Signing with the Cross

From ancient times, Christians have signed themselves with the cross during a service. The practice probably goes back as far as the end of the second century.

     Sometimes it’s only the forehead that is signed, in which case a finger may be dipped into a stoop of holy water first. Sometimes it’s holy oil instead.

     More often, the sign of the cross involves the whole upper torso as well as the head. The sign starts by touching the forehead with the fingers of the right hand, bringing the hand down to the heart, touching the left shoulder and then bringing the hand across the chest to the right shoulder. This movement describes a cross shape. In the Orthodox Churches of the east, Christians also sign with the cross, but move the hand from the right shoulder to the left.

      While signing, many Christians says (aloud or silently) ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,’ or other Trinitarian words. In churches of a more catholic persuasion, the cross is also signed at the sacraments, during a blessing, and as a sign of penance.

The positions of the four points of the cross are significant:

• Behind the forehead lies the brain, from whence all thoughts derive. They need to be pure and clean. The mind therefore requires continual re-direction toward the cross: we must think more often of God.
• The heart is traditionally seen as the seat of the emotions. Therefore, the desires of our heart need continual irrigation in the love shown on the cross: we must direct our love back toward God.
• Until remarkably recently, the left-hand side of a person was thought to be inferior or more wicked than the right. For example, the Latin word for ‘left handed’ is ‘sinister.’ By contrast, the right-hand side was supposed to be good. (This helps explain why some left-handed people were forced to write with their right hands when at school.) When a Christian draws their hand from left to right, the action symbolises a movement from wickedness to goodness, from rebellion against God to compliance.

The triple signing of the forehead, lips and breast when reading the Gospel derives from the eleventh century at the earliest. Symbolically, it denotes a cleansing by the cross of thought, word and deed.

The frequency of signing oneself can vary from church to church, but the number is
certainly fewer than in years past: the Sarum Rite (from which much of the Book of Common Prayer derives) required a worshipper to sign themselves as many as twenty-six times during a Eucharistic service!