Holy Water Font Inside Your Front Door

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chessnerd321

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I’ve heard that some Catholics put a holy water font inside their front door and bless themselves with it upon leaving or arriving home. I’m talking about a small one like what is often inside an auxiliary entrance to a chapel, holding maybe 4 oz of holy water.

First off, is this allowed by the church? I don’t see why it wouldn’t be unless it’s reserved to entering the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Next, is it mainstream-ish at least or is this something even most devout Catholics would find a little odd? I mean, nothing Catholic is really mainstream… I hope people get my meaning. I don’t really have the opportunity to visit a lot of Catholic households and didn’t grow up in one, so I wouldn’t know.

And anyone who does this; how much effort does it take to keep it clean/filled? Are there any “rules” I should know about? Perhaps proper disposal of dirty/old holy water or when going away. Any particular recommendations for art styles? I don’t really even know what’s out there.
 
I have one at my back door and get the water from our parish. It evaporates very quickly, so it does require filling weekly. Sadly, I don’t keep it filled most of the time.
 
No problem at all having a font in your home. I have a font in my classroom. It’s wonderful to see the kids using it!
 
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chessnerd321 said:
First off, is this allowed by the church?
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Yes. All Catholics - those who attend both forms of the Mass. Devout Catholics certainly do not find it odd at all. It is devout Catholics who have holy water at home.

Depends on whether it is a brass font or a ceramic font. I have both. The brass one tended to go green due to the salt in the blessed water. Some priests only bless water, and some use blessed salt and water.

Use it all up in the font, then clean it as you would for either type, rinse , dry and reflll with more holy water. I refill mine when I notice it needs it, though can forgot for varying periods of time.

Any old or dirty/contaminated holy water, should be respectfully poured onto the ground in a place where people don’t walk.

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I don’t use this one anymore because the salt in the holy water affected the brass and it needs to be replated.
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Thank you so much for the very thoughtful reply. I’ll definitely keep your point about brass in mind. Less breakable is a plus, but corrosion not so much.
 
I would reckon about half of the Catholics I know (quite a few!) have holy water at home. It may or may not be in a font like these; that’s more of an individual decor decision. We keep ours in bottles marked for that purpose. One is a bottle purchased from a bookstore made and labeled for holy water; one is a never-used amber colored medication bottle from the pharmacy when there was a particular urgency and nothing else handy.

I bless myself and my children mornings before we leave and evenings before bed. Sometimes I bless my wife or she does so herself. We use it for a few other things as well.

Edit to add: I’ve traveled to several churches around the Midwest and never found a church that didn’t offer a place to refill my bottles. It’s not only approved but expected.
 
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Really depends if the Holy Water has salt in it. Some priests use add salt, some don’t.

But being unbreakable, they do need to be polished if not sealed. If sealed just spray (the outside) with isopropyl alcohol to keep polished/shiny. Try not to get any on the inside of the cup, so perhaps soak a small piece of cloth first, rub that over the outside and buff to a shine.
 
Yes, I too have a plastic bottle just for that purpose - taking to Church to refill when necessary, and then I pour some into my fonts.

Here are some more examples of plastic bottles which people use.

Various sites sell brass, ceramic, wood with a plastic insert liner for the cup/bowl part, or plastic and prices start from around $12 (plastic obviously). Just google small Holy Water fonts and you’ll find plenty. Your church piety store/stall may also have some for sale.
 
I used to keep a simple covered glass sugar bowl on our home altar filled with holy water, until it broke. The lid kept dust out and helped stem evaporation.
 
We have one near the front door. We bless ourselves when we leave the house. It is brass, I believe. We refill it with a plastic holy water bottle we fill up at church. If there is little left we dump it outside. You should never dump it down the sink.

The home is the domestic church.
 
I have a bottle the parish gave out. It’s on top of my stereo speaker in the living room along with a small silver chalice. I poor it when I want to bless myself. Not before because it evaporates quickly.
 
It’s been in the low 100s at times during the last week so it sure does evaporate fast. One of our 7th graders used the last of my little bottle last week and kind of looked at me like, “best get some more pronto.”
I bought and filled up three more little bottles today. I’m going to ask parents to bring some every week too!
 
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I have holy water at home, in a holy water bottle I got at a Catholic shrine.
I don’t see any difference between having it at home in a bottle or having it in a holder by your door. It is just a difference in containers.
 
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i recall that the rules state that the containers for Holy Water should be containers that would not be used for anything else. All the catalogs I’ve seen with bottles for carrying holy water are small – 1 to 2 ounces and seem more for carrying in your pocket or purse. My Perpetual Adoration Chapel uses an old dish-washing detergent bottle, which disturbs me to no end; but given the amount they use in a week that’s probably all they had at hand when they were starting. My own situation is only a little better: I have a glass bottle that had been used for maple syrup. It’s fairly ornate and reminded me of the cruets we used at church when I was growing up. So I washed it thoroughly several times, then I baked it in the oven for several hours at 400 degrees. After it cooled, I believed that is was sufficiently clean to count as “like new”.
 
Muzhik said:
i recall that the rules state
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What rules are those, pray tell?

I don’t believe there is such a rule, but if anyone has a citation, I’m always open to correction. The point, of course, is that it should be set aside and not treated as common. There’s some wiggle room for how we do this, and since it’s ultimately a matter of our own internal intentions, harder still to be definitive (unless, again, there’s some document I’m unaware of).
 
I also have mine in designated bottles. One in my little oratory and one near the door.

If I could find a font with a lid I’d rather use that, but I don’t think I could keep up with the evaporation and contamination that happens with an open one.
 
This is mine. I painted the inside with clear nail polish because the paint was chipping. Every Sunday, or so, I fill up my plastic holy water bottle at Church, which I keep in the fridge and refill the font every couple of days. I bless myself upon leaving and returning to my apartment.(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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