Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Preparing for Lent

 


Dear Friends,

                Looking ahead, our church celebrates Ash Wednesday  -- the beginning of Lent – on March 2, this year. What is notable about that day is the public display of penitence writ large on our foreheads  - the sign of the cross made with ashes, sifted down from the palm used the prior year on Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.

                Catholics who can, go to Mass on Ash Wednesday, at which time they come forward and have the sign of the cross traced on their foreheads with ashes. Catholic Christians, and some other Christians as well, relish the thought of this public proclamation of faith. TV personalities can be seen with ashes on their foreheads. So also people on busses or in hospitals or businesses and children in schools. I remember when I was in parish work and distributing ashes at Mass one year, being moved by young mothers presenting their very small children for ashes. Sometimes, priests wait in the church parking lots to offer ashes to passersby whose schedules don’t permit them to get to Mass. In other cases, a dish of ashes is left before the altar in the quiet church during the day for people who come by. But however we receive ashes, they are always administered in the sign of the cross.

                The sign of the cross is an ancient prayer/practice. It was introduced in the second century. Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th century wrote: “Be the Cross our seal made with boldness by our finger on our brow, on everything… over bread , over  our coming and going.” The sign of the cross is a way of blessing ourselves.

                It is used in liturgies by the priest/presider to bless us as we begin the liturgy of Eucharist, as well as at the end of Mass. People are baptized and confirmed with the sign of the cross, and always with the words “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

                One of the shifts in practice we have made over the centuries is to leave making of the sign of the cross to our priests and deacons. It’s true that they are the ones to bless us liturgically, but if we go back to Cyril of Jerusalem and other writers, we see that blessing ourselves and others is a way believers express faith for ourselves and encouragement in faith for others.

                As Lent comes, how about making it a daily practice to bless yourself as you get up in the morning or as you get into the car or bus to leave for your workday? Tell your spouse or children what you are doing, but then bless them as you part in the morning and trace the sign of the cross on their foreheads. Bless them at night as well. Such a simple practice, but one which highlights the centrality of the cross for the believer.

                One of the things I have started doing is making the sign of the cross with the cursor/mouse on someone’s forehead on the computer screen at the end of a particularly deep and touching zoom conversation. I tell them I am blessing them and most often, they sit still, poised to treasure the moment.

                This year if you can, begin your Lenten experience with Eucharist and the reception of ashes. Begin even now to reclaim the tracing of the sin of the cross with your thumb on your forehead or the foreheads of others.

~Sister Joan Sobala


 

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