Father has created us, the Son redeemed us, and the Holy Ghost has
sanctified us. God the Father created us after His own image, and
therefore we bear a resemblance to God in our souls. Our soul is a
spirit, as God is a spirit. It has understanding and free will; it can
be holy; it can become perfect, since our heavenly Father is perfect.
Our soul is immortal, as God is immortal, and it is destined to partake
in heaven of divine glory and happiness. Is there not in this
resemblance and likeness to God an unspeakably high dignity and glory
for man? We are reminded of this by the sign of the Cross. The Son of
God redeemed us through the Cross. After sin had reduced the human race
to a state of ignominious bondage the Son of God, moved by infinite
love, became incarnate for us, in order to make satisfaction for our
sins and to remove from us their awful consequences. From slaves of sin
and of the devil, He has made us just and children of God. Having been
redeemed, we now call God our Father; and Jesus, the Son of the eternal
Father, calls us His brethren. Of all this we are reminded by the
Cross, for we were redeemed through the Cross, and became children of
God and heirs of heaven. Thus the Cross is the glorious sign of our
redemption. The Holy Ghost sanctifies us by dwelling in us and making
of us His temples. What an honor for us! The sign of the Cross reminds
us of this honor.

In truth is therefore this sign a mark of the highest honor, and the
Christian's greatest glory. In this sense the Apostle wrote to the
Galatians: "But God forbid that I should glory, but in the Cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. vi, 14). This means, according to Saint
Chrysostom: "I glory only in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
namely, in the faith, in grateful remembrance and contemplation of the
benefactions of the Cross, through which we were redeemed and have
received the grace to lead a devout: life and to strive for eternal