Holy Water fonts

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I was browsing the Catholic Company website and they featured holy water fonts with a tag line that every home should have one…

Who has one in their house?
Where did you or would you put it?
How would you fill it, how often?
Does holy water evaporate quickly or no because of the oil in it?
What else can you tell me about it?
Is it weird to have one… over the top or devotional?

What do you think?
 
jmfiore said:
Who has one in their house?
Where did you or would you put it?
How would you fill it, how often?
Does holy water evaporate quickly or no because of the oil in it?
What else can you tell me about it?
Is it weird to have one… over the top or devotional?
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I have one on a small table in my prayer corner. I obtained a jar of blessed water at Epiphany this year, a pint jar I can keep sealed. My font is a covered glass sugar bowl, to help slow evaporation. I use it in the morning prior to prayers, much as you would when entering the church prior to prayers.

I thought everyone had one?
 
I have had a holy water font since I was a child.
Presently I have one at each entrance to the house. My son gave me one that I keep on the kitchen table that one does not evaporate as fast as the ones by the door. Another son has a collection of fonts started when he went to Rome 15 years ago.
 
Holy Water doesn’t have oil in it at our parish. It is plain tap (faucet) water, nothing added (apart from being blessed, of course).

I have never heard of oil being put in Holy Water. Is this a general practice?
 
My husband is an Oblate and we had a St. Benedict one on the table. I filled it with Holy Water I got from the church; it was small and the water evaporated quickly and I had to fill it every week or so.
 
I have a Holy Water font in my bedroom and I bless myself prior to starting my morning and evening prayers. My parish has a supply of Holy Water (in the back of the church) that parishioners can take home with them. The Holy Water font I have does not hold a lot so I have to refill it about every 10 days. I can honestly say, the Holy Water font is the one thing in my house that I use everyday.

Mark
 
I’ve never heard of oil in holy water. As oil doesn’t mix with water, it would sit on top of the water and cause people to transfer the oil to anything they touched and cause stains.
 
I have had holy water fonts in my house since I became Catholic.
I thought most Catholic homes had them.
 
I never heard of having a Holy Water Font
in the home, I am not in the habit of blessing
myself with holy water when I enter and leave
the sanctuary!
 
Marcus_T said:
I have a Holy Water font in my bedroom and I bless myself prior to starting my morning and evening prayers. My parish has a supply of Holy Water (in the back of the church) that parishioners can take home with them. The Holy Water font I have does not hold a lot so I have to refill it about every 10 days. I can honestly say, the Holy Water font is the one thing in my house that I use everyday.

Mark
Click to expand...
Same here but I keep mine in a little bottle so it doesn’t evaporate so quickly. I have a bigger bottle of Holy Water on hand for other Blessings. Whenever any of my kids go on a trip, I Bless them with Holy water and their vehicle, whether it is car or plane. I can Bless them from my home. I had Fonts in my kids bedrooms as they grew up. God Bless, Memaw
 
We have one shaped like the the blessed Virgin. It is hanging by our front door. We used to fill it about every two weeks. Having a small sponge in the bottom helped with the evaporation. The salt in it seemed to keep the sponge from growing anything (note: not all holy water has salt in it)

I say “used to” because we had a couple mishaps where it came off the nail it hung from and broke across the middle. The font has been repaired, but we use a small plastic bottle on a table underneath now. If we get another one I would likely look at a tabletop one or put stronger anchors in the wall.
 
Our family had a holy water font by the door when we grew up in the 60s and 70s and my mom made sure we had one as well as a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the kitchen when we started our own families. The one we have currently is by the door for blessing ourselves coming and leaving. I also have one by the door inside my CCD classroom, and the children quickly pick up the habit of blessing themselves. I recently purchased both font and picture for my daughter for her new family.
 
When we bless Holy Water, we don’t add oil to it. The rite of blessing does have the possibility of blessing salt and adding a pinch of blessed salt to the blessed water – but if that is done, it is only a very small amount.
 
I’ve never lived in a house that DIDN’T have one.
It’s always near the front door, so we can bless ourselves before we leave.

Sometimes, people place one in a baby’s nursery to bless the baby before sleeping.
It’s a lovely practice. I believe I have the Blue and White Madonna Stella d’Oro one from that company, btw. 🙂
But I’ve had beautiful handcrafted pottery ones form the Southwest.
 
I was going to mention maybe the addition of salt, but not of oil, but someone beat me to it. 🙂

My family always had holy water in the house in a little crystal pedestal dish. At some point, my mom placed a stoup next to the front door, but it’s generally always empty.

My son received one as a baptismal present, but we have concrete walls, so it’s not so easy to hang stuff on the wall. 😉 I have holy water in a little plastic holy water bottle. It doesn’t last very well, though. It gets little bits of green fragments at the bottom. I also have a bottle of Lourdes water that someone brought me from their pilgrimage, and I use it when I need help the most. I’ve had it for close to ten years, and the water is still fresh and uncontaminated.

I find that I usually bless my children with holy oils at home. I have various kinds associated with different saints, so it’s nice to ask for the blessing of a certain saint as part of the routine.
 
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