The Oxford English Dictionary says that a “sign is an action, mark, notice, etc., conveying information or instructions. It is also an indication, a token; something that represents something else.”

The word is used frequently and appears in ubiquitous phrases like ‘sign of the times,’ it’s a sign,’ ‘a sign of things to come,’ and ‘sign of the cross.’ It frequently appears in many different nouns:

I read the newspaper’s horoscope column when I was a kid. I believed they pointed out what I should look out for; in other words, that they revealed signs. I read the horoscope and then looked for whatever the horoscope mentioned.

For example, this is a horoscope for Virgo from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The happiness you crave has various forms, many of them unexpected. Because of this, it would be easy to overlook sources of joy. You’ll see opportunity better when you don’t need things to be any certain way.”

In the past, I would have read that, and if something happened unexpectedly that day, I might remember the horoscope and conclude that the ‘happening’ is a sign of some opportunity to be revealed later.

Later, I learned that horoscopes used that way are superstition and a departure from what is due to God alone. Superstition redirects religion from God to some other thing. Adoration, worship, prayer, and all the rest of religion, are only owing to him.

Most importantly, he has given us the sacraments. A sacrament is a sign. God has made water, oil, bread, wine, rings, miters, palliums, and crosiers mean something. God has made them into signs pointing to the divine at work inside us.