Can Catholic's use the Orthodox sign of the cross?

[Catholic_Nation]

Seeing how Catholics, to my understanding, could receive Holy Communion in an Orthodox Mass under extraordinary cases, does that mean that we can cross ourselves with the Orthodox right-to-left way or this forbidden by the Church?

 

[JoyToTheWhirled]

Not all Orthodox cross themselves that way anyway, the Copts, who taught me to make the sign of the cross don’t, for example.

 

[Wesrock]

I imagine many Eastern Catholic rites have continued to cross themselves right to left.

I’d follow your own rite’s tradition in liturgical and private use, excepting maybe if you are participating in the liturgy of an eastern rite that crosses right to left.

That’s not an official citation, just a suggestion.

 

[Lucretius]

Eastern Catholics do, as well as myself.

So does the Catholic Forums Byzantine prayer emoji: :byzsoc:

Christi pax.

 

[victrolatim]

I did it for years never realizing it . When the priest gave the blessing at the end of mass I would follow his hands forgetting they were a mirror image of what I should be doing, as he was facing me. Never knew I was actually doing it the “Orthodox way”

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

I did it for years never realizing it . When the priest gave the blessing at the end of mass I would follow his hands forgetting they were a mirror image of what I should be doing, as he was facing me. Never knew I was actually doing it the “Orthodox way”

Isn’t what you described exactly how the two “versions” got started? Surely there is no doctrinal basis for left/right vs. right/left?

 

[Crusaderbear]

I never even thought about it…being a lefty I always did things backwards…don’t recall getting the steel ruler for crossing myself wrong either! An I got the ruler a lot!

 

[twf]

Not all Orthodox cross themselves that way anyway, the Copts, who taught me to make the sign of the cross don’t, for example.

Copts are Oriental Orthodox Christians (Non-Chalcedonians). I assume the OP is referring to Eastern Orthodoxy…that’s typically what people mean when they say “Orthodox” without qualifications.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I never even thought about it…being a lefty I always did things backwards…don’t recall getting the steel ruler for crossing myself wrong either! An I got the ruler a lot!

I am left handed too and it seems unnatural to be using my right hand to make the
sign of the cross. It would seem more natural to use my left hand.

 

[tee_eff_em]

I did it for years never realizing it . When the priest gave the blessing at the end of mass I would follow his hands forgetting they were a mirror image of what I should be doing, as he was facing me. Never knew I was actually doing it the “Orthodox way”

Are the rubrics (or other instruction to priests) that specific?

I remember back to one of the first ordinations I’d ever attended (and dinosaurs roamed the earth). At the end of the liturgy, the two new priests gave the final blessing at dismissal. Standing side by side, one went left-to-right, the other went right-to-left.

tee

 

[peter26]

I also learned how to make the Sign of the Cross by copying the priest, and consequently have always done it right to left.

 

[petra22]

I never even thought about it…being a lefty I always did things backwards…don’t recall getting the steel ruler for crossing myself wrong either! An I got the ruler a lot!

Me2 on 2 counts, being lefty and being familiar with the ruler…

 

[thephilosopher6]

*divine liturgy

It’s not just the “Orthodox sign of the cross.” Byzantine Catholics who are in full communion with Rome but who use the Byzantine liturgy cross the way Eastern Orthodox do because like Eastern Orthodox Christians, they’re Byzantines.

 

[jlhargus]

Seeing how Catholics, to my understanding, could receive Holy Communion in an Orthodox Mass under extraordinary cases, does that mean that we can cross ourselves with the Orthodox right-to-left way or this forbidden by the Church?

Wouldn’t that be unorthodox?

 

[JoyToTheWhirled]

Copts are Oriental Orthodox Christians (Non-Chalcedonians). I assume the OP is referring to Eastern Orthodoxy…that’s typically what people mean when they say “Orthodox” without qualifications.

Of course. I have been hanging around Orthodox of both distinctions for so long now I just think of them as ‘Orthodox’, but you quite right about what the OP is probably referring to.