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Anna-Lissa from Texas calls in to ask Father Dave a question of faith: \u201cThere are two specific times in the Mass that we bless ourselves, and that is at the beginning of Mass and then at the end. And so I have heard that those are the only two times we\u2019re to bless ourselves; that we're not to bless ourselves any other time during the Mass. Is that correct?\u201d

\u201cYes,\u201d Father Dave responds.\xa0 \u201cThose are the two proper times that we bless ourselves, but I would also say that it is not some great violation to make the sign of the cross at other times.\u201d Father Dave explains that in the 1950s and 1960s, there would have been more times that even the priest who\u2019s leading prayer would have made the sign of the cross.\xa0 This practice was revised in the early 1970\u2019s after the Second Vatican Council when the Church took out all those extra blessings and changed it to, a blessing on the way in and make a blessing on the way out.\xa0

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\u201cThe rule of thumb,\u201d Father Dave says, \u201cis if we hear the priest sing, \u2018In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit,\u2019 that\u2019s the time we would bless ourselves because we're being led by the priest.\u201d

Father Dave adds that he\u2019s barely old enough to remember that prior to Vatican II, it was very common for the priest giving the homily to make the sign of the cross at the beginning and end of the homily.\xa0 \u201cPart of that was the theology that the homily was sort of an interruption of the Mass therefore outside of the Mass; part of it was because the rest of the Mass was in Latin, and oftentimes the homily was in the language of the people . . .Vatican II, sort of corrected that aberrant notion that the homily is not outside of the Mass.\xa0 We don't sort of take a commercial break and then come back in.\u201d

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Father Dave also mentions there is one version of the Eucharistic Prayer where the priest personally has the option to make the sign of the cross multiple times.\xa0 He explains this is an ancient prayer held over from Vatican II.\xa0\xa0

Father Dave clarifies that he is talking about the typical Roman Catholic experience . . .\u201din other Eastern churches within the universal Catholic Church, as well as Orthodox Christians; they make the sign of the cross a lot more times throughout their liturgies.\u201d\xa0 Anna-Lissa points out that often she sees people bless themselves after they receive the Eucharist.\xa0 \u201cI did that when I was a kid,\u201d Father Dave says, \u201cand honestly, when I receive communion in line, I still revert to being a kid and I do that myself.\u201d