Yes, an examination of conscience is encouraged, and practiced by most--if not all--of its members, but what use is it if their Founder and the upper echelons of the Order, the primary witnesses of their charism, are nothing more than whitewashed tombs? Of what use is an examination of conscience that is incapable of real self-reflection and genuine immolation?


Accepimus Crucem? Sure, but of what value is a spotless cross to our role in Christ's Redemptive Mission?

St. Mark the Ascetic

An Orthodox saint who is also known as a wonder-worker. Here's a short bio on him from orthodoxwiki.org:

St. Mark was an ascetic and miracle-worker, sometimes known as Mark the Faster. In his 40th year he was tonsured a monk by his teacher, St.John Chrysostom. Mark then spent 60 more years in the wilderness of Nitria (a desert in Lower Egypt) in fasting and prayer, and in writing many spiritual works concerning the salvation of souls. He knew all the Holy Scriptures by heart. He was very merciful and kind, and wept much for the misfortunes that had befallen all of God's creation.

On one occasion, when weeping over a hyena's blind whelp, he prayed to God and the whelp received its sight. In thanksgiving the mother hyena brought him a sheepskin. The saint forbade the hyena in the future to kill any more sheep belonging to poor people. He received Communion at the hands of angels. His homilies concerned such topics as the spiritual law, repentance, sobriety, and are ranked among the preeminent literature of the Church. These works were praised by the Patriarch Photius the Great himself.

A New Baby on the Way

My wife is pregnant with our second kid. With our first, it seemed pretty surreal. We were always struggling to figure out how to discipline, or how much TV to watch, or which time is the best to send her to bed, what should we feed her, and just normal, new-parent kind of stuff.  Now that we are having a new baby in the family, I feel like I am mourning something: a phase that has come to an end. Our daughter will no longer be our only child--she will no longer be an only child. There will soon be another baby in the family, and I feel like I am mourning the loss of a phase. But everything passes; everything will either change or develop into something new and wondrous, a new thing to be discovered. Anyway, to run the risk of becoming melancholic and sentimental, I must stop here, and just add this: it is very exciting to have children. 

A Broken World, A New Springtime

We must be confident that this time of trial will bring a purification of the entire Catholic community, a purification that is urgently needed if the Church is to preach more effectively the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its liberating force. Now you must ensure that where sin increased, grace will all the more abound (cf. Romans 5:20). So much pain, so much sorrow must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church" (Pope John Paul II, Homily, April 23, 2002). 

A new missionary age will arise [out of] a new springtime for the Church" (Pope John Paul II, Homily, May 11, 1991).

The troubling reports of Fr. Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries, and the even more disturbing silence from the heads of that uber-pious order, coupled with the numerous reports of the sexual abuse of minors at the hands of the ministers of Christ shows a Church in crisis.

The current economic crisis, spurred by the insatiable longings of greed, along with a newly-elected American President who is a proponent of infanticide, plus the deafening silence on infanticide among the wealthy nations, shows us that the world is in trouble. 

We have Catholics abandoning their faith for more "freer" philosophies; we have even more Catholics dissenting from the Church's ancient teachings in droves; we have Bishops and Clergy refusing to address controversial issues for fear of arousing bitterness amongst the laity; and we have widespread confusion among the numerous agnostic Catholics who have neither a clue about what the Church teaches, nor a will to find out. 

The many orthodox Catholics who love the Church and her wisdom are frustrated, some are turning to apocalyptic prophecies that signal a sudden end to all this, while others are silently seething as their world quickly comes undone. Some blame Vatican II, others blame the clergy and the world's religious, and still more blame modernity for our current plight. 

In short, it looks bad.

Nonetheless, today, only a few days before Lent, we have this as the first reading:

"Behold, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers ... I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise" (Isaiah 43:19-21). 

Listen to those words: "Behold, I am doing something new!" Pope John Paul II, a man widely considered a prophet and one of history's greatest Popes, declared that we are on the verge of a new springtime in the Church. What we need to remember, however, is that we cannot get to the spring without first surviving the winter. 

Blizzards Thaw

"When you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials ... for in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation" (Sirach 2:1,5). 

On May 25, 1999, Pope Leo XIII wrote Annum Sacrum and inaugurated a global consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He did this in response to the "abundance of evils which have now for a long time settled upon the world." Now, we see that further evils have "settled upon the world," and we are being called by the Church to enter into a holy period of fasting and penance, united with the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, in order to be more fully united with the power and glory of his Resurrection. 

Now, we are being called to return to the Sacred Heart. We are being called to pass through the living flames of love that encircle the summit of the Heart and allow them to purify us like gold, in order to enter into a true and intimate dialogue with Jesus Christ. We are being called to enter this dialogue with our hearts pierced to allow rivers of living water to flow from our hearts (cf. John 7:37-39). We must be set ablaze with the fires of Pentecost if we expect to weather the current storms of dissent, disorder, and disgrace.

This Lent, through your acts of penance, ask the Lord to take your world apart. Ask him to show you how he will make all things new; ask him to fill you with the fire of the Holy Spirit; and ask him to make you a part of this new springtime, this new Pentecost, and this new evangelization which will transform humanity into a new dialogue with the crucified Redeemer. 

"The only true dialogue is one between two crucified persons" (Servant of God, Catherine Doherty). 

This is going to be my last post for a while, but I will take it up again after Lent. Pray for me, though, that this Lent might be a profound one. Pray for the Church, that this Lent may be a profound awakening, a sincere return to the Sacred Heart of Christ, and that our hearts may be pierced so that the living waters of Pentecost may flood the earth. Praised be Jesus Christ! 

Accepimus Crucem!