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I know that in the Latin tradition, the blessing given with the Sign of the Cross where this is traced "in the air" is reserved for the clergy, abbots and abbesses, etc., but the regular folk aren't allowed to do this, but instead a small cross on the forehead of the one being blessed.

I was wondering if the Eastern tradition was similar, or are we exempt from such a thing? Are we (the laity) allowed to bless with the Cross traced "in the air", or do we practice the same discipline as the Latins on this one? What is the legitimate Eastern tradition?

Slava Isusu Christu!

Good topic. I would also like to know about this.

In Christ and Mary,

Robert

I have been told that, no, only clerics may bless "in the air", but that a layman lay bless on the forehead by tracing the cross there with the first three fingers of the right hand held together (as they are in the Byzantine sign of the cross).

Dear Friends,

Actually, laity in both Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches don't bless in the air, but we can certainly bless things and even people in a non-liturgical context.

This is also promoted by the ROCOR which is a good indicator of the Orthodoxy of this practice, no?

We may bless ourselves, our food and anything, including our children before bed etc. by making the Sign of the Cross over it with our hand and by saying:

"This (name) is being blessed with the Sign of the Holy Cross, In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

We may use Holy Water to do this as well.

We may bless our homes with the Holy Water from the Feast of the Theophany, without denying our Priest the right to bless our homes on his pastoral visit.

Our prayerbooks recommend that we bless our beds with the Sign of the Cross before retiring. The early Christian practice was to bless everything with the Sign of the Cross, especially ourselves and this many times throughout the day.

I don't mind saying that I was with others one day when something appeared in the sky, something that was not good, I won't get into it but only to say that we all saw it.

I made the Sign of the Cross "against" it and it disappeared.

Again, this is a simple blessing and unlike that given to us by the clergy. The Cross is a powerful weapon indeed. Let us always make use of it.

Alex

[ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: Orthodox Catholic ]

but the regular folk aren't allowed to do this, but instead a small cross on the forehead of the one being blessed

I've never seen this done but apparently it's traditional: I saw the father character bless his daughter, Audrey Hepburn, this way when she left for the convent in the 1950s movie "The Nun's Story'. I think the characters were French or Belgian.

I don't know what our own rule is about all this but I have seen a Russian friend air-bless people (me) and food before meals, but with her fingers in the laity's "pinch' position (thumb and first two fingers touching), not forming the Jesus Christ name abbreviation "ICXC' the way priests often do. But I've never seen anyone else do this. And, I'm sure, only priests and bishops have their hands kissed after giving a blessing.

Many Orthodox priests will trace a cross in the air. Once I asked a Ruthenian Catholic priest for a blessing and he did something a little different, just tracing the cross with a small motion over my palms before I kissed his hand.

http://oldworldrus.com

My experince is the eastern tradition is less offended by what answer one would give to that question, as the reduction of devotion practice to a discussion of certain devotions being "allowed" to some people and prohibited to others.

As is so often the case, it is not the answer, it is the question that draws a distinction from the east.

K.

Dear Kurt,

Yes, however, the Eastern Church's rules are rather strict on this subject and it indicates, for example, how a layman vs. a cleric is to begin a portion of the Divine Office and how he is to end it, also which prayers are to be omitted by non-clergy and so on.

The Eastern Church prescribes a pectoral cross chain that is doubled for priests but one that is single for laymen, since priests have a double responsibility for the Church.

The Catholicos was right to raise the question since this does affect the issue of order in worship which is an integral part of the liturgical experience in our tradition.

St John Chrysostom was very 'big' on canonical tradition and church law and was always desirous that laity be familiar with these - this is not a "Latinization" if one were to think of it as such, since the East has as great or even greater a sense of church order than the West.

Alex

+Glory to Jesus Christ!
Glory to Him Forever!

Hi all,

I don't consciously remember what first inspired me to do this, but awhile back I started blessing my friends from time to time with a cross on their foreheads. I believe the way I was doing it is a Roman way, as I must have learned it from seeing priests and possibly laypeople bless me and others this way at my traditional RC college. The way the blessing went was to trace a cross with one's thumb on the person's forehead while steadying the rest of the hand on the person's head. I don't recall any particular prayer being said at this time, though; for me it would vary according to the situation or simply be a "God bless you." (If I recall correctly, this crossing motion is identical or very similar to the way a priest applies the ash cross to a person's forehead on Ash Wednesday.)

As for Eastern blessings, I had never heard of anyone tracing a three-finger cross on someone's forehead! Thank you for letting us know, Brendan! :-)

More Eastern blessings: I do know that many times I have seen my Godmother "air-bless" her food while praying before a meal, and I have recently started to bless my food this way also. (I also air-bless people, animals, or other things on occasion.) I don't remember now whether my Godmother air-blesses with three fingers together, or with a flat hand, but I bless with three fingers together. I have found all of these ways of giving a blessing to be very good and beautiful ways of praying, aiding prayer, showing God's love to others, and remembering God throughout the day, among many other good things that I don't know if I can enumerate. And as Alex says, the cross is a very powerful weapon against evil, when used often and with faith! And though layperson blessings are in some way different from a priestly blessing, it is still so good to be able to pray for God's presence in the form of a blessing!

God bless all of you,
Liz

Dear Liz,

There is, of course, nothing wrong with your practice!

Orthodox parents often bless their children with a hand censer before bed.

On my wedding day, I knelt down before my parents and my father (+memory eternal!) poured some Holy Water in cross-wise fashion over me.

We can also bless ourselves with our neck Cross and should always bless our bed before retiring.

In the Western Church, priests bless with their whole hand as do the laity.

Only the Pope blesses with the Christogram, or with the thumb and last two fingers joined, the index finger extended and the middle finger slightly bent.

I have seen Eastern Christians air-bless food and what-not with three extended fingers.

The Old Believers always use their form of the Christogram, including the laity, and it is used to bless other things as well as oneself.

I personally think the Christogram is a most beautiful and meaningful form (the two extended fingers represent Christ) and so I use it in the Old Believer fashion, to Cross myself and to air-bless, as I know our friend Edward Yong does as well.

Alex

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Dear Friends,

at this point, I shall mention the way the Indian Syrian priest in my parish in Singapore blesses laity outside of services and absolves them.

I stand in front of the priest, and with his hand on my head, he traces a cross on the centre of my forehead, another on the right side, another on the left, and then one large one in the centre again. He does this, invoking God's blessing upon me. The same procedure is followed during the Absolution which precedes Divine Liturgy and during Confession.

Yes, Alex, I use the Old Believer finger position now, and it's become instinctive! It IS possible to switch from Latin-style with the whole hand, to the right-left and three-finger sign, and then to the Old Believer position, and make it instinctive!

Just my two kopecks!

Yours waxlessly in Domino,

Edward

Dear Patriarch Edward,

A very merry Christmas to you, Your Beatitude!

"Waxlessly" - how nice!

You are referring to the original meaning of "sincerely" in Latin that had to do with sculptors who refused to correct their errors in their work by fixing them artificially with wax.

I haven't seen that in a long while.

All the best and please say "hello" to Fr. Serge Keleher should you see him!

Alex

I have a book put out by the Melkite (I think) Diocese of Newton called "A Guide For the Domestic Church." In the section on blessings (page 84) it shows a man and a woman standing over the dinner table with the man traceing the sign of the cross over the food. Part of the text reads:

..."While the more solemn or communal blessings are customarily conducted by the parish priest, we should expect to bless the activities of the day ourselves. Each believer baptized into Christ has a share in His priesthood: 'You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people He claims for His own' (1 Pt 2:9) Since we share in His Spirit through chrismation, we share in His priestly ministry. We have the ability to take the events of our daily lives and offer them to Him to become part of His new creation.

When a layperson conducts a blessing he does not, of course, use the liturgical form, but offers a prayer simply. Also he does not make the sign of the cross in blessing like a priest. Instead, keep your hand formed in the usual fashion for making the sign of the cross and trace the sign over the person or object you are blessing."

I also recall seeing a dramatization of a scene from a Russian novel (maybe by Dostoevsy)on TV in which a woman held her hand in the usual way for making the sign of the cross and traced a big cross over a man who was kneeling before her.

Hope this helps.

Frank

Dear Serge, I know that in southern Italy in the not too distant past, the father would sign the children on the forehead with his thumb before they retired for the night. The children would kiss the father's hand. Don't know if this is still done.

An interesting incident happened to me while I was in Mexico a little more than a week ago. I was traveling with a friend who was making his annual visit to family in Monterrey. The last day we were there his mother gave him a blessing. While praying that God would bless and protect him, she made the sign of the Cross on him by touching his forehead, the center of his chest, then each shoulder with her closed hand, her thumb making a cross with her first finger. I stood there watching and then she turned to me and said "you need a blessing too." and did the same to me as well. I almost cried. It made me think of my mother, who had died about 8 years ago. It was very special. My friend was very surprised about her blessing me, but I thought it was nice. He said she does that will all of the children when they are leaving for any length of time.

Don

[ 12-30-2001: Message edited by: Don in Kansas ]

An interesting discussion about blessings. Among other things, it seems to have become popular for some Latin Rite churches to pass out "do it yourself" house blessing kits to the parishioners around the feast of the Epiphany. I do understand that it may be difficult for the priests to visit each home in a large Roman parish and the current custom seems to compliment some of the discussion here, of families blessing their everyday activities. The "kits" usually contain holy water, prayers and a piece of chalk. This is obviously in imitation of the Polish (and perhaps other Slavic) tradition of inscribing the names (or initials) of the three kings above the door of the house. I believe that, as with many customs, the Roman Catholic Slavs borrowed the idea of house blessing from their Ukrainian neighbors but adapted the focus of the service away from the Baptism of Our Lord to their own observance of the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child on January 6.

Anyway, a timely addition to my other thoughts about blessings which have been inspired by this topic.

I would like to try to get a feel for the opinions out there of practices that I have noticed gaining more and more popularity among some people in our church. Not having been taught these customs either as a child or in the seminary, I am going to surmise that they have been introduced into our Ruthenian Church from outside sources. The first custom I am referring to is that of kissing a priest's hand upon meeting in public or private. In our former mentality, this would at most, be done only in a liturgical or para-liturgical setting, such as after venerating the hand cross, going to confession or receiving the mirovannya.

Another item that I have noticed in the past several years, is the practice of asking for and receiving priests' blessings every time one sees them, in or outside of an ecclesiastical setting. Still a third occurrence is that some priests have begun placing a cross (+) after their signatures, as if to emphasize their sacerdotal character. This too is new to me in our church, and in the past I have only seen bishops use a cross as part of their signatures, of course before writing their name.

I know that there will naturally be support in favor of such practices from people who believe that more is better, tend toward the monastic model of the church and generally give preference to all Orthodox customs, no matter what the reason or origin. Some also favor increased outward displays of personal piety, many of which may have been unknown to our faithful prior to recent times. As you might guess, I am not a promoter of these practices, although I do not find anything inherently wrong with them. Very respectfully to those who like them, they are just a bit much for me.

When meeting a priest, I always thought and was taught the good example of simply saying, "Slava Isusu Khrystu!" This is a good habit which is maintained by most of the parishioners I meet today, particularly among the new immigration, which, combined with observations from visits to Eastern Europe, causes me to believe that this is still the practice in Ukraine and Subcarpathian Rus'. I do not find the newer immigrants asking for blessings or kissing hands, save for occasions that warrant them, so would conclude that excesses in these practices are not going on there today, as they must not have been 100 years ago. By saying this, I don't mean to imply that we can only look to our ancestral lands for examples of what we should do here today, but I am merely identifying what appears to be the customs among our fellow Greek Catholics in the churches that have been models of our usage since our church was established in America.

In the "received" Ruthenian tradition, at least here in the United States during the twentieth century, there was not the common practice of casually kissing either the priest's, deacon's or other religious' hands. At least I never saw it while growing up or in adulthood. This custom was strictly reserved for bishops inside and outside of the liturgy. It would seem that the excessive kissing of hands, where it exists in our church today, is an imitation of Orthodox practice, I think primarily popular in the Russian Church (for those more acquainted with Orthodox particulars, please correct me if I am mistaken - maybe it is equally as common among the Greeks and others, but I have not noticed this). I won't try to speculate whether it is right or wrong to use the custom of kissing the hands of one who is ordained, but am simply making an observation in light of what I have traditionally seen in virtually all of our churches here.

In a Roman Rite context, although not practiced, (I do not believe that they kiss the priest's hand regularly, if at all), I would surmise that it would make more sense, because of the element of anointing the ordinand's hands with chrism (what we call myro) at a priestly ordination. Is this still done in the current Roman ritual?

Personally, and solely in my own opinion, I don't see the need for all of this "hand-kissing" after each and every encounter with a priest. In American society, it seems out of place to me, and the handshake is the normal means of greeting a person of any status, including the president of the United States. For me, it is another carry over of imperialism, from a different time and place. From its inception, our country and its founding fathers and mothers wished to depart from the then current European practices of bowing and curtseying to a king or queen and in fact, George Washington declined the title of king and gave birth to the office we now know as the executive branch of our government. I do realize that there are many customs in our liturgical usage that are adaptations from the Byzantine court, but some are more integral to the substance of the church than others. Certainly there is a place for the kissing of the priest and bishop's hands, but I do not see the need for this at each and every instance.

Related to this is the custom of asking for and receiving a priest's blessing, upon meeting. While there is certainly nothing wrong with this practice in and of itself, it can, again, in my personal opinion, become a bit "much" after a while and I know for sure, that it makes some priests feel uncomfortable. Only in the liturgy, do I see prescribed times when a blessing is asked of the priest, and there it is always the deacon who does the asking. I think that there has to be a distinction made between liturgical settings and simple, everyday encounters that occur between human beings. Now, one would probably argue that a priest is not an ordinary human being and that every occurrence in life is yet another advance on the path of theosis. This is true in a sense, but he is also "part of the whole" community of humankind. There are those "overly pious zealots" who, at a gathering, make it a habit to hurry in approaching every priest they can find, to ask for and receive their blessings. There are also a category of priests who, since the custom of "blessing asking" has become in vogue, are more than happy to provide this privilege to the faithful and I have observed at least one priest who approaches people with his hand already formed in blessing, held out for all to see, whether or not the person asks for the blessing. I'm sorry, but this is just too much a display of ego needs for me. Naturally, there are those noteworthy moments (i.e.: in times of special need, celebration, travel, etc.), when a person might ask a priest to give them a blessing. This to me, is both normal and desirable, and by allocating blessings to important times, gives them a much greater significance.

One thing that often gets forgotten in our necessary steps to "easternize" is that the whole community are not monastics. Although monastic practices are the model for much of Byzantine usage and content, especially worship (the typikon), not everyone is able to live up to the monastic ideal and level of severity. Likewise, most people don't live in a monastic setting all week long, and accommodations have to be made for life situations that would not have been in the picture a thousand years ago or more. We have to be careful that, as we purge the church of latinization, we do not rid ourselves of what is authentically ours and also do not implement those aspects of Orthodox use that are neither essential nor necessarily desirable for our church. There is a time and place for everything and I've always felt that our Ruthenian Church has done a good job of distinguishing between what is essential and what is incidental.

All three customs mentioned above appear to be customs proper to bishops that have now been extended to all priests, with minor adjustments made so that these two orders of the priesthood can still be distinguished from each other. With time, normally comes the addition of practices that were not part of the original setting. This is certainly true of the Divine Liturgy and other services, where today we have a combination of various rituals that were once separate entities or varying usages according to the occasion and place. An example of this is the fact that there are now at least three different versions of the entrance rite (enarxis) put together to form the first public portion of the eucharistic liturgy, i.e.: the antiphons, the troparia and the trisagion. Could it be that other, less significant practices, once used only for the archpastor of the eparchy, have now become commonplace for all priests, and are promoted by some, in such a way that they almost take on the sense of being required actions?

From experience, I get the feeling that most people in our society prefer a more down-to-earth manner of relating to a priest or clergyperson. Again, these comments are solely a mater of personal opinion and are not intended to give a definitive approval or disapproval of the practice of kissing hands and the rest. I hope that no one takes my comments out of context, which can occur for all of us here. For those who care to use these mentioned customs, they are perfectly acceptable displays of personal piety, when performed in the right context, but surely are not articles of faith or even required formalities, at least not in our Ruthenian-American tradition.

[ 01-11-2002: Message edited by: Joe ]