Sign of the cross? Why is it and upside down cross?

Question

Sign of the cross.... forehead, heart, shoulder to shoulder... How many others noticed the sign of the cross is upside down? Isn't an upside down cross the devils sign or something?

Answer 1

Wow,Thank you for that enlightenment, I had never realized that before.  So,oooo, true!

Answer 2

The second part isn't heart, it's more your stomach.  So it's not upside down.

Answer 3

for fun

Answer 4

Yeah, ummmm Ill just take two points.  

Answer 5

It's not an upside-down cross.

Let's take this in slow and simple steps.

Here's the upper part of the Cross (do please allow for the limitations of this text box, and ignore the little dots.)

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See the upright?  That's where Jesus' head was.

See the crosspiece?  That where His shoulders and arms were.

This is the sign of the Cross:

In the name of the Father (touching the forehead),

and of the Son (touching the chest between the shoulders),

and of the Holy Spirit (touching each shoulder).

We don't need to go all the way down to our feet (although some do make the second part at around their belt line), because the purpose of the sign of the Cross is not to demonstrate what a full Cross looks like. We're very much aware of that, though, since there's a Crucifix in every church and many of our homes as well.

I have no idea why I'm bothering to answer yet another of your Catholic-baiting questions, frankly, and this will probably be the last. Here's a star for the sake of goodwill.  May peace be with you.

Answer 6

It's not supposed to be the heart, it's supposed to the belly button.  Some don't go all the way down to the belly button, so it makes it shorter.

Head

belly button

left shoulder

right shoulder

Answer 7

if they  stop at their chest they are doing it wrong

it is head nanal not head cheast

Answer 8

Probably because Peter was crucified up-side-down??

Answer 9

IT IS NOT MY SIGN,IT IS THAT WAY POINTING DOWN TO h**l,FORBIDDING NOT TO END UP IN HADES.

Answer 10

How is it upside down? I've been making the Sign of the Cross since early childhood, and the gesture is never performed upside down. You have a long vertical cross, with a shorter beam extending horizontally on either side, just as shown in any standard picture of a cross you'd care to look at.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_of_the...

Answer 11

its not.  

Answer 12

I heard people say that when they feel like their house is haunted by supernatural forces, the upside down cross appears. This may be an omen or a sign of getting attention for money or a concidence or whatever. I don't think it means anything other than disgracing God who died on the cross in living color on 33 A.D. to show us how He paid for our sins before the foundations of the worlds.

Answer 13

Well, when you consider that we say "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" while making the sign of the cross, it can hardly be the devil's sign, can it?

Answer 14

No to both. It's not upside down, for one, and the upside-down cross was called the St Peter Cross long before modern fundamentalists invented the 'Satanic' meaning.  That was unheard of before the 1800s.

PS: I hope this wasn't meant as some kind of anti-Catholic bait?  

Answer 15

smae s**t

different name