In This Sign Conquer
All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri
Ascension
5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2017
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Sign of the Cross is not just the way Catholics begin their prayers. It is itself a powerful prayer—one that’s rooted in Scripture and one that the earliest Christians often turned to for strength in spiritual battle and protection from all harm and evil. In fact, Christians in the first centuries of the Church prayed the sign of the cross throughout their days, when the rose in the morning and went to bed at night, when they left the house and when they returned, when they began a project or began a meal. They especially found strength in this prayer when facing times of temptation and suffering.
What did the early Christians see in the Sign of the Cross that we often miss? In this week’s podcast, Edward Sri unpacks the Biblical foundations of this prayer, walking through the Old Testament prophetic foreshadowings of the great sign of the cross to the early Christian practice with this prayer. Discover how the Sign of the Cross can be a source of strength to face the spiritual battles we face each day—battles against discouragement, fear, anger, anxiety, impurity and pride.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Edward Sree, and welcome to all things Catholic Catholic where real faith meets real life. |
| 0:19.1 | Today I want to step back and think about a very powerful prayer. |
| 0:23.2 | It's a prayer I'm sure you're familiar with it. |
| 0:25.8 | I'm pretty sure you've prayed this prayer many times, |
| 0:28.8 | but maybe you haven't really thought about its meaning. |
| 0:31.0 | You haven't thought about where it came from and how much it can make a |
| 0:34.0 | difference in our daily lives. I want you to step back with me and look at this |
| 0:37.8 | prayer anew. Let's pray it together right now. Ready? I'm sure you'll |
| 0:41.0 | remember it once we begin. In the name of the Father and of the |
| 0:43.7 | son and of the Holy Spirit Amen. That's the prayer my friend. It's the side of the |
| 0:49.4 | cross. The sign of the cross. Did you know the sign of the cross isn't just the way Catholics begin their prayers. |
| 0:56.6 | It is a prayer in and of itself and it's rooted in scripture. |
| 1:00.5 | It's something the earliest Christians celebrated. |
| 1:03.2 | It's something they practiced throughout the day, |
| 1:05.0 | making the sign of the cross many, many times throughout the day. |
| 1:08.0 | Not just to mark a beginning of prayer, but it was seen as a very powerful |
| 1:12.1 | prayer of protection, a prayer of worship, a prayer in which someone was pledging their fidelity to God. |
| 1:20.7 | I want to step back and consider this powerful prayer that we as Catholics can |
| 1:24.3 | sometimes take for granted. I want you to hear the words from some of the earliest |
| 1:27.4 | Christians. One great theologian in the early church he was writing at the turn of the third or third century his name is |
| 1:35.2 | Tertillion you may have heard of him before listen what he says about the common |
| 1:38.8 | practice of Christians marking themselves with the sign of the cross throughout the day. He said, in all |
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