A Gesture That Helps Us
Sometimes, baseball players make the Sign of the Cross before stepping up to bat. Is this superstition, habit, devotion, or a silent prayer? Depending on the attitude of the person, it can be any of these.
The Sign of the Cross can remind us of who we are. Christ has redeemed us through the cross. His sacrifice has given us new life. That fact influences our approach to all aspects of life, from waking up to playing sports. So, to make a Sign of the Cross before beginning our prayer, work, or any aspect of our daily activity gives us perspective. It can draw our thoughts to center on the person we have become in Christ and the relationship that we have with God.
Spiritual writers speak of the Sign of the Cross as a source of strength in times of temptation and difficulties. This is not to be taken in a superstitious way. Rather, the act is a silent prayer by which we place ourselves under the protection of the triumphant cross of Christ.
Many people bracket their prayers with the Sign of the Cross. We begin to pray by this gesture that acknowledges that we belong to Christ and that we come into God’s presence through the redemptive grace of the cross. The same sign ends our prayers as we put on the shield of faith to go forth to live the Christian life in the world.
The Sign of the Cross
“Bless yourself with the Sign of the Cross, to chase away the fiend with all his devils. For, as Chrysostom says, whenever the devil sees the sign of the holy cross, he dreads it as the staff with which he is beaten. And in this blessing you begin with your hand at the head downward, and then to the left side and believe that our Lord Jesus Christ came down from the head, that is from the Father into earth by His holy incarnation, and from earth into the left side, that is hell, by His bitter Passion, and from thence into His Father’s right side by His glorious Ascension.”
— Twelfth-century instructions to Bridgettine Nuns of Sion
“In all our travels, in our coming and going out, in putting on our clothes and our shoes, at table, in going to rest, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our forehead with the Sign of the Cross.”
— Tertullian
“My son, mark all your actions with the sign of the life-giving cross. Do not go out from the door of your house till you have signed yourself with the cross. Do not neglect that sign whether in eating or drinking or going to sleep, or in the home or going on a journey. There is no habit to be compared with it. Let it be a protecting wall round all your conduct, and teach it to your children that they may earnestly learn the custom.”
— St. Ephrem of Syria
“Blessed is our God at all times, now and always and forever. Amen.”
— Byzantine invocation used when making the Sign of the Cross
2. How to Pray the Basic Prayers: Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
Memorized formal prayers can play an important part in your spiritual life. Three prayers especially have been held in high esteem through Christian history, and so they merit our special attention as we begin to pray. We must remember that prayer is a “raising of the mind and heart to God.” Specific words, therefore, have a secondary place. The simple pronunciation of the name Jesus, when said with meaning and devotion, can be more prayerful than the recitation of a book of prayers, if they are said with lack of recollection and intention.
Still, forms can be quite useful. When the heart or mind desires to call out to God, whether in joy or in sorrow, in petition or in difficulty, we’ll often find it helpful to join our thoughts and affections to words. Here, memorized prayers, especially the three we are considering, can come in handy.
Moreover, repeating these prayers does not diminish their value. No one ever tires of hearing a loved one say, “I love you.” Any prayer said with devotion is pleasing to God.
The Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be are often the first catechism for children. From these prayers, Catholics young and old learn basic elements of our faith and learn how to honor God. Yet there is a depth to these prayers that can continue to teach and encourage us, no matter our age or stage of spiritual development. These are prayers we never outgrow.
The Our Father
This is the prayer that our Lord taught His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray (see Mt 6:9-13 and Lk 11:2-4). It is sometimes called the perfect prayer because it contains so much in so few words: adoration, praise, petition, contrition. Tertullian, an early Christian, identified the Lord’s Prayer as “the summary of the whole Gospel.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents a long exposition on this prayer (nn. 2761-2865). All of our prayer can be considered an outgrowth of this single prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
As we begin to pray the Lord’s Prayer, we should pause to consider that we are children speaking to a perfect Father — a Father who always provides, a Father who never ceases to love, a Father always ready and willing to teach and to help. In our hearts, we consciously look toward the Father as we pray, for we are not just speaking words to the wind but to a Person.
The prayer begins, then, with the petitions for the glory of God, the coming of His kingdom, and the fulfillment of His will. We can add our own praise and adoration as we speak these words. The next four petitions present our desires to God. We ask Him to provide for our needs. We ask for healing and forgiveness of our sins and for victory in our struggle against evil.
At the end of the prayer, many early Christians added the phrase “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” The prayer concludes with “Amen,” which means “So be it,” words that emphasize our acceptance of all the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.
“Our Father, Who Art …”
“To know how to say the Our Father and to know how to put it into practice — this is the perfection of the Christian life.”
— Pope St. John XXIII
“The Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect of prayers…. In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them.”
— St. Thomas Aquinas
The Hail Mary
This is another prayer that is both scriptural and theologically significant:
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,