I have never much considered the importance of the wearing of ones baptism cross, but I recently ran into this quote and found it beneficial to share.
We have the obligation to wear a cross, so as to keep an ancient Christian tradition. When a person is baptized, the priest puts the cross on him with his own hand, and so let the hand of no un-ordained layman dare to take it off. The cross accompanies us throughout our life. We may replace it only in case of necessity. We may wear a consecrated wooden cross in the bath or during an operation. The Cross is a material sign of a person’s membership in the Church of Christ. At the same time it is a sharp sword in our spiritual warfare: “Let us make the sign of the Cross over our doors, and on our brow, and on our breast, and on our lips, and over every member of our body, and let us arm ourselves with this invincible weapon of Christianity, the vanquisher of death, the hope of the faithful, the light of all the ends of the earth, the key that opens Paradise and overcomes heresies, the confirmation of the Faith, the great preserver and the saving boast of the Orthodox. We shall, O Christians, wear this weapon on our person in every place, by day and by night, and at every hour and every minute. Do nothing without it, whether you sleep, or rise from sleep, work, eat, drink, find yourself along the way, or sail upon the sea, or cross a stream – adorn all the members of your body with the life-giving Cross, and no evil will come to you, and no wound will touch your body (cf. Psalm 90:10).”
St. Ephraim the Syrian, Homily on the Universal Resurrection, on Repentance and Love, on the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, Part 1, Homily 103
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