So this is me making notes to think the following through properly:
- Why do some Christians cross themselves? Why do some Christians not cross themselves? What's the meaning behind this? After looking into it, is it something I want to see if this is right for me?
- Confession - more of a Catholic thing than Anglican in most minds, but what are the ideas behind it for an Anglican? I know some people do confess to priests, but is it necessary to make public or semi-public confessions of our failings or is it better to bring them directly to God?
- Where am I going? What is important to me? What exactly is it that I want to do? This one may well be a mind-map exercise ....... I do like mind-map exercises.
- Exploring Anglican traditions. This one might stay on a back burner for a while as I am in the middle of at least 2 new longer term things already. Basically, I want to know the reasons why we do things a certain way. I want to understand our rituals and traditions, not just go along with them blindly and unthinkingly.
The sign o the cross can have different meanings depending on who is using it.
ReplyDeleteUnder... certain vicars... who can be considered low church, a church may fall out of the habit of doing it, because it is not expected or taught.
When I was younger I was taught that it was normally to be done at three times:
- At the mention of the "holy name" (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)
- When approaching a holy area (for example approaching the altar to read the gospels etc)
- At times of trouble and concern
All three for the same reasoning - a reminder that Christians are sealed into salvation by the cross of Christ.
you might find the following two sites useful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_of_the_cross
http://catholicexchange.com/21-things-cross