The Vocabulary of Prayer – Ritual Gestures

Probably, our most common ritual gesture is signing one’s self with the cross. Like any action that is repeated often, it is easily done in a rote manner.

This act is rooted in our baptism. When an infant is brought to church to be baptized, the priest together with the parents and godparents mark the child’s forehead with a cross as the priest says: We claim you for Christ with the sign of the cross.

The sign is repeated in Confirmation when the bishop signs the forehead of the one being confirmed and says “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

This added notion of sealing has its roots in the book of Revelation: Then I saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the Israelites. (Revelation 7:2-4)

The idea of seal is rooted in the practice of sealing official documents with a signet ring which left an impression. The seal of the Holy Spirit imprints in us a likeness of God.

The hymn “Lift High the Cross” has these same ideas: “the new-born servants of the Crucified bear on their brows the seal of him who died.”

When we begin our prayer by signing ourselves with the cross, we are, as it were, identifying ourselves to the God we are praying to as one of his own, as one who is a member of the Body of Christ.

Signing the forehead of an infant or child is a fine practice for parents when they put their children to bed or send them off on a trip.

I think that it is also an appropriate act when infants or young children accompany their parents in the communion procession. It is a sign that this person belongs to Christ. (This is quite different, in my mind, to inviting non-communicants to “receive a blessing.)

This ritual gesture is rich in meaning even before we add any words to the act.