Blessed Salt?

[Rawb]

I’ve heard a few times recently about blessed salt, and my question is what is it for? Do you cook with it, or bless rooms with it like Holy Water? When I first heard about it I got an image of someone putting their finger in some and putting it on their tongue before they pray. Has/Does anyone here use it? One woman who mentioned it said we could bless salt ourselves, is that true?

I have a few things I’m going to ask my priest to bless after Easter and I might bring some salt along too, but if this sacramental has ‘fallen by the wayside’ and he’ll give me funny looks about it I might not.

 

[BeeSweet]

Here’s what New Advent has to say about blessed salt.

I hope to do the same thing myself. I bought a couple of cobalt blue glass containers a week ago, specificaly to put salt and oil in them so I could have them blessed. I’m not sure how to approach my priest about it though.

Also, I’m not sure if a particular type of oil and salt should be blessed. I put italian sea salt and italian olive oil in my glass containers. The oil is just plain olive oil, it’s not virgin or extra virgin. And the salt has an additive to keep it from caking. I’m not sure if something else would be more appropriate.

I received the following story about blessed salt in an e-mail from a girlfriend of mine (it’s a bit long, so I’ll continue it in a second post):

SUGGESTION IS MADE TO SPREAD ‘BLESSED SALT’ IN AREAS THROUGHOUT U.S., CANADA
By Michael H. Brown
A mystery it is: how a place that is known for so many issues, for so many
problems, and for so much darkness, could also have a pocket of the nation’s
foremost Catholic warriors.
But such is the case in San Francisco: nowhere has more intense Marian
devotees and charismatics. It goes to the old saying: where evil is, grace
abounds.
And as we all know, evil there is. This is the place where the Church of
Satan was founded (in 1966), where the hippie movement began, where genetic
engineering saw great breakthroughs, where Berkeley is located, where
psychic phenomena turned into the New Age, where witches covens are more
concentrated than any other spot I know, and where the concentration of
radical homosexuals – who march each year in a way that often ridicules
Catholicism – exceeds any other city. In 1989, the day before an earthquake
struck, the gay-pride flag wafted above city hall in San Francisco.
Just last week, the mayor, a state senator, and a treasurer found themselves
at the center of controversy when they formally congratulated a local
business called Colt Studios for its fortieth anniversary.
Colt produces hardcore homosexual pornography.
And so, yes, San Francisco has its darkness and it brings up the mystery of
places. Why does evil seem to congregate at certain locales – in Key West,
in New York, in New Orleans, in Boulder, in the Orlando corridor (where
spiritualists have a camp and strange storms occur and there’s a bench known
as the “seat of Satan”)?
Certain places have a certain aura, a spiritual magnetism, and it might be
related to the spiritual residue of settlers or Native American Indians
(perverse sexuality is rumored to have been prevalent among Indians in the
Bay Area).
In the midst of all that, however, are the brave Catholics. I met a good
number of them last weekend, when I visited for a retreat. I’ve been to San
Francisco many times – on at least a dozen occasions to speak about
Catholic topics, and at other times on other business – but this was
probably the most power-packed visit.
We design the retreats to be small but had to expand this one and left with
the feeling that something was accomplished in the way of protection. Last
summer, at the beginning of hurricane season, I did a retreat in the Fort
Lauderdale area (which I believe is under the greatest storm threat), and we
distributed packets of blessed salt with the goal of spreading it up and
down the coast (which was then done from Key West to Daytona).
Coincidentally or not, last year saw no threat to this coast and we must
pray that such happens again and that prayers – and the dispersal of
blessed salt – is repeated in concert with the countless others who are
likewise praying for protection (from every denomination).
In San Francisco, I wasn’t able to bring my own salt and so asked the folks
to bring back packets from restaurants after lunch.
They outdid themselves, collecting not only small packets but dropping by
local stores to buy large Morton containers and in the case of half a dozen
people, 25-pound bags from an outlet store, which a priest named Father Ted
Shipp – who had just returned from Medjugorje – proceeded to bless. The
goal: to spread this salt throughout the Bay Area: in the red zones, in the
dens of iniquity, in the Castro district, in Silicone Valley, in Berkley, in
Oakland, in Haight-Asbury, along the San Andreas fault, along the Haywood
fault, around churches, around the chancery, and around seminaries.
Can blessed salt really have an effect – can it stop storms, can it halt a
fault?

 

[BeeSweet]

Continued from previous post:

Just spread it; just disperse it; just sprinkle it out the window of your
car wherever you live and do so with faith, which can move mountains (one of
which, in the Bay Area, is known as Mount Diablo, and where, just to the
north, is a mysterious place called Bohemian Grove, which at least one
attendee said would be the focus of some of the salt we generated).
We need to do this across the U.S., Canada, Australia, and other nations:
get a container of salt, have a priest bless it (here’s the prayer), and
have folks from your parish or prayer group help in sprinkling it in your
community (around city hall, parishes, tattoo parlors, abortion clinics,
hospitals, red-light zones, bars, and other places in need of purging or
protection).
We need a couple hundred people in every major metropolitan area, and those
in capitals are urged to sprinkle it around their legislative offices (and
in Washington, the White House, the Supreme Court, and Capitol Hill).
“Lord Jesus, bless our area, protect it against storms, fires, thefts,
crime, abortion, earthquake, tsunamis, tornadoes, and other untoward events,
as well as from evil people and evil deeds and the influence of the devil,”
you might say, as you sprinkle little pinches of it. “Let a person convert
with every grain we sprinkle. Let every grain have an angel attached to it.”
Improvise. Pray your own prayer. Be site-specific. Pray for the needs of
your community. Pray against unsavory businesses and developers and
politicians. Pray to expurgate the evil in your area. Pray that the salt
repulses those who are in darkness – that they be converted or dissuaded
from your locale. Pray to protect the young as well as nature.
It is the message this week: we are in a time of preparation, and one way to
prepare is to surround your home, neighborhood, and community with the great
sacramentals the Church, in its wisdom, through the Holy Spirit, has
bequeathed us.
[Any amount may be presented to a priest for his blessing, using the
following official prayer from the Roman Ritual: “Almighty God, we ask you
to bless this salt, as once you blessed the salt scattered over the water by
the prophet Elisha. Wherever this salt (and water) is sprinkled, drive away
the power of evil, and protect us always by the presence of your Holy
Spirit. Grant this through Christ our Lord Amen.”]
[Michael Brown’s next retreat is in May in St. Augustine, Florida, home of
the nation’s oldest parish and Marian shrine, to be followed, God-willing,
by retreats in other major regions of the country]

 

[LilyM]

Tatoo parlours? What is wrong with them? Tatoos per se certainly aren’t sinful or anything.

 

[BeeSweet]

Tatoo parlours? What is wrong with them? Tatoos per se certainly aren’t sinful or anything.

In context, they’re saying, “around city hall, parishes, tattoo parlors, abortion clinics, hospitals, red-light zones, bars, and other places in need of purging or protection”

City hall, parishes, hospitals, and bars are not necessarily sinful either. But sinners are everywhere!

Oh, and I have a tatoo, and believe me, the folks who came in and out of that place while I was getting inked were definitely in need of protection, myslelf included!

 

[Debra_C]

My understanding is that blessed salt is used largely for exorcism purposes, including protection from potential attack from satan and serious temptation.

Traditionally it is used in the baptismal rite but is now only included as an optional portion.

I keep some in my house all the time. I sprinkle it around anytime I have a sense of foreboding at home or feel like the peace of our happy home is somehow disturbed. Obviously, it isn’t always some sort of satanic attack, but it makes me feel better.

Also, salt is traditionally associated with purification, so putting some on your tongue may be a good thing, too (that is what is done with it during the baptism ritual).

I have one friend who cooks with it from time to time, however, the priest that blessed mine does not agree with this practice. There is a traditional blessing for it, which I believe my priest obtained from the Roman Missal. Many priests don’t bother with looking up the traditional blessing unless you specifically ask them to.

I have noticed that use of blessed salt is falling somewhat out of favor-- some regard it as mere superstition, and lots more simply haven’t thought of it or heard of it.

Hope this helps…

Debra

 

[Rawb]

Thanks everyone! Especially for the story BeeSweet. I think I will bring some salt along with my other things to have blessed. I may even sprinkle some at the sight of a church that our parish is trying to build, but having difficulty with. (I’m looking forward to it because it’s right near my house, and the other church is across town).

Thanks again!