The Sign of the Cross by St. Francis de Sales, a description of which is seen below the asterisks.

Query as to why we see so many Catholic clergy including traditional priests and bishops making this ancient and greatly revered prayer of the Catholic Church in such a seemingly slovenly/careless way -- as if they were brushing a fly off their forehead.  And this even in the context of what Pope St. Pius X referred to as the "highest prayer that exists" (i.e., the Holy Mass).

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The Sign of the Cross Paperback – August 1, 2013
by (Author), [iurl=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/on.com/Chr/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=on.com/Chr&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwchanco-20 Blum (Editor)
4.9 out of 5 stars  

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From the young St. Francis de Sales's heroic efforts to bring Calvinists back to the Faith comes this succinct, eloquent defense of the age-old Catholic practice of making the Sign of the Cross, which sixteenth-century Calvinists denounced as a Popish invention and many Protestants scorn even today.
Embodying the zeal of youth and the wisdom of age, this gentle jewel of Catholic apologetics traces the origins of the Sign of the Cross back to the Fathers of the Church, to the Apostles before them, and finally to our Lord Himself.
Along with St. Francis's other lucid explanations of our Catholic Faith and his undaunted love even for those who hated him, this modest book helped restore to their native Catholic faith tens of thousands of heretics who not long before were intent on killing him.
As they did for the Calvinists in St. Francis's day, so in our day these pages will bring you a better understanding and a renewed love the Sign of the Cross, that brief and lively exterior prayer by which, from time immemorial, God has been invoked by serious Christians before all of their endeavors.
Among the other things you'll learn here:

• Why now is always the right time to make the Sign of the Cross
• Why God chooses to attach power to the Sign of the Cross
• Why it is made on the forehead
• How to convince skeptics to value and pray with it
• Two uses of the Sign of the Cross: do you know both of them?
• How the Sign of the Cross is the antidote to the Mark of the Devil
• Errors in the claims of those who oppose this practice
• The theological significance of the motions, vertical and horizontal
• Two reasons it has particular power against the Enemy
• Why you should make the Sign of the Cross publicly and often.

Outside the Creed itself, there are few topics to which the Fathers testify as universally and unanimously as the pious practice of making, frequently and well, the Sign of the Cross. With the help of these holy pages, the saints love for it will enkindle yours. Soon you ll be saying with St. Jerome, "With every work, with all of my comings and goings, may my hand make the Sign of the Cross!"

Related to the OP -- St. Ligouri on priests saying Mass: https://gloria.tv/post/E1Pa3YucSdqE2GH8rdmfczCg2

How Do Some Priests Say Mass? By Saint Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori


In celebrating Mass, reverence and devotion are necessary. It is well known that the use of the maniple was introduced for the convenience of wiping away tears because in ancient times priests, while celebrating, did nothing but weep out of devotion.

It has already been said that the priest at the altar represents Jesus Christ.

But, speaking of the way in which most priests say Mass, one should weep, but weep with tears of blood!

It is a source of pity, so to speak, to see the disgrace that many priests and religious and even some of the reformed religious orders make of Jesus Christ.

Observe with what attention priests ordinarily celebrate Mass. They would do well to be told what Clement Alexandrinus reproached the Gentile priests for, namely, that they made heaven the stage, and God the subject of the play.


But no, what am I saying? Comedy? These people would take much more care if they had to play a part in a comedy!

What attention do they pay to the Mass? Words are mutilated, genuflections that seem more like acts of contempt than reverence, blessings that one does not know what they are. They move around the altar and turn around in such a way that they almost make one laugh. They complicate words with ceremonies, anticipating them before the time prescribed by the rubrics.

Everything happens because of the haste to finish the Mass soon. How do some priests say Mass? As if the church were about to collapse or the pirates were coming and there was no time to escape.

A priest may have spent two hours babbling uselessly or dealing with worldly matters, and then where does he put all his haste? To say Mass.

And in the same way these people begin the celebration, they proceed to consecrate and take Jesus Christ in their hands and communicate with such irreverence as if this were a piece of bread.

I think it can be a fine line between gaining grace by making a reverent (recollected -- remembering that we are speaking to God -- even if only by gesture -- and thus making the prayer with all respect and devotion, as far as possible avoiding distractions, that is every thought foreign to our prayers) sign of the cross and losing grace by making a negligent, impious, intentionally distracted, etc. sign of the cross.