The Sign of the Cross

(Found here)

“Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn leaned on his shovel and watched the gray clouds that dragged sullenly across the sky. A merciless wind tore at him through his prison garb. He felt as though it penetrated to his soul. Every bone and muscle ached. Hunger gnawed his stomach. Years of hard labor in the Siberian work camp had ruined his health and stripped him of hope.

Solzhenitsyn could endure no longer. He dropped his shovel, left the work gang, and sat on a bench nearby. Soon a guard would command him to return to work. When he would ignore the order, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to others many times. A quick, bloody death today, thought Solzhenitsyn, would be better than a slow death in a bleak and empty future.

He stared at the ground, waiting for the inevitable. Soon he heard footsteps and braced himself in anticipation of the guard’s harsh words. But when he raised his eyes, instead of a guard, he saw a gaunt, elderly prisoner standing before him. The old man said nothing, but knelt in front of Solzhenitsyn. With a stick he scratched the sign of the cross in the dirt and hurried back to work.

Solzhenitsyn looked at the cross and, as he reflected on it, a ray of light penetrated his dark thoughts. In that moment, his perspective changed radically. He realized that he did not have to face the evil of the gulag and the Soviets on his own diminished strength. With the power of the cross, he could withstand the evil of not just one but of a thousand Soviet empires.

He got up from the bench and returned to work. Externally, none of Solzhenitsyn’s oppressive circumstances changed that day, but internally he had experienced a gentle revolution. The sign of the cross had blessed him with the grace of hope.”
~From The Sign of the Cross: Recovering the Power of the Ancient Prayer by Bert Ghezzi