formed through the same.

III. Finally, the Cross is a sign of power. Because Jesus upon the
Cross conquered the arch enemy, redeemed mankind and merited for us all
blessings and graces, there lies in the sign of the Cross a miraculous
strength and efficacy. Jesus himself has said: "Everything that you ask
the Father in my name, he will give you." The sign of the Cross calls
for help and grace through the Blood of Christ shed upon the Cross.
Would God deny such prayer? The sign of the Cross is a particularly
powerful weapon against the malicious and cunning assaults of the
devil. Of this St. Chrysostom says: "When in the fulness of faith you
make the sign of the Cross upon your forehead no impure spirit will be
able to tarry near you; for he beholds the sword that has given him the
death blow." "Write the sign of the Cross upon thy brow," says St.
Cyril, "so that the devils when they see the sign of the king may
tremble and take flight." St Augustine tells us that our mere
remembrance of the Cross puts the devil to flight, strengthens us
against his assaults, and preserves us from his snares. The sign of the
Cross provides us with a powerful weapon, wherewith we may conquer the
unseen foe in every attack.

We know, too, from the testimony of Holy Writ, that the evil spirit can
injure mankind not only in body and soul but also in earthly
possessions. Thus the devil, by God's permission, slew Job's children,
deprived him of his possessions and afflicted him with painful and
loathsome maladies. Now, though Christ by His death has broken Satan's
power, yet He has not completely removed it. For this reason the Church
makes the sign of the Cross over people, blesses food and drink,
dwellings, water, soil, in brief everything that Christians come in
contact with. This she does in order to withdraw all these things from
the injurious influence of the evil spirit, to unite them with the
divine blessing and thus make them salutary. The grace before meals of
Christians has the same purpose. It is indeed a sad token of ignorance,
of indifference, or lack of faith, when in Christian homes grace before
meals is disregarded, as not infrequently happens in our days. We know
from the testimony of history that the sign of the Cross was also
employed successfully against bodily evils. When St. Benedict was
handed a glass of poisoned wine, the saint made the sign of the Cross
over it, and behold the glass broke in his hand, and he was sav