why do catholics and anglicans cross themselves, and why don't most other protestansts?

Question

I'm a new christian and I was just wondering what the reasoning behind crossing yourself after certain prayers was.

Answer 1

Crossing yourself is a way to start and finish prayers. The words that go along with it are, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". Jesus did it, and we just continue the tradition. When some of the Protestant groups broke off, they ceased doing it.

Answer 2

Do Anglicans Cross Themselves

Answer 3

There are records of Christians using the sign of the cross to bless all kinds of things, including people, as early as the third century. Eastern Orthodox and Anglicans also use this ancient sign to consecrate people and objects.

Protestants tend to shun anything that they think appears to be too 'catholic' for no apparent reason. Some might use the old "it's not in the Bible" excuse, but there really is no good reason not to use it.

Answer 4

I open my hand and touch my brow, and say,
"In the name of the Father"

Then I touch my heart with my hand, and say,
"and of the Son."

I touch my shoulders left and right, and say,
"and of the Holy Spirit"

I say,
"Amen."

The Sign of the Cross is
- A statement of belief in the Holy Trinity
- A statement of belief in and thanksgiving for Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross
- God blessing us
- Us Blessing God ("I will bless the Lord at all times")
- A prayer using your entire body
- A Bible quote (Matthew 28:19)

I do not know why other Christian denominations do not like this prayer.

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

Crossing oneself (or an object) "in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit"has two functions, it infuses the person or object with the presence of the Holy Spirit and provides protection of the person or object from evil (the devil). It jointly asks God to bless and protect the object that is crossed.

Sometimes the crossing is done with blessed oil or water. Both, the ritual of the blessing of oil and the blessing of water, remove evil from those objects and infuse them with the power of the Holy Spirit. Blessed Water and Blessed Oil is believed to have the power to heal the sick and free people from demons.

Answer 6

Show me book, chapter and verse where Yeshua or any of his disciples crossed themselves. Yes, "Christ" referred to the Father and the Holy Spirit with great reverence and frequency, but never by crossing himself. This practice came about and was identified and referred to by the teachings of Terttullian (c.250 AD), to express recognition and piety. A man-created gesture that does not follow scripture. The Catholic church is quick to refer to the early church Fathers but none of their recognition includes the earliest church Fathers. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, all the disciples, Paul, etc. Only those associated with the establishment of the "Catholic Church." What is the true history of the faith as expressed by the whole of scripture?

Answer 7

Crossing oneself was practiced by Christians from the earliest centuries and may go back to apostolic times. We know that is was already a common ceremony used daily in A.D. 200, for Tertullian writes: "In all undertakings -- when we enter a place or leave it; before we dress; before we bathe; when we take our meals; when we light the lamps in the evening; before we retire at night; when we sit down to read; before each task -- we trace the sign of the cross on our foreheads." St. Augustine (A.D. 431) speaks of this custom many times in his sermons and letters. It's just a custom and has nothing to do on the matters of faith, but the protestants will tell you it's a man-made tradition from the devil blah blah blah.

Answer 8

Good answers above. One more:

The Eastern Orthodox method is to take your right thumb, forefinger and middle finger and bring all three together into "one". This is to remind us of the Trinity. The ring finger and pinkie are brought into the palm of the hand, to remind us of the two natures of Christ - both God and Man.

This hand it then used to make the normal sign of the Cross - although - they do it backwards! ;-)

Answer 9

we say, in the nameof the Father and of the Son adn of the Holy Spirit.

I was taught when doing so you are asking:
In the Nam of the Father - God be in my thoughts (while touching your head)
And of the Son - God be in my heart (while touching your heart)
And of the Holy Spirit - God be in all my actions (while touching your shoulders)
it is done representative of the Cross in the actions - reminding us that it was me, my sins, that Christ died for and His death should not be in vain.

YSIC & welcome to the family!

Answer 10

It’s amazing to me that we live in such a supposed technologically advanced time and people are still running around thinking that things like rosary beads, doing the sign of the cross, wrapping themselves in shawls, wearing head gear and the like are going to make god happy and make an actual difference in peoples lives. Either in a positive way by following these rituals, or in a negative way by avoiding them. One of my favorite is this fear of offending god by saying things like “god damn it” or “I swear to god”. Or the need to capitalize god in a sentence (God not god). Imagine for a moment if it were actually true that if you swore to god he’d punish you. What kind of sensitive god would that be? Creating the whole universe and his ego is so shallow that if you use his name in vain he gets offended. Just what type of overwhelming proof would people need to abandon such a belief? Clearly I can say “god damn” several times a day and nothing seems to happen at that moment so it’s clearly some delayed punishment down the road type of thing. How many times do you need to say “god damn it” before god gets really mad and zaps your *** with a lightening bolt? So far I said “god damn it” six times today and nothing happened.

Apparently, people are really still beating drums to their gods around a big great fire with wooden sticks in their noises and they don’t recognize it. If we look at some other so called “primitive” belief systems and watched some tribe dancing for rain you’d say ‘that’s crazy - look at those idiots” But yet people still believe that making the sign of the cross is going to bring them some blessing. Amazing. It goes back to two things. The first is the almost universal simplistic view that people have about our existence and out potential creator. The pronoun “he “ is indicative of this type of belief system. “He” is like us. “He” gets mad. “He” gets insulted. Are you serious? Some human type “he” created all this? And “he’s” just as sensitive as the rest of us? That would make me sad - not afraid to piss “him” off. If that’s the case - god damn it we’re all screwed. I’d hate to think that the all mighty creator get’s mad when you don’t wear some hat all the time. Or fail to kneel before an alter. Is it just me or does anyone else see the parallel to other rituals in the past which we now find retarded (yes I say retarded) . Second, it’s that these ritualistic beliefs are like colds. Once you pick one up from some alleged reliable source that’s usually all you need. After that it’s almost impossible to get rid of it. “My dad said so” or “that’s part of my religion” is the standard type of explanations you get when you ask someone why doing something ritualistically is going to make a difference.

Do people remember when we used to sacrifice animals? What happened to that practice? Allegedly it was supposed to appease the gods. No more I guess. Instead we replaced that ritual with things like wearing certain attire, kneeling, chanting, bowing, making the sign of a cross, etc. I have to assume that one day someone woke up and said “you know that whole kill the animal on the alter thing is not working for god anymore. It’s so messy - get me a yamika instead”. And for those Christians and Jews I would remind you all that sacrificing animals is biblically sanctioned. So how come it’s being ignored? Did god send out a memo entitled “animal sacrifices to be replaced with kneeling?” I must have missed the memo. So basically these rituals are taught (or caught) and then once we have a belief that they are actually doing something affirmative for our relationship with god, unfortunately (as I have noted before) our genetic biological programming makes us instinctively want to defend this idea despite the fact that it’s just an extension of things we clearly no longer believe. While we know killing animals does not work to actually influence either god or our situation, we find some other thing to do which we think does. However, the replacement ritual is just really a modified version of the original. And bizarre as it is, we just don’t recognize the substitution. What’s more, we’re often afraid (fearful) that we actually might offend god if we don’t keep doing this ritual. Which is also a byproduct of our programming and social interactions (with for example authority, i.e. our parents). Not only that, but we’re not even willing to acknowledge that such a practice might be wrong even in the face of probative evidence that it’s practice is not having any effect. If all you needed to do was pray or eat kosher or follow 10 or even 10,000 rules to stay clear of trouble than all those “religiously” following those things would be invincible. And as we know they are not.

Hey, not too long ago we killed other humans to make the gods happy and that also seems to have faded away. Which brings me to the point of all this, a little story about human sacrifice. As the historical telling goes...

Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, there was a custom of the people on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan) to offer human sacrifices. At that time the island was governed by a respected and beloved emperor by the name of Goho. Goho wanted to change the barbaric practice and instituted his law which permitted only animals and not humans to be sacrificed. However, one year there was a terrible drought causing a famine on the island. The people believed it was their failure to sacrifice to the gods and demanded an immediate human sacrifice. Goho pleaded with his people to abandon this painful and useless ritual. But the people’s superstitious beliefs caused them to resist. “Very well,” said Emperor Goho, “tomorrow morning at dawn go into the forest and you will find your victim for the sacrifice. He will be tied to a tree and wearing a red robe. Kill him for he is your sacrifice.” Early the next morning the men went with their clubs and found things to be just as Goho had said. There was the sacrifice tied to a tree and wearing a red robe, a robe that obscured his face. They rushed forward and killed him. When they pulled away the robe that covered the sacrifice’s face they were mortified to see that it was Goho, their beloved emperor.

Goho had taught them the ultimate lesson about rituals. They had sacrificed their leader and yet the famine continued. The gods had not been appeased. Their ritualistic efforts actually killed what was good. From that time forward there was never again human sacrifice on the island of Formosa. Stated in another way, the practice of a mindless ritual (while having no real effect on our relationship with god) may have a profound affect on our lives. What we are often doing is substituting a manual motion or materialistic action for a better focus on what is important to us and to god.