VERT (not the color) topic: First Catholic Faux Pax

[Note: VERT "is an online community & resource for Catholic converts, reverts and those sincerely considering converting to the Eastern Rite or Western Rite of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church." Weekly posting topics are suggested; members who wish to participate blog about that topic and link the post at VERT so that all can share. Joining VERT is simplicity itself; I highly recommend it for any "vert".]


This is actually LAST week's topic; I've missed the posting cutoff by one day due to a grandchild's birthday. I don't think our Owen will mind, though.

When I first started going to Mass regularly on Sundays, I was very concerned about whether I'd do something wrong -- or even something right but at the wrong time -- and offend someone. I held the missalette firmly with three fingers serving as place-holders on different pages, a grip I somewhat relaxed to ease the ache in my awkwardly-placed fingers only during the homily. (This, after all, was the part of Mass that was most familiar to someone coming from an evangelical Protestant tradition.)

One problem: I'm left-handed. The digital gymnastics described above were, at first, done with my right hand in order to leave my dominant hand free. So which hand did I use to make the sign of the Cross?

Yep. I did it with my south paw; during Mass, and also at the holy water font. It finally dawned on me that the sidelong glances from others nearby was not because I was following the missalette word-for-word -- inquirers and new converts are not an unusual sight in our parish masses. Rather, I'm sure it was a bit disconcerting to see the sign of our faith made with the "wrong" hand as it looked, well, backward.

I did catch on. Rather quickly, at that. But I'm such a dominant lefty that sometimes I still have to consciously remind myself as I'm leaving the church after Mass to disengage the autopilot, break with the habitual, and really think about what I'm doing. Which, come to think of it, isn't a bad way to approach going out into the world after Mass in more ways than one.