Divine Office Night Prayer?

[Madia]

When praying the Night Prayer do you make the Sign of the Cross and then say “Lord, now let your servant…” or make the Sign of the Cross while you begin saying “Lord, now let your servant…”. In other words, do you stop to finish the Sign of the Cross and then pray “Lord…” or pray “Lord…” while making the Sign of the Cross?

Thanks

 

[Brain]

I start crossing myself at the begining and keep praying, the crossing ends when it ends. Usually around “peace.”

 

[marty1818]

I make the sign of the cross as I start praying.

God Bless,
Matt

 

[Madia]

Thanks for the replies. The Sign of the Cross is only made before the Gospel Canticles (Zechariah, Mary, Simeon), not the other Canticles, correct?

 

[PraRFLEsEkHm]

Hi,

I will ask forgiveness up front, because I have an idea of how this will come across as sounding - BUT, I am NOT being uncharitable here…just looking for an answer as I may be missing something.

Having said that my question is: Does it really matter? I mean…I do understand the act of crossing oneself, and I use it often. However - the whole ‘timing’ thing, as it relates to the OP’s thread (and every time I come across similar threads) seems to me to be …ummm - bordering on superstitious, or at least over scrupulous - in a NON SINFUL context. I really don’t get it. Is God going to ignore our prayer simply because we don’t have or don’t use the correct ‘formula’ of movements while saying our prayers? Isn’t the intent of our Heart the most important thing? Otherwise, it seems to me - what we have the absolute danger of slipping into is the method of prayer overshadowing the content. What good is that?

Just a question

Peace

John

 

[hurst]

Madia:

Thanks for the replies. The Sign of the Cross is only made before the Gospel Canticles (Zechariah, Mary, Simeon), not the other Canticles, correct?

Correct.

hurst

 

[Dorothy]

PraRFLEsEkHm:

Hi,

I will ask forgiveness up front, because I have an idea of how this will come across as sounding - BUT, I am NOT being uncharitable here…just looking for an answer as I may be missing something.

Having said that my question is: Does it really matter? I mean…I do understand the act of crossing oneself, and I use it often. However - the whole ‘timing’ thing, as it relates to the OP’s thread (and every time I come across similar threads) seems to me to be …ummm - bordering on superstitious, or at least over scrupulous - in a NON SINFUL context. I really don’t get it. Is God going to ignore our prayer simply because we don’t have or don’t use the correct ‘formula’ of movements while saying our prayers? Isn’t the intent of our Heart the most important thing? Otherwise, it seems to me - what we have the absolute danger of slipping into is the method of prayer overshadowing the content. What good is that?

Just a question

Peace

John

No, God is not going to ignore our prayer because of such things.

I would like to mention, though, that when I say Morning Prayer with a group we all try to do the same things for the sake of unity, but we don’t get uptight if one of us slips up…we are supposed to be concentrating on the prayer and being in the presence of God.

I can’t help but mention what happened this morning after Mass.
A group of us always stays and prays the Rosary together. Five of us are assigned a different mystery by the leader. The gentleman who had the second Joyful Mystery mistakenly said “The Presentation” instead of “The Visitation”. When it was all over he felt very badly about it. There is no need to feel badly about such a thing when one is sincerely praying. He was assured it was okay.

I guess such feelings are part of our human nature.