Hello The girls in Garabandal were taught how to make the sign of the Cross, but I was wondering if there is an explanation somewhere about the motions? I found this link which Glenn posted in another thread which shows the motions, starting at 1:30 minutes: http://www.garabandalvideos.com/ It seems they do the sign of the cross on their faces, touching the forehead, the mouth, chin and then each side of their lips. And then they also touch the middle of their chests too. Are these motions explained somewhere? Thanks!
I have wondered this too but it seems that they do it 3 times. The first is the normal catholic way to sign the cross. The second is like how we do it before the Gospel reading in church but not tracing the cross over the lips but jumping the mouth opening as well as not tracing over the heart but jumping. The third is back to the normal way of the sign of the cross and finish with a kiss.
I remember reading in one of the Garabandal books that give an explanation of BVM instruction to the girls on the proper way to make the sign of the cross..I'll see if I can find it might take awhile lots of material to review.
I was taught to make the sign of the cross when ever saying the Glory be, as follows; Glory be to the Father, With your left hand resting in front of you at the center of your waist, Your right hand touches your forehead, And to the Son, Your right hand moves straight down to touch your left hand at the center of your waist, And to the Holy Spirit, Your right hand moves to the left shoulder and straight across to the right shoulder, As it was in the beginning, The thumb of your right hand traces a cross on your forehead, Is now, The thumb of your right hand traces a cross over your lips, And ever shall be, world without end. Amen The thumb of your right traces a cross over your heart. And then kiss the back of your right thumb which makes a cross as it rests on the forefinger of your closed hand. The thought and prayer that you are preforming with your body and mind as you do this are as follows; When you sign your body you are reminding yourself of your baptism and the rights and responsibilities that go with it and when tracing the cross over your forehead, lips and heart you are asking Jesus to be on your mind, on your lips, and in your heart. And finishing with kissing that sign of the cross.
I just searched BibleGateway.com to see if I could find a piece of Scripture that mentioned all 3 together; instead I found multiple quotes that, though separate, taken together state that we must keep the Law of the Lord on our minds, His Praise always on our lips, and the Love of the Lord in our hearts. (Heb. 4:12; Heb. 13:15) I remember reading a book years ago on the history of the Sign of the Cross. Apparently it was originally made only on the forehead and originally represented the Hebrew letter "Tav" or "Taw". This is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet ("I am the Alpha and Omega" is the Greek form; the original in Hebrew was "I am the Aleph and the Tav".) It's transliterated into Greek (and then into Latin) as a "T". Ezekiel 9:4 has angels going through Jerusalem and inscribe a "tav" upon the foreheads of the righteous. For Christians, marking yourself on the forehead quickly moved from a tav to a cross. When Emperor Diocletian went to the Oracles to learn what was to come in the next year, his Christian soldiers naturally marked themselves on the forehead with a cross; this simple blessing kept the Oracles from being able to work, and so the Emperor didn't get his forecast. This lead to the worst persecution the Church had ever known.
I put this YouTube up on a secular forum, a mocking, cursing type discussion forum. I imagined 17 views, there were 520! Thank you Father Schmitz.
