Sometimes at our Eucharistic Chapel (when I’m leaving), I may pause for awhile at the holy water font. I merely cross myself with holy water much as I normally would. Just doing it over and over (and probably looking funny if somebody were watching). In our Chapel, it is often a lonely place if Jesus is not exposed but rather is in the Tabernacle. To me it is the same. If Jesus is there, then He is there and that is all that matters. My ability or inability to see Him does not change His ability to work with me.
And pray…
…for my wife to be blessed with the Holy Water
…for each of my children – one at a time
…for one I do not know
…for what do I know (a wild card for Mary because I’m ignorant)
…for a new beginning
And then perhaps for souls in purgatory.
…for the one most forgotten about
…for the one furthest away from release
…for the one nearest going to heaven
…for the one Mary wants to help right now
…for one who is Black
…for one who spoke a different language than I
…for Mary to use however she wants
…for the one who has been there the longest
…for one who has just gotten there
As you can see. It is not hard to spend some time at the Holy Water font.
By the way, if you say “for the one Mary wants to help right now” – it might well be yourself. Just as a flight attendant tells you to put the oxygen mask on yourself before your children, it is a fairly universal human standard to care for care-givers first. And if you undertake a care-giver ministry with Holy Water, Mary may well want to help you to establish or continue in your ministry it as a first priority. Such a ministry may seem small, but all that is done for Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit has eternal value beyond our ability to consider.
Indulgences pale in comparison with the merit (eternal reward). Indulgences are important because when we give them (or Holy Water or any comfort) to Holy Souls we are helping Souls that are more perfectly in Jesus’s image than we are ourselves.
I think I am fairly old to be a Catholic convert. So I am still like a child to Mary and I act like a child and want to be near Mary. And I really need that more often than I want it. When you are a young child, you do know a little about the activities that your mother is involved in. I don’t know much, but I think know that Mary is often involved with trying to comfort the souls in purgatory. When she is, I think she examines each “Hail Mary” more carefully than an expert jewler examines a raw daimond. She has great skill and the Holy Spirit is also involved in this.
I don’t think most Catholics understand how much time and concern Mary has for those who are in purgatory. And how she is limited in some regard to what those of us who are alive will devote to those who are in purgatory.
See my earlier post – “Blessings With Holy Water (For Others)”
at
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=16029
I only went through RCIA two years ago. And one of the first things that I fell in love with in the Catholic Church was Holy Water. Because I was convinced that Holy Water may well have had an impact on my eventual conversion. I grew up in a town where there were a lot of Catholics. And once went on a school trip to Montreal Canada where we visited a few Basilicas – and I figure I used Holy Water then. And even at other infrequent times years before I was in RCIA, I had blessed myself with Holy Water.
If you see the post I reference, you will see that I think my praying for my family with Holy Water has had an effect. In my family, my wife and children are not yet Catholic. But they have all come to Mass at least twice.
I think Catholics often take many things for granted or fail to recognize the mighty power that is easily within their grasp. The value of a single “Hail Mary” devoutly prayed is immensely greater than we imagine. Holy Water too, I think, is greatly undervalued. There are so many wonderful treasures in the Church.
I am glad for this post, because I’ve dropped off some in praying with Holy Water. And I think I should go back to doing more.
jmm08
