Which hand should touch the holy water

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Jkaim

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🙂 Prior to entering into the church I always bless myself with the holy water. Is it proper to use your right or left hand, or does it not mater. Thanks!
 
Doesn’t matter.

Wondering… why you ask?

Maybe it “feels” different when you use your non-dominant hand for a change?
:rolleyes:
 
It doesn’t matter…
.I have an atomizer for my holy water and just spray it! Got it on EWTN last year…my CCD students loved it!
 
I have always used my right hand, since I thought we are supposed to cross ourselves with the right hand not the left. That’s the way I was taught.
 
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rayne89:
I have always used my right hand, since I thought we are supposed to cross ourselves with the right hand not the left. That’s the way I was taught.
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Me, too- for the same reasons.
 
Right hand (don’t know if it’s “official” or just tradition but it’s the right hand).
 
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Annunciata:
Woops…I stand corrected…:o

kensmen.com/catholic/sign.html

I just figured that some people are left handed…so…
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Well… the website reflected in the above post is a nice one. It has some good information. However, it is not an authoritative or norm-defining communication from the Church.

I applaud all acts of piety and devotion. Including the use of holy water.

Some people ARE left-handed. Some people have no right hand, or cannot use it well. Some people may have a child’s hand in their right hand or it might be otherwise occupied (such as with a cane for balance, etc).

The bottom line is that if the holy water is truly holy and properly blessed, its holiness, and the blessing it conveys, is an objective reality, not dependent on the part of the body that touched it.

I agree with the Church and St Paul - who urged us to make sure what we do is done decently and in order. But sometimes I have to wonder at what seems to be a mindset that there HAS to be a strict and specific Church rule for everything that could possibly ever be an option, and that if for some reason that rule wasn’t followed, a trip to hell could be the result.

I don’t advicate flauting or ignoring rules. So don’t come up and try to accuse me of that 🙂

But it seems sometimes we get so caught up in trying to find a rule for everything that it can get to the point of ridiculous. Now please - I am NOT saying the original poster of this thread is ridiculous! OK? OK.

But so help me! I do truly believe that we get so obsessed with rules that we can be in danger of forgetting the reasons behind some rules, and we can make the rules the end rather than a meand to the end. There’s more to Christianity than rules. AGain - please don’t attyack me as if I said we sholdn’t have rules, or that we should go find a rule and ignore it. That’s not what I’m saying.

My goodness - sometimes it just seems as if we can be so caught up in legalism and rules that we can be in danger of making an idol of it that diverts us from our true devotion to the true God.
 
I am a lefty - I use my left. If you do use your left, don’t beat yourself up. I think getting all caught up in left/right is being scrupulous.

If you are teaching a child or a person how to cross themselves appropriately, obviously teach them correctly that the right is the proper hand. Then leave it to nature.
 
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