Making the Sign of the Cross
An Instructional Devotion and an Encouragement to Practice
Making the sign of the cross comes to us from the same churches that gave us the New Testament, a practice so common that Tertullian (160–240) said the first Christians wore out their foreheads signing themselves.
Gregory of Nyssa lists it first among their common practices including prayer, confession, and baptism.
The gestures that make up the sign of the cross belong to the whole church, as does of course the cross. They are not a just a Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, or Lutheran practice; they are a Christian practice that belongs to all the baptized, and involves our hand and arm in placing our whole selves — body and soul, head and heart — under the reality of the cross.
As an heir of the first Christians this Christ-revealing devotion belongs to you.
Learn this practice and boldly use it in private or in public, whatever Christian community you belong to, wherever you find yourself.
Here’s how to make the sign of the cross:
Start with your dominant hand. Bring your thumb and forefingers together at the tips (these represent the triune life, Father, Son and Spirit), and then bring the two smaller fingers together, pressing their tips to your palm (this represents the divine and human natures in Jesus Christ and his descent into the world for us).
In this configuration, rest your hand at your side. Move the gathering of your thumb and forefingers upwards to touch your forehead, then move this gathering of fingers straight down to touch your sternum (some go lower, to the navel), then move them across your heart to touch your left shoulder, and finally straight across your shoulder blades, from left to right, to touch your right shoulder, and then bring your hand to rest at your side again.
That’s the full gesture.
Orthodox Christians and Byzantine Catholics go to the right shoulder from the sternum (or navel) and then across to the left shoulder.
One can make the sign of the cross another way.
If you’ve seen the Terrence Malick film A Hidden Life the Austrian villagers take the tip of their thumb only and sign a cross on their foreheads, then on their lips, and finally on their hearts.
This appears to be as ancient a way of making this practice as the one more commonly known. I often make this simpler practice first, followed immediately by the full-body gesture.
Our faith involves not only our mind, will, and emotions but our bodies, too. By this sign we place our whole selves under the cross. Practice it everywhere and often.