The Sign of the Cross

Living gratefully today, I appreciate sleeping in, the birds singing, and playful squirrels. I love how the outdoors is teeming with life in late spring. 

I offer sincere thanks and remembrance to those who have died serving our country, and I bring to my mind's eye my father's grave, decorated with loving reminders of his life. I bring to my heart, my sister Mary Jo. 

I have always had reverence for cemeteries and what they signify, and today find them more interesting than anything. Like many things from my Catholic upbringing though, I have more appreciation now than I did growing up.  That goes for the sign of the cross too. 

My husband Darcy, a deacon in the Episcopal Church, just gave a sermon for Trinity Sunday. In it he spoke about the Catholics in his hometown using the sign of the cross, but not his family's church (German Reformed) and many others in the area. I had never even thought about that. 

The sign of the cross is an integral part of the Episcopal service, as it is for Catholic services. Like many things we did repetitively in the countless church services I attended in my youth, the sign of the cross became rote and routine. 

As I listened to Darcy practice his sermon yesterday, just a couple hours after my morning meditation, I heard and felt the simple act in a new way. The third step in the sign, after touching our foreheads (Father) and midsections (Son), is touching our shoulders from left to right (Holy Spirit). In doing so, we cross over our hearts. Our hearts. My heart. The place where my meditation centers and from which love radiates. 

When it comes to the Trinity, I have always had the most affinity for the Holy Spirit. In my little brain, the others seem patriarchal and limited. The Holy Spirit is boundless and all-encompassing. I continue to pursue a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit. My preferred terms for this awesome, grace-filled presence are Higher Power, Great Spirit, Universe, Friend.

My little brain can wrap around those, and my heart and spirit can keep expanding in understanding of the expansive nature of this trip from shoulder to shoulder. Onward!  And Amen!