Holy habits, crossing ourselves.
This week in our Lent Course – Holy Habits – we discussed those small things that point us in the direction of God as we come into church.
One of those things was crossing ourselves. Why do we do it? Why is it important?
It’s actually one of the very oldest physical actions we have any record of within the christian church. It first appears in writings around 200AD but was clearly in use long before.
The action recorded at that time is much as we see at the reading of the Gospel when we cross our forehead, our mouths and our hearts.
In the earliest days it was a simple cross on the forehead before any task that you were seeking God’s blessing on. That developed into a cross over your mouth and heart, and over time that became one large cross – starting at your head and ending over your heart.
We do this to ask God to bless us or the task ahead of us.
Think about how you use it in church – when you enter (bless me), when we start the service (bless us), when you are sent out into the world by the Priest and he makes the sign of the cross over you (bless you all for the work of the Gospel in the world).
So be a blessing in the world and cross yourself often, and explain to people why you do it.
Cross yourself when you walk past the church, when you start work, when you wake and when you fall asleep. Give it a try this Lent and see how blessed you feel!
Fr. Matthew
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This Sunday we welcome a new family into our fold. We met them last week when they first joined us and on Sunday we will be baptising their beautiful baby girl Maya. Please do come and offer your support and love as we gather them into the love of Jesus’ family.
Our Lent Course – Holy Habits – continues on Thursday (24th). This week you’ll be hearing about Pilgrimage from Fr. Sam Cross. You can take part in person on Thursday mornings after mass (with a lent lunch served afterwards, this week it’s vegetable soup) or online on Thursday evenings at 7:30pm. More details on the website – www.stanselm.co.uk/lent
Lent is a very good time to make your first confession. If you’ve not come to confession before, or if you’re worried about how it works and what it is for – please speak to Fr. Matthew.
Please note changes to office times on Wednesday and Thursday.