We are here: gathered in the same space, at the same time, for the same reason. What has brought us to this present moment is the same thing – the cross. We call ourselves the Body because each of us has been marked by the same sign – the cross. The cross marks the beginning of our life as Christians at baptism. It marks us at the end of our lives, at burial. We begin prayer with the cross. We end prayer with the cross. It marks the entrances to our churches, it hangs reverently on the walls of our homes. It is mystery. It is passion. It is life.
We are here. We are here to begin again, so we must enter again through the cross. We do this by marking our bodies with this sacred gesture recalling that it has been traced over us, impressed upon us.
(Close eyes, comfortable) We bring the fingers of our right hand and allow them to rest gently on our forehead (pause). We begin our prayer by praying in the name of the Father. We hold them there and reverence the God who has created us, given us life; whose power is so great and whose beauty so overwhelming that we must shield our eyes, veil our faces in homage. The power of the Most High has overshadowed us. Every blessing begins with God. All that is good springs from the abundance of the Creator: the source of free will, all wisdom, all power, insight, revelation, and light.
We lower our right hand and allow it to rest gently on our chest. We pray in the name of the Son. We hold our hand there in reverence of Jesus, the One who nurtures, sustains, and brings us life. God has a heart. We have seen it, heard it, touched it in Jesus Christ. Here at the center of our bodies, we feel our own heart beating. (pause.) Healing flows from here like blood; we recall the warmth of our mother’s milk, the fire of courage, and the comfort of a God who draws us to place ourselves, weary, and worn, here upon the Sacred Heart like a lover. All that is beautiful flows from the heart of Christ.
Now we bring our hand to rest gently upon our left shoulder. We pray in the name of all that is holy. We hold our hand there in reverence of our bodies. Our right arm presses against us in an embrace of the flesh we have been gifted with by God. (pause.) Here we find truth. The left side is weak. The flesh is weak. We are weak. Yet, in the mystery which is God we name it all as holy.
We draw our hand across our chest and allow our fingers to rest gently upon our right shoulder. We pray in the name of the Spirit. We hold our hand there in reverence of the wonder of the Spirit. We hold our hand there in reverence of the wonder of the Spirit. The Spirit…that which moves just beyond our reach and eludes us like the wind. Here, in the realm of symbol, intuition, imagination, and dreams, we share in the life of the divine. The Spirit makes us one.
We bring our hands together now at the center, folding them together in an act of grateful prayer. All has been gathered together from the North and South, from the West and from the East. God is manifest in goodness and beauty, in truth, and in unity. The cross has sanctified all the elements of the created universe: water, fire, earth, and air. The cross has marked us, all that we are: mind and heart; body and spirit. The cross blesses us for we have prayed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
And to all of this we say: AMEN.
