Nah, just do the Whirling Dervish thing along with me. It’s more fun when there are two of us.
The National Cathedral is a beautiful place–and pretty high church. But I don’t remember any holy water–perhaps the poster visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Also in DC & also worth visiting in all its neo-Byzantine splendor.
The OP is caught up in a family conflict between her husband & his mother. If I were not even lapsed Catholic, I’d bow my head during Grace–meditate on those who have no food if you wish. But the Sign of the Cross is a definite mark of Faith; skip it if you don’t believe.
Oh, the OP’s marriage is quite valid. Another religious marriage or even a civil one would require a Church Annulment–not just a divorce–before the believing partner could remarry in the Church.
(But the OP’s husband claims he doesn’t believe. This is the problem. He needs to be honest–to himself, his wife & his mother.)
It’s a beautiful place–and pretty high church. But I don’t remember any holy water–perhaps the poster visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Also in DC & also worth visiting in all its neo-Byzantine splendor.
The OP is caught up in a family conflict between her husband & his mother. If I were not even lapsed Catholic, I’d bow my head during Grace–meditate on those who have no food if you wish. But the Sign of the Cross is a definite mark of Faith; skip it if you don’t believe.
Oh, the OP’s marriage is quite valid. Another religious marriage or even a civil one would need a Church Annulment–not just a divorce–before the believing partner could remarry in the Church.
(But the OP’s husband claims he doesn’t believe. This is the problem. He needs to be honest–to himself, his wife & his mother.)
Speaking as a practicing Catholic…
In and of itself, I don’t care whether non Catholics make the sign of the cross. And I don’t care whether they stand, kneel, sing or pray on the rare occasions they set foot in a Catholic Church. Most atheists I know are quite capable of being polite at weddings, funerals, etc., and of bowing silently while friends or relatives pray before a holiday dinner. Most people of good will can get along.
In this case it seems as if the Sign of the Cross is the LEAST of the OP’s issues with her husband and his family.
Was - I hope that in ten years it’s been more or less solved!
I’ve occasionally run into people who seem to think that if they can make a non-believer go through the motions often enough something magic will happen and they’ll convert.
I’ve also once or twice encountered situations where people are in such a small, isolated community it doesn’t occur to them that some things are not universal.
Just stopped by this old thread to mention that a non believer can become a true convert and it can start bysimply attending worship services.
Happened in my family anyway. My maternal grandmother grew up in a family that was non-churched. She didn’t attend any services until she was nineteen years old, Christmas Eve of 1923. She was going out with my maternal grandfather, whose family had deep German Lutheran roots.
It grew on her and after their marriage she was baptized and confirmed, becoming a pillar of the congregation, from her reception in 1928, to her death in 2012.
From same perspective I basically agree. OP’s problem is pretty obviously not about the Sign of the Cross. It might not be easy to see what’s really going on in situations like this even if you could witness it first hand, but definitely impossible based on a brief write up of one side of the story.
My family is small, my brother and I both married Catholics. But my wife’s family is bigger and this was somewhat of an issue. They are from another culture and it’s not as unusual to put pressure on son’s in law (I was the only originally Catholic one among 6) to convert, which all but one other did. But it’s not a point of friction particularly with the holdout, the parents have passed away anyway.
But even in ‘mainstream’ US culture we’d prefer our kids marry Catholics and bring up their kids that way (no kids married yet, closest possibility happens to be Catholic). It’s our faith and central to our lives. If you don’t believe, it’s easy enough to say ‘why should you care about something like that, or “impose” a religion on a child at all’, makes perfect sense…if you don’t believe. How you deal with it if what you’d prefer does not play out is under the larger general category of how you deal with beloved adult family members’ decisions they have every right to make for themselves but you don’t agree with.
Back to the Sign specifically, my understanding is that we wouldn’t expect non-Catholics to make it, in church or at table or anywhere else, though wouldn’t be offended if they did either. That would be like kneeling during Mass, but in contrast to receiving Communion where non-Christians can’t and it varies among non-Catholic Christians (as a rough general rule members of Eastern churches can and Protestants shouldn’t). And unlike Communion, there is no fundamental difference in belief surrounding the Sign of the Cross among Christian sects. The Eastern churches emphasize it more than Catholics if anything, Protestants less so in their tradition of de-emphasizing ritual, but the degree of de-emphasis varies by Protestant sect.
Why are you replying to someone who hasn’t posted here in six years? 
Question – what about the opposite? Even though I’m lapsed, if I’m at the house of Protestant friends and they say grace, is it wrong to do the Sign of the Cross? I remember a friend whose father was a minister, and it felt…wrong praying without doing so. I did after we were done and apologized but he just laughed and he said it was all right.
Are there any Protestant groups that would see it as offensive or a no-no?
We (I used to be RO-OR) just reverse the left-right thingy from the Roman church.
…And in the 10th Year…
…it Rose from the Dead…
…in fulfillment of the scriptures?
rings the bell & runs like Hell!
[quote=“Broomstick, post:46, topic:342057”]
I’ve occasionally run into people who seem to think that if they can make a non-believer go through the motions often enough something magic will happen and they’ll convert.
Ha! That’s what happened to me. It was like magic also, actually. I’ve converted and love being Catholic.