Crossing Yourself?

[MORTANIUS]

I was wondering if anybody here knows why the RCC and the EO Churchs do their crosses differently? As a member of the Lutheran community I know that some Lutherans cross themselves the way the RCC does, but I couldn't help but notice that the Orthodox do their cross differently.

What is the history of this?

 

[repentant]

When the Priest came out to bless the congregation with the sign of the cross, he would bless up, down, his right (our left facing him) then his left (our right facing him). So the sign of the cross went up, down, right, left. Right first because Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. In the west they mimicked the Priest, and where his hand went and they responded to him like a mirror image, in the east, they did it the way the Priest does it from right to left, not mimmicking his movements like a mirror image. Hope you understood that, lol.

 

[Akathist]

What repentant said is what I have been told about this almost to the exact words.

 

[DonVA]

I was told the same thing by a priest.

 

[RedneckAnglican]

I gotta be honest...I've wondered that for years...and I'm almost disapointed by the answer...but I am glad to know it...I go to an Anglican Church, but I cross myself in the Orthodox manner in memory of a good, but now with CHRIST friend...I'm glad to know what it means now...

 

[Akathist]

You might ask in OBOB why they cross in that direction first. They may have a better answer.

 

[eoe]

Here is the other answer. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. If you look at a map east is on the right, west on the left. Same reason we pray facing east - that is the coming of the light.

 

[Adammi]

That answer sounds right to me.
I thought it may have had something to do with Rome being the west and Orthodoxy being the East.

 

[ByzantineDixie]

I was wondering if anybody here knows why the RCC and the EO Churchs do their crosses differently? As a member of the Lutheran community I know that some Lutherans cross themselves the way the RCC does, but I couldn't help but notice that the Orthodox do their cross differently.

What is the history of this?

When I was taking Lutheran Lay Ministry course work...in the class on worship the professor from Concordia Mequon was talking about making the sign of the cross...so I signed. He took one look at me, laughed and said "you must have once been Roman Catholic" (because I signed left to right...oh, and he was right!) He instructed me that Lutherans should sign right to left (like the Orthodox). So I switched...which came handy later!

There are several sources on the internet that speak to the fact that the East and the West both signed right to left but that the Latins changed the sign later. Wikipedia says this was done in 12th - 13th century, an Orthodox website quotes the Catholic encyclopedia saying the change was made in the 15th - 16th century. I don't know if either is accurate. Below is the Wikipedia reference.

In the western Roman Catholic Church the direction of making the sign of the cross, which had previously been from right shoulder to left shoulder, as is still the custom among the Eastern or Orthodox Churches, was changed in the thirteenth century when Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), following the Great Schism between the Western and Eastern Churches and the subsequent hostility between the respective heads (the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other) directed that the sign was to be made with three fingers from the forehead to the breast and from the left to the right shoulder.

And below is an explanation from a Catholic website:

An instruction of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) evidences the traditional practice but also indicates a shift in the Latin Rite practice of the Catholic Church: "The sign of the cross is made with three fingers, because the signing is done together with the invocation of the Trinity. ...This is how it is done: from above to below, and from the right to the left, because Christ descended from the heavens to the earth, and from the Jews (right) He passed to the Gentiles (left)." While noting the custom of making the cross from the right to the left shoulder was for both the western and eastern Churches, Pope Innocent continued, "Others, however, make the sign of the cross from the left to the right, because from misery (left) we must cross over to glory (right), just as Christ crossed over from death to life, and from Hades to Paradise. [Some priests] do it this way so that they and the people will be signing themselves in the same way. You can easily verify this — picture the priest facing the people for the blessing — when we make the sign of the cross over the people, it is from left to right...." Therefore, about this time, the faithful began to imitate the priest imparting the blessing, going from the left shoulder to the right shoulder with an open hand. Eventually, this practice became the custom for the Western Church.

I guess what can be agreed upon is that at one time the whole church, East and West, signed right to left.

 

[Protoevangel]

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Left to right... Pffft!

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Heretics!


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[Orthocat]

Because they are dyslexic...


(joke - don't stone me my western friends!)

 

[DonVA]

...just another one of those "changes."

 

[eoe]

How many EO's does it take to change a lightbulb?

Change!!?!!? What is this change you speak of?

 

[Orthocat]

How many EO's does it take to change a lightbulb?

Change!!?!!? What is this change you speak of?

 

[MORTANIUS]

Up, Down! Left, Right! Yikes! I just wanted to know why and not get directions to the Movies! LOL

Thank you everyone who responded, the answers are all good examples of what I needed to understand. I think I will try doing my cross the way you Orthodox do it.