Q: Father Turner – Thank you so much for your new book Eucharistic Reservation! It is very helpful in understanding the theological and liturgical background that has led up to the new rite book. I have a question about the sign of the cross at the beginning of The Rite with a Fuller Celebration of the Word of God. On Page 47 of your book you write that “Nor does this ceremony begin with the sign of the cross”. However, paragraph 27 of the new rite book seems to indicate that the minister “beings with the Sign of the Cross”. Am I misreading something? I know that the older rite book made no provision for the sign of the cross. Can you help? Thank you!
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A: Thanks for pointing that out.
In the typical edition and in ICEL’s gray book, there is no sign of the cross. Apparently the sign of the cross was added to the US edition. I failed to catch that update when I wrote that paragraph.
Since the US edition is now in force, communion outside Mass is to begin with a sign of the cross.