The Sign of the Cross

[Apryl]

When making the sign of the cross, is it

Forehead, chest, shoulder, shoulder

or is it

Forehead, belly, shoulder, shoulder?

Which is more correct, and why?

I ask because I was brought up actually touching my belly button when making the Sign of the Cross. There was a comedy a few years ago (Ben Stiller and Edward Norton) where the ‘priest’ was telling his ‘rabbi’ friend how to make the Sign of the Cross, and told him, ‘spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch’ (it’s funny… but it DOES help to remember)

I had a book that said that we should think of the second part of the Sign as Jesus being in the womb of the Blessed Virgin

But now, it seems that much of what I am finding says chest, as in ‘have Jesus in your heart’.

Did it change? Is this another way to do it? Does it matter?

I am most concerned because I would like to teach the children (and those new to the faith) correctly

 

[mick321]

When making the sign of the cross, is it

Forehead, chest, shoulder, shoulder

or is it

Forehead, belly, shoulder, shoulder?

Which is more correct, and why?

I ask because I was brought up actually touching my belly button when making the Sign of the Cross. There was a comedy a few years ago (Ben Stiller and Edward Norton) where the ‘priest’ was telling his ‘rabbi’ friend how to make the Sign of the Cross, and told him, ‘spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch’ (it’s funny… but it DOES help to remember)

I had a book that said that we should think of the second part of the Sign as Jesus being in the womb of the Blessed Virgin

But now, it seems that much of what I am finding says chest, as in ‘have Jesus in your heart’.

Did it change? Is this another way to do it? Does it matter?

I am most concerned because I would like to teach the children (and those new to the faith) correctly

The proper Sign of the Cross is made with the right hand.

Begin by touching the forehead.

Next touch the center of the chest [the heart].

Then the left shoulder.

Then the right shoulder.

Finally join your hands, palms together, fingers together and pointed upward.

 

[Apryl]

Next touch the center of the chest [the heart].

Ok… but why?

Is this how you were taught it school? Which years (calendar, not your level in school)?

Did you get it from a book or something?

 

[LilyM]

Ok… but why?

Is this how you were taught it school? Which years (calendar, not your level in school)?

Did you get it from a book or something?

It IS the Sign of the Cross, so we are honouring the wounds of Christ during His passion and crucifixion - in other words the crown of thorns (forehead), spear to the heart, and wounds in his hands (by touching the shoulders/arms).

 

[Heavens_Flowers]

In hispanic cultures after making sign of cross with right hand, they kiss there fingers, to show love and respect.
In Ukraine they use right hand with 3 fingers together for the sign of the trinity.

Head heart shoulder shoulder sounds right.

 

[Jerok]

Yeah, they have to use three fingers to resemble the trinity because in the past they broke away from Catholicism and then came back - they didn’t believe in the trinity, so their penance or punishment was to do the sign of the cross with the three fingers put together.

Anyway, I read anti-Catholic propaganda, and one of them was that the sign of the cross was actually upside down, so we are making inverted crosses, a sign of satanism

Because if you do forehead, then your heart, then your shoulders, it really IS an upside down cross. I’m interested in hearing an official ruling on this, anyone?

 

[Moscati]

I’ve always done head, chest, shoulder, shoulder (well, not always, since I’m still in RCIA . . .) I do remember thinking, when I visited an Orthodox church, that they made the sign of the cross not only backwards but much more pronounced–all the way down to the belly, as this big, sweeping gesture.

I’m guessing the exact way of doing it largely a matter of local custom, and that there will be minor variations on the same theme. I doubt there’s any authoritative consensus on it.

 

[Apryl]

Because if you do forehead, then your heart, then your shoulders, it really IS an upside down cross. I’m interested in hearing an official ruling on this, anyone?

Me, too… that was another thing: we were making the CROSS… not a plus sign…

at least when I was in school

I’m still looking for someone with a REFERENCE, as in writing, a school, something, to point to how the SoC is supposed to be done… not just how it’s being done.

 

[Moscati]

Yeah, they have to use three fingers to resemble the trinity because in the past they broke away from Catholicism and then came back - they didn’t believe in the trinity, so their penance or punishment was to do the sign of the cross with the three fingers put together.

Anyway, I read anti-Catholic propaganda, and one of them was that the sign of the cross was actually upside down, so we are making inverted crosses, a sign of satanism

Because if you do forehead, then your heart, then your shoulders, it really IS an upside down cross. I’m interested in hearing an official ruling on this, anyone?

How is it upside down? Disproportionate, maybe, if you have broad shoulders (the horizontal ‘beam’ would be longer than the vertical), but I don’t see how it’s upside down.

The things Jack Chick comes up with . . .

 

[Moscati]

NewAdvent.org votes for chest:

“Most commonly and properly the words “sign of the cross” are used of the large cross traced from forehead to breast and from shoulder to shoulder, such as Catholics are taught to make upon themselves when they begin their prayers, and such also as the priest makes at the foot of the altar when he commences Mass . . .”

newadvent.org/cathen/13785a.htm

The Orthodox say solar plexus:

“The fingers put together first touch the forehead — to sanctify the mind, then — the belly near the solar plexus — for sanctification of feelings, then to the right and finally to the left shoulder — to sanctify one’s bodily strength.”

orthodoxphotos.com/readings/beginning/cross.shtml

In fact, the sign of the cross is apparently some sort of casual Orthodox litmus test:

“In order to find out if a person facing you is an Orthodox Christian, just ask him to make the sign of the Cross. Whether he or she would do it and how they would do it will make everything clear.”

No wonder everyone looked at me funny for doing it wrong.

 

[TheosisM]

Yeah, they have to use three fingers to resemble the trinity because in the past they broke away from Catholicism and then came back - they didn’t believe in the trinity, so their penance or punishment was to do the sign of the cross with the three fingers put together.

Uh what? What’s the source for that? I’ve never heard that before and don’t buy it.

 

[mick321]

Ok… but why?

Is this how you were taught it school? Which years (calendar, not your level in school)?

Did you get it from a book or something?

I learned the words and rubric from my first grade teacher, a dedicated Sister of Province, shortly after reporting in for my first day of school on September 3, 1962. It was taught before we could read, write or spell. Sister demonstrated for us. We practiced at 8:00AM every school day for the next 8 years.

 

[mick321]

I learned the words and rubric from my first grade teacher, a dedicated Sister of Province, shortly after reporting in for my first day of school on September 3, 1962. It was taught before we could read, write or spell. Sister demonstrated for us. We practiced at 8:00AM every school day for the next 8 years.

CORRECTION: Sister of Providence

 

[Apryl]

How is it upside down? Disproportionate, maybe, if you have broad shoulders (the horizontal ‘beam’ would be longer than the vertical), but I don’t see how it’s upside down.

The things Jack Chick comes up with . . .

Hold up… Jack Chick… that’s a LOW BLOW! (Jack Chick makes being a Christian more of a challenge…)

Rather than tossing those JCTs into the mix, look at it when you make the sign of the cross

If you do it on your chest, you get

*
*

---

*

If you do it on your BELLY, you get,

---

(Hey, that came out a bit better than I expected! )

Which again points to why I was taught BELLY… Sr. Vicky, and Sr Mary Jean said, ‘make a CROSS on your body. Look at the Crucifix on the wall, and that is what you are painting on your body’

I am looking in the CCC… and I get nothing. I went online, but I am not finding anything with Nahil Obstat stating belly or chest…

(grumble, grumble) even invoking the name of that horrible use of ink!)

 

[Adeodatus]

Hmm. I don’t go to my shoulders, just straight across my chest in both directions.

I thought it was making the top of the cross.

 

[Apryl]

I learned the words and rubric from my first grade teacher, a dedicated Sister of Province, shortly after reporting in for my first day of school on September 3, 1962. It was taught before we could read, write or spell. Sister demonstrated for us. We practiced at 8:00AM every school day for the next 8 years.

Thank you!

Sounds like you and I are… um… you’re still WAAAY older than I am!

I was taught by IMS, and they were doing belly… Hmm… And when I would watch people doing the sign of the cross on their chest, I just took it that they were trying to ‘sneak and do it’… so many people are not proud of their faith.

Now I see that is how they were taught!:

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I don’t believe there is one specific, never to be deviated from, method of making the sign of the cross. We have had several threads here over time about regional variations, variations between the various Catholic churches and between Catholics and Orthodox, variations based on individual people’s physical abilities.

The important thing is that you make the sign reverently and realizing that making the Sign of the Cross itself is a prayer. How you hold your fingers, whether you touch your chest or belly or someplace in between, whether someone uses their left or right hand, all these are immaterial details.

 

[japhy]

I advocate the solar-plexus area myself: the base of the torso, essentially.
Tracing the Cross upon yourself
In the early Church, it was customary to trace the Sign of the Cross upon the forehead (as the book of Revelation suggests). Over time, the Sign began to be made over the whole upper body.

Head. God commanded Israel to consecrate priests, prophets, and kings to Him by anointing them on the forehead with oil. We enter into this three-fold office of Christ – as priest, prophet, and king – in our Baptism: after we are washed in the water, we are anointed on the head with oil. As you touch your forehead in the Sign of the Cross, remember the anointing you received in your Baptism. Ask God to sanctify your mind and your thoughts.

As your hand moves from your forehead down to your chest, it passes your sensory organs: your eyes, your ears, your nose, and your mouth. With these organs you perceive the revelation of God in nature and in faith. Your whole body has been redeemed by the Cross.

Torso. God is all-knowing and sees into the very depths of our souls. We read in Scripture that “God is witness of [our] inmost feelings, and a true observer of [the] heart.” (Wis. 1:6) “Search me, O God, and know my heart!” (Ps. 139:23) The love of God, manifested for us on the Cross, reaches into our deepest inner self. As your hand passes your heart and you touch the bottom of your chest in the Sign of the Cross, you form the vertical beam of the Cross, planting it in your inmost being. Ask God to sanctify your will and your emotions.

Shoulders. God liberated Israel from the yoke of slavery they endured in Egypt. The Exodus of the Israelites foreshadowed the Exodus (cf. Luke 9:30-31) on which Christ leads us by His crucifixion: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1) Christ frees us from the yoke of sin and offers us His own in return: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:29-30) A yoke is a beam that attaches two animals (often oxen) together to allow them to pull a load, such as a plow. A yoke is never carried alone: we are either yoked to Satan by sin, or we are yoked to Christ by the Cross. As you move your hand from one shoulder to the next in the Sign of the Cross, realize that you are taking the yoke of the Cross upon your shoulders, and that Christ joins himself to you by it. Ask God to sanctify your strength.

You trace upon your body the Cross on which hung the salvation of the world. As the body of Christ hung on the Cross for you, now you willingly take up that cross upon your own body.

Praying the Mass: The Prayers of the People (2nd edition), pp. 29-30​

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

In Ukraine they use right hand with 3 fingers together for the sign of the trinity.

Yes, Eastern Catholics use three fingers for the sign of the Trinity and the two fingers in the plam represent the two natures of Christ, human and divine.

Also we cross ourselves in this manner.

Begin by touching the forehead.

Next touch the center of the chest [the heart].

Then the right shoulder.

Then the left shoulder.

I have been told that its the right shoulder first in honor of the Good Thief who was on the cross to the right of Christ.

 

[Apryl]

Torso. As your hand passes your heart and you touch the bottom of your chest in the Sign of the Cross, you form the vertical beam of the Cross, planting it in your inmost being. Ask God to sanctify your will and your emotions.

Ah!!!

See, you are saying ‘torso’ and ‘bottom of the chest’… and I see that as = BELLY.

The diaphraghm (sp?) is, to me, belly.

Depending on how long your torso is… this is where the confusion (for me) is coming in

I guess what I’ve been seeing has been more like the chest (for some) has been just below the chin… which is making of (to me) and upside down cross.

Wait: am I the only one who was unclear on this?

And thank you so much for citing your source!