وجبـــــــة روحيـــــ(†)ــــــــــة يوميـــــــــة

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


In making the sign of the cross, we proclaim the Lord's death for us, according to His commandment
This is the commandment of the Lord: to proclaim His death (which is for our redemption) till He comes (1Cor.11: 26). Every time we make the sign of the cross we remember His death and will remember Him till He comes.
We also remember the Lord in the Eucharist but this Sacrament is not celebrated constantly whereas we can make the sign of the cross at any time, and thus remember the Lord's death for us.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


In making the sign of the cross, we remember that the penalty of sin is death
That was why Christ died. We were “dead in trespasses” (Eph.2: 5), but Christ died for us on the Cross and gave us life. On the Cross He paid the price and said to the Father: “Father, forgive them”.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


In making the sign of the cross we remember God's love for us
We remember that the Cross is a sacrifice of love. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John.3: 16). We remember that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us... we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom.5: 8,10). In the cross we remember God's love toward us, because “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends” (John.15: 13).

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


We make the sign of the cross because it gives us power
St. Paul the Apostle felt the power of the cross and said: “But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal.6: 14) and “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1Cor.1: 18). We notice that he did not say that the crucifixion is the power of God but that the mere word 'cross' is the power of God.
Therefore, when we make the sign of the cross and when we mention the cross, we are filled with power because we remember that, through the cross, the Lord trod upon death, granted life to all people, defeated and overcame Satan. Therefore

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


We make the sign of the cross because Satan fears it
All Satan's efforts ever since Adam's creation and until the end of ages, came to naught on the Cross. God paid the price by His blood. He effaced with His blood the sins of all people who believe and obey Him. Therefore whenever Satan sees the cross, he trembles, remembering his great defeat and the loss of his strivings, is disgraced and retreats.
Thus the children of God use the sign of the cross because it is the sign of victory and the power of God. They are filled with power within, and the enemy trembles without.
The lifting up of the serpent in the past, which was a cure for people and salvation from death, resembles the lifting up of the Lord of glory on the Cross. It also resembles the sign of the cross in its efficacies (John.3: 14).

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


In making the sign of the cross , we receive a blessing
The whole world was cursed and under the penalty of death. But on the Cross the Lord carried all our curses to give us the blessing of reconciliation with God (Rom.5: 10), the blessing of the new pure life; the blessing of membership in His body. All the graces of the New Testament are derived from the cross. That is why the clergymen use the cross in giving the blessing, signifying that the blessing does not come from them but from the Cross of the Lord who entrusted it to them to use in giving the blessing. In addition, they use the cross because they derive their priesthood from the Priesthood of the Crucified. All the blessings of the New Testament sprang from the Lord's Cross and from its efficacious

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


The cross is used in all the holy Sacraments in Christianity
All the Sacraments sprang from the merit of Christ's blood on the Cross. Had it not been for the Cross, we would never have been worthy to approach God as His children in the Sacrament of Baptism, we would never have been worthy to partake of His Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Eucharist (1Cor.11: 26), nor would we have been able to enjoy the graces of any of the Church Sacraments.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


We exalt the cross to remember our fellowship with it
We remember the words of St. Paul the Apostle: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal.2: 20) and “... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being confirmed to His death” (Phil.3: 10). Here, we ask ourselves: When can we enter into the fellowship of the Lord's sufferings and pray with Him?
We also remember the Penitent Thief who was crucified with the Lord and deserved to be with Him in Paradise. Probably he was singing in Paradise the song of St. Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ”.
Our aspiration is to ascend to the cross with Christ. The cross is our glory whenever it comes into contact with our senses.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


We venerate the cross because it is the Father’s pleasure
The Father received Christ on the Cross as a pleasing sin offering and also as a burnt offering. He was “a pleasing aroma to the Lord” (Lev.1: 9,13,17). Concerning this, the Prophet Isaiah said: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him” (Is.53: 10).
The Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the Father all His life on earth. But He entered into the fullness of this satisfaction on the Cross when He “became obedient to the Point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil.2: 8).
Every time we see the cross, we remember the perfect obedience and the perfect submission so that we may resemble Christ in His obedience: to the point of death.
The Cross which was the pleasing object of the Father, was also the pleasing object of the Crucified Son, about whom it is written: “... who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb.12: 2). Thus the full joy of Christ was in the Cross. May we be like Him.

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


In the cross we go forth to Christ outside the camp, bearing His reproach (Heb. 13: 13)
Christ's reproach is His crucifixion and His sufferings. In making the sign of the cross, we relive the feelings of the Holy Week and remember what is said about Moses the Prophet: “...esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Heb. 11: 26).