No, it's not to get permission. . .

My catechism kids and I walked through the Mass today from when we enter the church to when we leave. As I we went through this I was explaining the various parts of the Mass and why we say the things we do and do the gestures we do. . .

At the beginning I was explaining that any time we enter a church we should make the sign of the cross with the holy water. I asked them why we thought we do this, expecting an answer linked to baptism but I got the following answer instead:

"It's because we need to get permission from God first before we enter the church. It's something we do to show we're asking permission from God to see if we can come in . . ."

Kind of like knocking on the door out of respect before you enter someone's room? Cute, but not quite what I was looking for.