We sometimes fail to attach to the Sign of the Cross the importance and reverence that it merits.
Somone once said to me that people in his Church don’t make the sign of the cross because it’s not in the bible. But in fact the Sign of the Cross was first instituted by the Apostles themselves, who, invested with the authority of Jesus Christ, taught this religious practice to the first disciples of the Gospel. It was such an everyday act of reverence that there was no need for it to be mentioned. It is believed that our Lord blessed the Apostles with the sign of the cross on the day of His Ascension – though we have no written proof of this.
The sign of the Cross brings to mind to those who make it with reverence and devotion that they are bound to imitate in their daily conduct the penance, humility, meekness, patience, chastity, and obedience of Jesus; His love for His heavenly Father and all men, and mercy to His enemies.
The Sign of the Cross is used by the Church in all things Holy, in the Sacraments, in every blessing, at the beginning and end of her prayers.
We should make the sign of the Cross often, but especially when tempted and when troubled and before and after meals.
When we make the sign of the Cross we must remember what it signifies, and the obligations imposes on us as Christians. We cannot attach too much importance to the necessity of making this sacred Sign with reverence and devotion. Any Christian who performs this simple act of piety with love will soon see its excellent effects.
It is important to be very careful never to make the Sign of the Cross badly or haphazardly – that is, to make it from habit without thinking.
Parents should impress upon their children the importance of this religious practice.
The sign of the Cross has been a powerful weapon against great temptations from demons, from the early ascetics down to the present day.
The Sign of the Cross is a fundamental element of Christian life – Orthodox Catholic, Roman Catholic, some Episcopalians and high Lutheran. It should be second nature to anyone who claims to be a Christian.
The Sign of the Cross should be automatically used in virtually every situation in our life – when confronted with danger before we eat, when we wake up or before we go to bed, even before we partake of a simple glass of water. This simple act made with reverence might one day save our life or even our soul, depending on the circumstance.
Saint Barsanuphios the Great has written:
Demons can portray an angel, even Jesus, not only our in sleep but when we are awake, for it is written; “Satan can transform himself into an angel of light”. But, the Cross of the Lord the devil does not even dare to gaze upon, for he trembles and is convulsed being unable to behold its power, the Cross Satan cannot represent.
In making the sign of the Cross, Orthodox Catholics make the Sign of the Cross by slowly touching the forehead, the abdomen, the right shoulder, and the left shoulder. Until the 15th Century Roman Catholics followed the same style, but now they invert the sign by going to the left shoulder first, then the right.
Be careful to being your hand all the way down from your forehead to your abdomen. Many people haphazardly go from their forehead to their breast making an upside-down cross.
I have actually observed Roman Catholic, and even some Orthodox Priests haphazardly making an upside-down cross over the host and chalice during Mass.
Properly executed the correct way with care and reverence, the Sign of the Cross has tremendous spiritual power.
Here is an article concerning the power of the Sign of the Cross and its power.
Moscow, March 17, Interfax – Scientists have proved experimentally the miracle-working properties of the sign of the cross and prayer.
‘We have ascertained that the old custom to make a sign of the cross over food and drink before a meal has a profound mystical meaning. Standing behind it is the practical use: the food is purified literally in an instant. This is a great miracle, which happens literally every day,’ physicist Angelina Malakhovskaya said as cited by the Zhizn newspaper on Friday.
Malakhovskaya have studied that power of the sign of the cross with the blessing of the Church for nearly ten years now. She has carried out a great number of experiments, which have been repeatedly verified before their results were made public.
She has discovered in particular the unique bactericidal properties of water after being blessed by an Orthodox prayer and a sign of the cross. The study also revealed a new, earlier unknown property of the Word of God to transform the structure of water, increasing considerably its optical density in the short ultra-violet spectral region, the newspaper writes.
The scientists have verified the impact the Lord’s Prayer and the Orthodox sign of the cross make on pathogenic bacteria. Water samples from various reservoirs – wells, rivers, lakes – were taken for the research. All the samples had goldish taphylococcus, a colon bacillus. It turned out however, that if the Lord’s Prayer is said and a sign of the cross is made over them, the number of harmful bacteria will decrease seven, ten, hundred and even over thousand times.
The experiments were made in such a way as to exclude a possible impact of mental suggestion. The prayer was said by both believer and non-believers, but the number of pathogenic bacteria in various environments with different sets of bacteria still decreased as compared to the reference templates.
The scientists have also proved the beneficial impact that the prayer and the sign of the cross have on people. All the participants in the tests had their blood pressure stabilized and blood indexes improved. Strikingly, the indexes changed towards the healing needed: hypotensive people had their blood pressure raised, while hypertensive people had it reduced.
It was also observed that if the sign of the cross is made offhandedly and unscrupulously or placed outside the necessary points – the middle of the forehead, the centre of the solar plexus and the recesses in the right and left shoulders – the positive result was much weaker or absent altogether.