Why does the priest make cross in the air so many times at the Traditional Latin Mass?

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SaintBenedict

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Why does the priest make the sign of the cross in the air so many times at the TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS? What does it do exactly? (By the way, I am pretty new to the Latin Mass and I have only started a few days ago to seriously study it)
 
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It’s a blessing.
Personally I don’t think he does it enough.
But thats just me.
 
We also have lots of them Byzantine Liturgy.

I don’t know about ours, but I recall that there are exactly 33 in the Tridentine Mass.
 
I know that it is a blessing, but why is it done so many times?
 
Since many is traditionally common to East and West, the real question is, why are there so few in the novus Ordo? That’s the one that departs from the norm.
 
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What I am asking is why isn’t it just done once… is it really necessary to be done multiple times?
 
When he moves his hand over the body and the precious blood in the form of a cross.
 
Wouldn’t you want as many blessings as possible?

But anyway, I don’t know the exact reason why. Im sure there is a grand theological explanation on why he performs each action he does. I would just ask him next time you see him.
 
SaintBenedict said:
When he moves his hand over the body and the precious blood in the form of a cross.
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He forms multiple crosses over the bread and wine. Five of them after the consecration are to represent the five wounds of Christ. He crosses it again immediately before the consecration of the bread and the wine on the line “blessed + it”, since, well, Jesus was blessing the bread and wine.
 
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CarmeliteKnight said:
Wouldn’t you want as many blessings as possible?

But anyway, I don’t know the exact reason why. Im sure there is a grand theological explanation on why he performs each action he does. I would just ask him next time you see him.
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For the same reason one may only receive Communion twice in one day, the second time having to be at a Mass. At some point “collecting blessings “ would seem to veer into questionable territory. Is one twice as blessed if he receives 20 blessings instead of “only” 10?
 
Each Sign of the Cross (in the form of a blessing) is dictated by the rubrics of the Mass contained in the Missale (Roman Missal). Most are not blessings as you can only bless something once (humans excepted). These are symbolic gestures that have been canonized in the Mass representing the Sacred Trinity, for the most part. There are many excellent books that explain all of the symbology of the Traditional Mass. I would encourage reading these books to appreciate the beauty and significance of each action. None of them are ad-libbed and each has a significance. (The Mass of All Time, +Marcel Lefebvre, THE Mass, A Study of the Roman Liturgy, Fr. A. Fortesque.)
 
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