Today we’re going to talk about some ceremonial customs in the Church and their meaning.

The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross is made with the right hand touching the forehead, chest and then the left and right shoulders with the tips of the fingers.  This goes back to the earliest days of the Church.  So a Christian writer called Tertullian, writing about the year 200 AD, said, “…in all our coming in and going out, … whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our forehead with the sign of the cross”, and he spoke of this as an old custom in his day. (1) 

The sign of the Cross, by recalling Our Lord’s Crucifixion for us, is a reminder of everything that he stands for.  So it is a sign by which we openly declare our belief in him and in the Christian Faith, as when we make it at the end of the Creed.  And it also reminds us how, at our Baptism, we were signed with the sign of the Cross as a token that we should not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ Crucified, and should fight valiantly as disciples of Christ and remain faithful to him to the end of our lives.

The sign of the Cross is also a reminder that every blessing, which is ours as members of his Church, has been bought for us by Our Lord at the cost of his Crucifixion. 

We must be careful not to make the sign of the Cross thoughtlessly but always with him in mind.

Bowing and genuflecting

The Name of Jesus and the Holy Trinity

Whenever the Name of Jesus is said or sung, we should always remember to bow our head.  We should also bow in honour of the Holy Trinity when we say the “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”.  Bowing in this way is not only an outward act of reverence to God, but it actually helps to make us reverent in ourselves.

In the Creed: “and was incarnate”

We bow in the Nicene Creed at the words which tell how Our Lord left Heaven and brought himself down to our level by becoming Man (a Human Being).  In this way we show him how unworthy we are that he should have done this for us.

The altar and Blessed Sacrament

When we pass in front of an altar in a church, we bow as an act of reverence to Our Lord, because the altar is his Throne at the Eucharist.  But when Our Lord is present on the altar in the Blessed Sacrament, we genuflect, that is, we go down on one knee as an act of adoration.  And we also genuflect when we pass the place where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved.

Candles

Lighted candles are a sign of joy and honour.  We have candles on a birthday cake in honour of the person whose birthday it is and to show it is a joyful occasion.  So candles are carried by servers at a Sung Eucharist for the same reason.  The first reference there is to lighted candles at the singing of the Gospel is made by St Jerome who, writing in Bethlehem in the year 378 AD, says that, “throughout all the churches of the East when the Gospel is to be read lights are kindled…not to dispel the darkness but to exhibit a token of joy…and that under the symbol of … light that light may be set forth of which we read in the psalter, ‘Thy word is a lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths’ “. (2)  So the candles held at the Gospel are a sign of joy and honour and they show that the teaching of the Gospel (the Word) is a light to guide us in our lives.  And they express our prayer that “the light of the glorious gospel of truth may shine throughout the world” (3)

Incense

In many churches incense is burnt at the Sung Eucharist as well as at other services.  Incense is made from spices and gums and was widely used in Our Lord’s day.  One of the Wise Men’s gifts to Jesus at Bethlehem was incense.  It was also used in the Temple services at Jerusalem.  You will remember that Zacharias was offering incense to God when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that he was to be the father of St John the Baptist.  Jesus attended the Temple services and so was accustomed to its use.  The Jews, like other peoples at the time, used to burn it at home because they liked the smell of it, and there may well have been a dish of burning incense in the Upper Room at the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday.  In the picture of ideal worship in Heaven, which the Book of Revelation in the New Testament gives us, incense is mentioned more than once (5:8; 8:3,4).

Its use in the Christian Church began in the fourth century after the persecutions had stopped, and within 100 years or so it was used in churches almost everywhere in Christendom.

At the Eucharist today the altar is incensed at the beginning and again at the Offertory when the offerings of bread and wine, as well as the priest, servers, choir and people are incensed.  The meaning of this is that they are being set apart for the worship of God.  At the Gospel the book is incensed, and so too is the Blessed Sacrament at the Consecration.  The purpose here is to do honour, first to Our Lord’s Word and then to Our Lord himself.  The smoke of the incense as it rises is like the prayers of the Church ascending to God (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8, 8:4).  The smell of incense in a church also helps us to remember that it is a holy place and to treat it as such.

It is an odd thing that some people can fill their lungs with tobacco smoke without appearing to notice it, whereas the faintest fragrance of incense upsets them at once.  The first person known to have objected to it was a Dr Thomas Green, a Canon of Ely Cathedral in the middle of the 18th century.  A writer in 1779 said that “Dr Thos. Green... a finical man, tho’ a very worthy one, and who is always taking snuff up his Nose, objected to it under the Pretence that it made his Head ache”. (4)  Gregory Dix points out that there were no complaints about the effects of incense from the English puritans and that such effects were totally unknown to the Jews of antiquity, and to the Christians of the first 1,500 years; and Gregory Dix wittily notes that “Dr Thomas Green appears to be the first recorded sufferer, and deserves to be sympathetically commemorated as such”.

Holy water

In many churches you will find bowls or stoups containing holy water.  We dip the fingers of our right hand in it, as we enter and leave the church, and make the sign of the Cross.  This reminds us that we must be pure in heart.  When the water is blessed, prayers are said for those who will use it in this way and so, when we use it, we have the benefit of those prayers.

In some churches, before the chief Eucharist on Sunday, the people are sprinkled with holy water to remind them of the need for purity of heart and to set them apart for the worship of God.  This ceremony is called the Asperges, which is Latin for the first word of the antiphon (Psalm 51:7) with which it begins: “Thou shalt purge …”.

Holy water is also used in blessing various things, such as a crucifix or a new house.

SUMMARY

1. By making the sign of the Cross we show that we believe in Our Lord and the Christian Faith.  It also reminds us that every blessing, which we have as members of the Church, has been paid for by him at the cost of the Crucifixion.

2. We bow to the altar which is Our Lord’s Throne, and we genuflect to him in the Blessed Sacrament.

3. Candles are a sign of joy and honour and remind us that the teaching of Jesus is a light to guide us in our lives.

4. Incense is used to do honour to God, and to set people and things apart for his worship.  Its smoke is like the church’s prayers ascending to God.

5. Holy water reminds us that we must be pure in heart.  When we use holy water we have the benefit of the prayers which are said, at the time it is blessed, for those who shall use it.

References

1. Tertullian (200 AD) De Corona, 3, in Kidd, B.J. (1920) Documents illustrative of the history of the Church, Volume 1, No. 97, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

2. Jerome (378 AD) Contra Vigilantium, 7, cited in Dix, G. (1945) The shape of the liturgy, Westminster: Dacre Press.

3. Ainger, A.C. (1894) God is working his purpose out.  Available from:
http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/g/g179.html  (Accessed 25 August 2010) (Internet).

4. Cited in Dix, G. (1945) The shape of the liturgy, Westminster: Dacre Press.