CCD Homework Help, sign of the cross

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I have a question, my friend attends a different parish then us. Her children have just started CCD class. The book her twins were given has them doing home study, starting with learning to make the sin of the cross. It tells them to touch their forehead , then stomach/chest, then lips. I learned it forehead, chest/stomach, shoulder, shoulder. as did my kids at our parish. My friend also does this form as she learned it when she went to Catholic school. She asked me about this head, chest , lip form. I have heard of it but did not really know it is still used that much.
Is anyone familiar with this form? and can explain it. She and I are curious.:confused:
(I hope I put this thread in the correct forum).
 
I learned the same way you did and have never heard of the way the book describes it – maybe it’s a misprint. The hand movements make a straight line pattern, not a cross pattern.

The head, chest, lips is similar to what we do at Mass just before the gospel when the priest says “A reading from the gospel according to …”. But the sequence is different there; it’s head lips, chest and the thumb traces a cross as it touches each area.
 
I have a question, my friend attends a different parish then us. Her children have just started CCD class. The book her twins were given has them doing home study, starting with learning to make the sin of the cross. It tells them to touch their forehead , then stomach/chest, then lips. I learned it forehead, chest/stomach, shoulder, shoulder. as did my kids at our parish. My friend also does this form as she learned it when she went to Catholic school. She asked me about this head, chest , lip form. I have heard of it but did not really know it is still used that much.
Is anyone familiar with this form? and can explain it. She and I are curious.

(note: I posted this same thread in sacred scripture but I only got 1 response so I copied it here hoping for a response).
 
it shouldn’t be chest/stomach but just chest because the sign of the cross also means we are Christians in our mind (forehead), heart (chest) and actions (shoulders, which connect to our arms and hands)
 
Luvs2Learn said:
I have a question, my friend attends a different parish then us. Her children have just started CCD class. The book her twins were given has them doing home study, starting with learning to make the sin of the cross. It tells them to touch their forehead , then stomach/chest, then lips. I learned it forehead, chest/stomach, shoulder, shoulder. as did my kids at our parish. My friend also does this form as she learned it when she went to Catholic school. She asked me about this head, chest , lip form. I have heard of it but did not really know it is still used that much.
Is anyone familiar with this form? and can explain it. She and I are curious.

(note: I posted this same thread in sacred scripture but I only got 1 response so I copied it here hoping for a response).
Click to expand...
To begin with, that doesn’t make a cross. :rolleyes:
 
Luvs2Learn said:
I have a question, my friend attends a different parish then us. Her children have just started CCD class. The book her twins were given has them doing home study, starting with learning to make the sin of the cross. It tells them to touch their forehead , then stomach/chest, then lips. I learned it forehead, chest/stomach, shoulder, shoulder. as did my kids at our parish. My friend also does this form as she learned it when she went to Catholic school. She asked me about this head, chest , lip form. I have heard of it but did not really know it is still used that much.
Is anyone familiar with this form? and can explain it. She and I are curious.:confused:
(I hope I put this thread in the correct forum).
Click to expand...
Can you give us details on the book? Title etc.
 
Perhaps the book is talking about during Mass when you are to make a cross on your head, lips and heart before the Gospel is read.

But yes, the Sign of the Cross is forehead, chest, L shoulder, R shoulder; made with the R hand.
 
This is a good thread.
I have noticed that the different ways of making the sign of the cross seam to differ along ethnic lines. Being a white Irish guy raised in the southern USA, I use the plane sign of the cross. I think I have seen some Mexican Catholics touch there lips after the sign of the cross and other more elaborate gestures from some other groups. I would love to here an explanation of some of the different forms and how they came about. The different (small “t”) traditions and piety that you find around the world is one of the neat thing about being Catholic.

I look forward the hearing more!
 
I was told by a priest a long time ago that it was ok to finish the lines of the physical cross by saying amen and touch your stomach included within your sign of the cross.
 
with the right hand touch the forehead, chest, left shoulder and then the right. that is how everyone does it in all the churches i’ve been to in florida and pa. take care.
 
It’s been a while, but I once took a few hours to research the Sign of the Cross. It’s clearly on of the oldest traditions in the Church. It is probably predated by the symbol of the Fish, but still very impotant and very intregal to our Faith. My favorite theory is that it served a sort of secret sign by which fellow Christians could identify each other and avoid persecution by the Romans. I love history and found that interesting, but I digress. I must say that no where do I remember seeing or hearing the form of the cross that you describe. In fact, when my oldest Daughter did her First Communion, she was taught to cross her thumb and index finger, of her right hand, thus forming a cross, and to touch her forehead, then chest, Left shoulder, right shoulder, and finally her lips. It was told to her and us that this in conformity with the Catechism. Maybe some of the more learned members will render a decision…gently.
 
Luvs2Learn said:
make the sin of the cross. It tells them to touch their forehead , then stomach/chest, then lips. I learned it forehead, chest/stomach, shoulder, shoulder.
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There are two ways the Sign of the Cross is done at Mass.

The “major” one is from the forehead to the center of your torso (below the chest, just about the stomach area), and then from your left shoulder to your right shoulder. This is done at the beginning and end of Mass.

The “minor” one is three small crosses made over your forehead, your lips, and your heart. This is done right before the reading of the Gospel.

There is no Sign of the Cross that goes from the head to the chest to the lips.
 
Big_Ro said:
It’s been a while, but I once took a few hours to research the Sign of the Cross. It’s clearly on of the oldest traditions in the Church. It is probably predated by the symbol of the Fish, but still very impotant and very intregal to our Faith.
Click to expand...
The cross predates Christianity, as there have been cross symbols found on the tombs of pre-Christian Jews. The word “mark” (in Ezekiel 9:4) is the Hebrew letter Tav, the last letter of their alphabet. The ancient shape of this letter was a cross (T or + or X), and this sign was used in Ezekiel 9 as a seal of God’s ownership. This sign was taken up by the Church; it may in fact be the seal seen by St. John in the book of Revelation:
Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.” (Rev. 7:2-3)
Cardinal Ratzinger sees in this passage from Revelation “the meaning of this mysterious sign” in Ezekiel’s vision “unveiled” in the light of the Crucifixion. (The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp. 179-180; cf. 2 Cor. 3:15-17) The cross of Christ is “the seal of the living God” which identifies us as His people. … In the early Church, it was customary to trace the Sign of the Cross upon the forehead (as the book of Revelation suggests).
 
Luvs2Learn said:
I have a question, my friend attends a different parish then us. Her children have just started CCD class. The book her twins were given has them doing home study, starting with learning to make the sin of the cross. It tells them to touch their forehead , then stomach/chest, then lips. I learned it forehead, chest/stomach, shoulder, shoulder. as did my kids at our parish. My friend also does this form as she learned it when she went to Catholic school. She asked me about this head, chest , lip form. I have heard of it but did not really know it is still used that much.
Is anyone familiar with this form? and can explain it. She and I are curious.

(note: I posted this same thread in sacred scripture but I only got 1 response so I copied it here hoping for a response).
Click to expand...
I agree with SMSWIFE … our parish priest signs the cross on his forehead then lips and chest before the Gospel…all other times, though, we make the sign of the cross in the usual way as shown below.
 
japhy said:
The cross predates Christianity, as there have been cross symbols found on the tombs of pre-Christian Jews. The word “mark” (in Ezekiel 9:4) is the Hebrew letter Tav, the last letter of their alphabet. The ancient shape of this letter was a cross (T or + or X), and this sign was used in Ezekiel 9 as a seal of God’s ownership. This sign was taken up by the Church; it may in fact be the seal seen by St. John in the book of Revelation:
Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.” (Rev. 7:2-3)
Cardinal Ratzinger sees in this passage from Revelation “the meaning of this mysterious sign” in Ezekiel’s vision “unveiled” in the light of the Crucifixion. (The Spirit of the Liturgy, pp. 179-180; cf. 2 Cor. 3:15-17) The cross of Christ is “the seal of the living God” which identifies us as His people. … In the early Church, it was customary to trace the Sign of the Cross upon the forehead (as the book of Revelation suggests).
Click to expand...
That’s cool!! I don’t remember that or maybe didn’t read it. I really appreciate the enlightement. Thanks for being informed. I’m gonna look that up this weekend and deepen my knowledge.
 
japhy said:
The cross predates Christianity, as there have been cross symbols found on the tombs of pre-Christian Jews. The word “mark” (in Ezekiel 9:4) is the Hebrew letter Tav, the last letter of their alphabet. The ancient shape of this letter was a cross (T or + or X), and this sign was used in Ezekiel 9 as a seal of God’s ownership. This sign was taken up by the Church; it may in fact be the seal seen by St. John in the book of Revelation:Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads.” (Rev. 7:2-3) . . .
Click to expand...
Note that this prophecy was initially fulfilled when the Christians [those marked by the cross] escaped the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
 
As Big Ro indicated, it is permissible (and common in some cultures) to end the sign of the cross by forming a cross shape with one’s fingers and kissing it - so it would go forehead, chest, shoulder, shoulder, lips. This is always done after the shoulders though, not instead of.

Is it possible that there was some sort of typographical error and the book’s author accidentally left out shoulders? This might seem the most likely option if it were some kind of in-house parish publication. Is there any kind of supporting evidence like a diagram to show how it should be done?
 
yea, I am starting to wonder. I did not see the book myself. My friend described it over the phone when we were discussing it. I will see her next week. When I am at her house I will have to take a look at this catechism book.
 
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