Author Topic: Could you cross yourself with your left hand? (Read 1577 times)

Disputaciones · « **on:** August 24, 2015, 11:17:26 PM »

I have always wondered about this, but I've never done it on purpose because it somehow always seemed bad. I'm right-handed so it feels natural to do it with my right hand and awkward with my left, so what about left-handed people?

poche · « **Reply #1 on:** August 24, 2015, 11:52:01 PM »

Even if a person is left handed they should cross themselves with their right hand.

clare · « **Reply #2 on:** August 25, 2015, 03:51:37 AM »

Presumably someone who doesn't have a right hand can use his left.

I do have both hands, thankfully, and cross with my right; but I do find it awkward because a couple of bones in my right arm are fused, so I can't touch my right shoulder with my right hand. So I just go as near as I can (a couple of centimetres away).

Pelly · « **Reply #3 on:** August 25, 2015, 05:14:09 AM »

I heard that Byzantines cross themselves with the left hand.

alaric · « **Reply #4 on:** August 25, 2015, 07:15:43 AM »

On a similiar note.

Don't the Eastern Catholics( or is it Orthodox?)cross them selves opposite of Latin Catholics?(right to left)

I forgot why they do that.

Dolores · « **Reply #5 on:** August 25, 2015, 07:53:54 AM »

Quote from: alaric

On a similiar note.

Don't the Eastern Catholics( or is it Orthodox?)cross them selves opposite of Latin Catholics?(right to left)

I forgot why they do that.

I have heard that in the West, the Sign of the Cross developed such that the movement matches that a priest when imparting a blessing, while in the East, it developed by mirroring the movement of a priest when imparting a blessing on an individual or group.

claudel · « **Reply #6 on:** August 25, 2015, 11:01:24 AM »

Quote from: clare

Presumably someone who doesn't have a right hand can use his left.

Certainly; but so too can anyone else for any of a hundred less compelling reasons. Holding a child or a package that can't readily be put down or shifted is simply the most obvious of them.

Quote from: Dolores

I have heard that in the West, the Sign of the Cross developed such that the movement matches that a priest when imparting a blessing, while in the East, it developed by mirroring the movement of a priest when imparting a blessing on an individual or group.

Precisely. This is a widely sourced, well-established explanation of the practice. Among both the Orthodox and most Uniate groups, the blessing was and is understood as falling upon the recipient. Since the grace attached to making the Sign of the Cross is in turn rightly understood as originating in God, with the priest acting as conduit of the grace, the mirroring movement became the norm for individuals, even in extraliturgical circuмstances.

poche · « **Reply #7 on:** August 25, 2015, 10:37:40 PM »

Quote from: Pelly

I heard that Byzantines cross themselves with the left hand.

That is not true, the right hand is used by the Eastern Rite Catholics to cross themselves.

Sigismund · « **Reply #8 on:** August 29, 2015, 05:13:43 PM »

We use the right hand. However, we touch the right shoulder first. Also, we hold the thumb and first two fingers together as s sign of belief in the Holy Trinity, and with the last to fingers against the pal together as a sign of belief in the divinity and humanity of Christ.

As someone mentioned above, one might make the Sign of the Cross with the left hand if one is missing the right hand or it is immobile. I can't think of any other reason to do so.