Question about Eucharistic Prayer

[Thunderbird]

So, during the Eucharistic Prayer, at the point where the priest says “Let Your spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ,” is the priest required to make the sign of the cross over the bread and wine or is that optional?

Went to mass last night and the priest didn’t do it, and it made me remember other times in other parishes where the sign wasn’t made.

Let me be clear… plain ol’ curiosity drives me to ask. I’m not trying to find so-called liturgical abuses or anything like that, so PLEASE don’t take it that way.

 

[benedictgal]

Here is the rubric:

He joins his hands and makes the Sign of the Cross once over the bread and the chalice together, saying:

It is applicable for all of the Eucharistic Prayers.

 

[FrDavid96]

So, during the Eucharistic Prayer, at the point where the priest says “Let Your spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ,” is the priest required to make the sign of the cross over the bread and wine or is that optional?

Went to mass last night and the priest didn’t do it, and it made me remember other times in other parishes where the sign wasn’t made.

Let me be clear… plain ol’ curiosity drives me to ask. I’m not trying to find so-called liturgical abuses or anything like that, so PLEASE don’t take it that way.

Yes it is required. (In Eucharistic Prayer I, the acts of extending the hands, and the cross are seperated by time, but they’re both still required).

 

[bpbasilphx]

The priest might have made a simple error.

 

[AJV]

Here is the rubric:

It is applicable for all of the Eucharistic Prayers.

EP I is an exception. The priest makes the sign of the cross much earlier and when petitioning later for the transformation of the gifts (“Bless and approve”/ “Quam oblationem”), he does not sign them with a cross. However, it sounds like the OP was speaking about Prayer II where this rubric does apply.