Can Roman Catholics do the Sign of the Cross Right to left?

[jimmy]

That is what I thought - uniformity.

Your quote doesn’t mention uniformity or how anyone should do the sign of the cross. All it says is that the bishop blesses himself from right to left. It says nothing about the way everyone else is supposed to respond. By that logic, everyone says the Eucharistic prayer. The priest also gives the responses as well. And by the same logic, the Byzantines should cross themselves left to right, because that is what the priest is doing. But they do the exact opposite.

 

[7_Sorrows]

My first quote I mentioned uniformity and I don’t think I said anyrhing about the bishop.

 

[SVP]

Being cradle born Byzantine Greek Catholic I learned the sign of the Cross as right to left. I find it hard for me to follow the Roman tradition of left to right when attending a Roman Catholic Mass. I do it the way i grew up and have yet to have someone ask me why i do it differently at a Roman Catholic Mass. Uniformity in the Catholic churches on this is not likely to happen. Each church will have its own way of doing the sign of the Cross and that seems to be the extent and end of the discussion.

More important than how one does the sign of the Cross, is what one is thinking and praying as one does it. All to often it is a quick, hasty, almost rushed action seemingly done as an afterthought as if to say ’ if I don’t do it people around me will disapprove’ so it gets done extra quickly without much thought of the significance. I have seen the opposite extreme of very exaggerated, almost ‘in your face’ signs seemingly meant to shame those around into doing it ‘proper’.

In my Ruthenian parish there are a number of Roman Catholics who do things the ‘Roman’ way and no one (at least to my knowledge) gets bent out of shape over it.

 

[LatinByzCath]

I converted to Catholicism from the Eastern Orthodox Church. Though there is no Byzantine Catholic Church near me, I consider myself a member of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (it’s the corresponding Church I fell into when I converted.) I love my Church, and my Slavic Christian culture very much.

When I am at a Byzantine Church, I make the sign of the cross in the right-to-left manner.

When I am in a Roman Church, I do it left-to-right.

Realize that in most Roman catechism classes, Eastern Christianity is not mentioned. When I attended RCIA classes, the teachers did not know what Eastern Orthodoxy or Byzantine Catholicism were. It’s been difficult but a pleasant task, none the less, to explain our unique history. Because of this ignorance, many in a Roman Church will assume that you’re confused about how to make the sign of the cross, doing it “backwards”.

As they say, “when in Rome…”

 

[Miserissima]

Interesting.

Again I see the Latins referring to a document while the Easterns practice economy.

My younger son’s RC Godfather told my son he’s “doing it wrong.”

 

[LatinByzCath]

Interesting.

Again I see the Latins referring to a document while the Easterns practice economy.

My younger son’s RC Godfather told my son he’s “doing it wrong.”

I come from a mixed family of Poles and Ukrainians. We have RCs and ECs. Someone’s always “doing it wrong” somewhere. The spirit of economy works in both East and West.

 

[babochka]

of all the Catholics in Communion with the Pope, only the Latin (western) Churches go left to right. The Eastern Catholics do right to left.

Coptic Catholics and the Chaldeans, both non-Byzantine Eastern Churches, make the sign of the cross from left to right.

 

[babochka]

Sorry folks, during mass, it does make a difference which way you do the sign of the cross. That is why it has been put in the liturgical legislation. It is good that there is uniformity in the liturgy, this is why we have liturgical legislation in the first place. There is a deep meaning in the latin way of doing the sign of the cross. The five extended fingers represent the five wounds of Christ, and from moving from left to right, we remember how we are moved by these wounds from condemnation to salvation.
%between%

There is, likewise, deep meaning in the Byzantine way of making the sign of the cross.

I believe the legislation that you quoted is meant to regulate the actions of the priest, not the faithful.

My Byzantine priest, who has bi-ritual faculties, often celebrates a daily Mass at a local parish. When he is the sole celebrant, he makes the sign of the cross in the Latin manner and vests in Latin vestments. When he is concelebrating, he vests in Byzantine vestments and makes the sign of the cross in the Byzantine manner. He is always very faithful to the rubrics and careful in his celebration of the Mass or the Divine Liturgy, so I have every reason to believe that he is taking the correct action, or that it is, at least, an acceptable option.

I grew up as a Byzantine Catholic in Latin Rite schools. The dear sisters tried for years and were eventually successful in teaching me to “correct” the sign of the cross, so I am equally comfortable with both.

 

[Brian_Kerzetski]

I am saddened by those making assertions that one’s prayer traditions be left at the door when participating in a different church’s liturgy. Unless someone’s actions are evil or disruptive, leave them alone and let them pray.

 

[styrgwillidar]

Well, my .02

“2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.”

I would say that how one does the sign of the cross starting, up, down, right, left, with the palm open or shut is irrelevant. The issue is why you are doing the sign of the cross and the interior intention, attitude, feeling and purpose for making the sign of the cross.

 

[LatinByzCath]

Well, my .02

“2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.”

I would say that how one does the sign of the cross starting, up, down, right, left, with the palm open or shut is irrelevant. The issue is why you are doing the sign of the cross and the interior intention, attitude, feeling and purpose for making the sign of the cross.

Amen!

 

[CharlesdeFoucld]

The original post wasn’t about Byzantine Catholics, but about a Roman Catholic choosing to make the sign of the cross in a fashion that would symbolically separate him from the parish community. Let’s imagine it’s me. In this situation, I’m not a visitor-- I’m in my own parish, the community that preeminently manifests Christ to me. It is for me the Body of Christ. It mediates the Universal Church to me. This local community is where Christ becomes present for me, and so is in a real sense the source of my life.

The gathered assembly primarily communicates this life to me through the words, postures and gestures of the liturgy. If this is so, why would I choose my own words and actions, or the actions of other communities, as valid as they may be? Why would I try to find something that seemed more ancient, or more efficacious, or more Eastern, or whatever?

There’s a reason why monastic rules for cenobites (both Eastern and Western) are so detailed in prescribing ritual actions. If I recall, St. Pachomius went so far as to describe when his monks should have their hoods on or off. The great monastic founders realized that interior beliefs and values can be formed by giving oneself to ritual actions with a generous heart.

Byzantine Catholic visitors in Latin masses is a different question. I still believe that the liturgy is a communal action, and the community’s liturgical celebration should take precedence over individual customs. At the risk of being labelled a document-quoting Latin , the General Instruction of the Roman Missal seems to agree:

Therefore, attention should be paid to what is determined by this General Instruction and the traditional practice of the Roman Rite and to what serves the common spiritual good of the People of God, rather than private inclination or arbitrary choice.

A common posture, to be observed by all participants, is a sign of the unity of the members of the Christian community gathered for the sacred Liturgy: it both expresses and fosters the intention and spiritual attitude of the participants.