Left-handed father

[Deo_Gratias42]

I don’t understand why individuals are comparing left-handedness to those who have physical disabilities and are unable to use their right hand. We’re not disabled, and probably more ambidextrous than most right-handed people from living in a right-handed world.

Even if a priest was left-handed, he’d still have to do any blessings or crossings with his right hand. Given that the priest makes the sing of the cross in the EF Mass something like 52 (excluding what’s done during distributing communion) times, it might as well all be done right-handed.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

There was a time when the left hand was used to clean your backside. Thus, it was an insult to offer your left hand to someone or to use it for eating, ect. There may still be cultures that believe this.

Not in the Western world. In the Arab world. Yes, the cultural practice remains intact.

 

[asia53]

Actually, when I received my First Communion, I was taught to hold my right hand under my left, so the host would be placed in my left, and then I could use my right (dominant) hand to pick up and consume the host.

That’s what I was taught. And…look at your left palm, make sure nothing is left.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I don’t understand why individuals are comparing left-handedness to those who have physical disabilities and are unable to use their right hand. We’re not disabled, and probably more ambidextrous than most right-handed people from living in a right-handed world.

Even if a priest was left-handed, he’d still have to do any blessings or crossings with his right hand. Given that the priest makes the sing of the cross in the EF Mass something like 52 (excluding what’s done during distributing communion) times, it might as well all be done right-handed.

I agree, left-handedness is not an illness. The priest would learn to do things as the rubrics or tradition taught. If he did have an illness or disability of some kind, he could receive exemptions (as Br. JR described) to do things as is possible for him.

My son is lefthanded and an altar server. He holds the cruet in the left hand instead of the right. Sometimes the priest corrects him, sometimes not. On other tasks the boys are given very specific instructions. I assume the same is true of training priests receive to say Mass, some things are required to be done a certain way, some things may not be.

 

[JReducation]

I don’t understand why individuals are comparing left-handedness to those who have physical disabilities and are unable to use their right hand. We’re not disabled, and probably more ambidextrous than most right-handed people from living in a right-handed world.

Even if a priest was left-handed, he’d still have to do any blessings or crossings with his right hand. Given that the priest makes the sing of the cross in the EF Mass something like 52 (excluding what’s done during distributing communion) times, it might as well all be done right-handed.

That was my fault. I was trying to explain how Church law looks at left-handedness as it does any other human condition. That’s not to say that the law looks at left-handedness as a disability. It’s just a condition that is out of the norm and the Church is willing to make accommodations for left-handed people, when necessary as she does for any other person who does something in a manner that is out of the norm.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[TimothyH]

There was a time when the left hand was used to clean your backside. Thus, it was an insult to offer your left hand to someone or to use it for eating, ect. There may still be cultures that believe this.

I know people from Bangladesh, Islamic but I don’t know if that matters, who observe this practice. In one of the most crowded nations on earth, where people are extremely poor and there is little sanitation, its simply a matter of good hygiene not to use the same hand for both eating and cleaning your private areas, and a matter of self preservation not to accept the hand that was used for cleaning.

-Tim-

 

[ringil]

If the priest is left handed, he can use his left hand as one would use the right hand. The maniple can be left off. It is not required, even in the EF. Handedness is treated like any other human condition.

I know a priest who has CP. He celebrates the EF on an altar that is on the same level as the pews, because he does not climb steps. He does none of the genuflections or kneeling in the EF and he sits on what looks like a bar stool. He does not wear the maniple, because it gets in his way. He elevates with one hand, because of the CP. He celebrates the OF with the same accommodations.

The Church is a mother, not a task master.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:

Can a blind man be a priest/ Using a braille lectionary would mean that he couldn’t position his hands as is typical. I am legally blind and wanted to be a priest in my youth. I used to think about this.

I can read with a magnifying glass but again this prevents both hands from being free. The vocations director used to tell me that you would memorize the text over time. This made sense but since much of the Mass changes day-to-day this would be a different matter.

I also understand that the priest is supposed to actually read the words of consecration and not say them from memory.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Can a blind man be a priest/ Using a braille lectionary would mean that he couldn’t position his hands as is typical. I am legally blind and wanted to be a priest in my youth. I used to think about this.

I can read with a magnifying glass but again this prevents both hands from being free. The vocations director used to tell me that you would memorize the text over time. This made sense but since much of the Mass changes day-to-day this would be a different matter.

I also understand that the priest is supposed to actually read the words of consecration and not say them from memory.

That is not true. A priest may say the words of consecration from memory as long as he gets them correct.

Can I ask, what does this topic have to do with Traditional Catholicism as defined by CAF?

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

Can I ask, what does this topic have to do with Traditional Catholicism as defined by CAF?

Personally, I assumed the questioner was asking about left-handed priests offering the EF Mass and reversing the rubrics to make them left handed.

Or…

Traditionally, left-handed Catholics were forced to become right-handed because the Latin word for left is sinister.

 

[ProVobis]

The left hand is of the devil! lol Just a joke folks

Well, in Latin, sinister is the word for “left,”* dexter *is the word for “right.”

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

If this is the minutiae that “Traditional” Catholicism is worrying about then it is ridiculous.

 

[ringil]

That is not true. A priest may say the words of consecration from memory as long as he gets them correct.

Can I ask, what does this topic have to do with Traditional Catholicism as defined by CAF?

I just kind of hyjacked the thread, sorry.

 

[mro]

So now we’re going to restrict left handed men from the priesthood

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

I just kind of hyjacked the thread, sorry.

No I meant what does being left-handed have to do with “Traditional” Catholicism.

Do the rubrics of the EF actually say what hand must be used?

 

[melissa_b]

Can a blind man be a priest/ Using a braille lectionary would mean that he couldn’t position his hands as is typical. I am legally blind and wanted to be a priest in my youth. I used to think about this.

I can read with a magnifying glass but again this prevents both hands from being free. The vocations director used to tell me that you would memorize the text over time. This made sense but since much of the Mass changes day-to-day this would be a different matter.

I also understand that the priest is supposed to actually read the words of consecration and not say them from memory.

I know a Jesuit priest who is legally blind. He seems to have memorized the Eucharistic prayers and other parts of the Mass. He prints a copy of the gospel reading in 18-pt font and holds them inches from his eyes to read it.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

No I meant what does being left-handed have to do with “Traditional” Catholicism.

Do the rubrics of the EF actually say what hand must be used?

Yes. They’re quite picky. latinliturgy.com/id4.htm

First, blessings are always done with the right hand, so anytime the priest would be doing something that is a blessings (ie: making all the crosses over the sacred species blessing them, incensing things, asperges me, distributing communion, etc) .

Secondly, the rubrics specify which hands to use for each rubric.

He uncovers the Chalice and genuflects: then taking the host in his right hand, and holding the Chalice in his left, three times he makes the sign of the cross over the Chalice and twice between himself and the Chalice

That’s just one example, but the rubrics are very specific.

 

[amsjj]

Yes. They’re quite picky. latinliturgy.com/id4.htm

First, blessings are always done with the right hand, so anytime the priest would be doing something that is a blessings (ie: making all the crosses over the sacred species blessing them, incensing things, asperges me, distributing communion, etc) .

Secondly, the rubrics specify which hands to use for each rubric.

That’s just one example, but the rubrics are very specific.

Thank you, Deo Gratias42, that was actually what started my train of thought and got me wondering.

Fellow-posters, please forgive my silly question! Thank you for your replies.

amsjj

 

[jilly4ski]

Yes. They’re quite picky. latinliturgy.com/id4.htm

First, blessings are always done with the right hand, so anytime the priest would be doing something that is a blessings (ie: making all the crosses over the sacred species blessing them, incensing things, asperges me, distributing communion, etc) .

Secondly, the rubrics specify which hands to use for each rubric.

That’s just one example, but the rubrics are very specific.

As a left handed person, I and I dare say most, would not find this very difficult. Just like a right handed person has to pick up the Chalice in their left, you would just do what you learned to do.

Indeed, left handed people tend to be more ambidextrous. I myself, write with my left, but eat with my right (as in with a fork or spoon). I throw a ball with my left, but bat on my right. I have also learned to throw with my right, because we never had any left handed gloves. I prefer to cut (paper) with my left, but often have to cut with my right, and I crochet with my right. And there are numerous other examples, usually depending on how and when I was taught.

 

[JReducation]

No I meant what does being left-handed have to do with “Traditional” Catholicism.

Do the rubrics of the EF actually say what hand must be used?

Yes. They’re quite picky. latinliturgy.com/id4.htm

First, blessings are always done with the right hand, so anytime the priest would be doing something that is a blessings (ie: making all the crosses over the sacred species blessing them, incensing things, asperges me, distributing communion, etc) .

Secondly, the rubrics specify which hands to use for each rubric.

That’s just one example, but the rubrics are very specific.

As they would say in Star Wars, “In a time not so long ago and in a galaxy far far away,” there were threats of suspensions and excommunications if you missed a single step in the movements while celebrating the mass. Let’s say that you had to make three crosses over the gifts and you missed one, that was enough to be a sin. Obviously, this kind of sin was in the same category as eating meat on Fridays. You were not violating a moral law or a dogma, but a discipline to which the Church attached very severe penalties.

Your community was exempt from this stuff, because you guys had you’re own rite. Others who followed the Roman Rite were very careful about such details. Many of those rules was dropped long before Vatican II. I believe that Pope Pius XII dropped most of them. Others had been dropped before him. The rubrics remained, but the penalties were taken away. There are some people who believe that the penalties should remain in place to protect the EF. I’m so sure that I agree with that. Demanding that a left-handed man wear a maniple or he’ll be penalized is a little over the top. My feeling is that if he uses his left hand a lot and the maniple gets in his way, then it becomes a distraction that he does not need.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[ringil]

As they would say in Star Wars, “In a time not so long ago and in a galaxy far far away,” there were threats of suspensions and excommunications if you missed a single step in the movements while celebrating the mass. Let’s say that you had to make three crosses over the gifts and you missed one, that was enough to be a sin. Obviously, this kind of sin was in the same category as eating meat on Fridays. You were not violating a moral law or a dogma, but a discipline to which the Church attached very severe penalties.

Your community was exempt from this stuff, because you guys had you’re own rite. Others who followed the Roman Rite were very careful about such details. Many of those rules was dropped long before Vatican II. I believe that Pope Pius XII dropped most of them. Others had been dropped before him. The rubrics remained, but the penalties were taken away. There are some people who believe that the penalties should remain in place to protect the EF. I’m so sure that I agree with that. Demanding that a left-handed man wear a maniple or he’ll be penalized is a little over the top. My feeling is that if he uses his left hand a lot and the maniple gets in his way, then it becomes a distraction that he does not need.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

This isn’t directed towards you Brother but this level of nit-picking is pretty ridiculous, and I’m glad they did away with penalities for such frivolity, especially due to forgetfulness. Now, if someone did these things on purpose that would be different but, geez, what were they thinking. . . . It sounds as if they had a gross mis-understanding of even what sin is.