What Leg should be used to climb the Sanctuary: RIGHT, LEFT or ANY?

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purestmoney

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I am a Lector and in my Parish group, someone raised it that it is not right to climb the sanctuary with the left leg but right you be placed first on the sanctuary, claiming that some Bishops maybe in a seminar or somehow have said so before. Personally, i am never aware of such and i have been a Lector since 2002 but i do not want to argue without fact. Is anyone ever aware of this?
 
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honestly, that is what i believe by in my part of the diocese, many people do thing in an unimaginable way and those that do not see it that way to them will then look novice
 
purestmoney said:
I am a Lector and in my Parish group, someone raised it that it is not right to climb the sanctuary with the left leg but right you be placed first on the sanctuary, claiming that some Bishops maybe in a seminar or somehow have said so before
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This is silly.

Ignore it. There is no correct “leg” to use when climbing steps. It usually depends on whether you are left or right handed.
 
purestmoney said:
Personally, i am never aware of such and i have been a Lector since 2002 but i do not want to argue without fact.
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It’s not up to up to you to refute it. It’s up to the person who says it’s a thing to prove it.
 
Yeah…

Maybe this person has confused the sanctuary with a boat? There’s an old superstition that says you should never board a boat with the left foot first. But the sanctuary? I don’t even know of a superstition — let alone a rule — on this.
 
The only thing I am aware of close to this is that monks would step up into their stalls with the right foot going first (attested to by the worn steps in some European abbeys). This would seem more of a practical instruction as I would imagine there would be potential for tripping over robes, feet, etc. when going to sing the Offices in darkness.
 
Code of Canon Law # 931-2 states right foot must never elevate more than 7 cm above the sanctuary steps for priests, 5 cm for deacons. The stride should not pull the alb taut.
 
I know of no such tradition or requirement regarding sanctuary foothold. But, I must say, one should never underestimate the abilities and appeal of the of Left Foot for getting you where you need to go…

 
The manual I have says you have to approach the step leaning on both heels of your feet, placing them together, and then slowly “step” up with both balls of your feet at the same time. The balls of your feet should be suspended in mid air during the first part when both heels are down.

( i’m just kidding)
 
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This reminds me of something I read while I was a USSR analyst, that at one point in Russian history when there was a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church over whether one was supposed to cross oneself with two fingers, or with three.

Bottom line – step up with whichever foot gets there first.

D
 
🤔

IF such a thing ever really existed, it MIGHT be similar to why the nuns would not let my grandmother (who was naturally left handed) write with her left hand. Every time she tried to write with her left hand, they smacked her left hand with a ruler.

The nuns told her that the left handedness was a sign of a devil (or something like that), and that the righteous use their right hands.

And this was all in Spanish by the way - as my grandmother grew up in Puerto Rico. 😶
 
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DaveBj said:
This reminds me of something I read while I was a USSR analyst, …
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In that case, you’re just the man I’ve been looking for! Please allow me to pick your brains, just for a moment.
In February 1954, less than a year after Stalin died, the USSR took the Crimea away from Russia and handed it over to Ukraine, in a mysterious gesture that I have never seen satisfactorily explained. It was widely assumed at the time, in the West – as far as anyone could learn from reading the newspapers – that it was a bribe to Ukrainian Communist Party bosses to support Khrushchev in his struggle for power against rivals such as Bulganin, Malenkov, and others in the aftermath of Stalin’s death. Do you know whether that is true, or is there some other explanation?
 
If I was asked which leg I would say right, the same we genuflect on. I’m not sure I’ve ever thought about it.
 
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phil19034 said:
IF such a thing ever really existed, it MIGHT be similar to why the nuns would not let my grandmother (who was naturally left handed) write with her left hand. Every time she tried to write with her left hand, they smacked her left hand with a ruler.
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It is the sinister hand, after all…
 
I would say only use your right foot, but then you’d just go round in circles.
 
edward_george1 said:
It really could not matter less. Step into the sanctuary one foot at a time. It doesn’t matter which one you lead
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It is, however, important that you use only one foot at a time . . .

hmm, is there a video out there of the priests and deacons doing the bunny hop up the steps that I should included?

:crazy_face:😱🤣:roll_eyes:

(and what was this doing in Traditional Catholicism??? )

hawk
 
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