Holy Water in the home

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Okay, so I recently went to someone’s house - they are devout Catholics of the Armenian rite. They had Holy Water in their kitchen, in a font mounted on the wall beside their Christ worship altar. I thought it was strange.

****Isn’t Holy Water a sacramental meant for parishes only?

Is it permissible to have a priest bless water for your personal prayer use at home? ****

And is it okay for Latin Riters, like me, to use this “home holy water”, if it is allowed at all?
:confused:
 
I’ve been encouraged by my sponsor and others in the parish to have Holy Water at home for prayer, but I haven’t located any sort of official teaching about it’s use outside of the parish.
 
Before all the changes it was really not extraordinary that a home would have a small Holy Water Font. When I was a little boy, several of the relatives had them. Mine is at the front door.

Each Parish I have entered has a large Holy Water vat with a spigot to fill small bottles for home use. Most Catholic bookstores have these small bottles for sale. Ask around your Parish.

It is a wonderful way to remind yourself of the Blessed Trinity and your Baptism when you enter and leave your home.
 
I asked my sponsor and a couple of priest in the parishes i attend about this last year and there were no objections of having a bottle of holy water at home.

I use it before rosary prayers and prayers and when leaving home and before going to bed.

It is a good way to remember your own baptism, the Holy trinity (as stated earlier) and not to mention, protect yourself against the devils snares and the plotting-temptations we are constantly surrounded by.
 
Having Holy Water in the home has always been an acceptable use of this sacramental. It was one of St. Teresa of Avila’s favorite sacramentals, and she recommended it to maintain spiritual purity of the environment. You can get some at your parish church, there is usually a tank of some sort, usually someplace near the baptismal font or in the hallway outside of the sacristy. I’ve never seen any basket or box for donations nearby, it’s free to anyone. You don’t need an “official” bottle to take some home with you, any nice, clean bottle or jar will do. A few ounces will do, don’t go bringing a gallon jug with you–LOL!

Most Catholic goods stores and many online websites carry a wide range of Holy Water fonts, at varying price points. I’ve seen them offered anywhere from less than ten dollars to a few hundred dollars. It all depends on your tastes, and there looks like something for everybody. I have a font that I bought commercially, near the entrance door of my home, and I also have a scallop shell that I keep next to a statue of the Infant of Prague in my bedroom. What I do is this–saturate a new makeup sponge with Holy Water to slow evaporation, and add a little every couple of days, kind of like watering a house plant. That makes it easy to just press my fingers to the damp sponge and make the Sign of the Cross without the risk of spillage.

If you have a larger font, keep an eye on the water in it for cleanliness. There is nothing in Holy Water that will inhibit the growth of mold spores, and you don’t want that for a variety of reasons. If you discover that the Holy Water has gotten grubby-looking, take it outside and pour it onto the ground in your garden, don’t pour it into the sink (which is connected to the sewer.) That’s one advantage of the makeup sponge, you never have standing water around to get dirty. I was taught that if you have to pour out Holy Water on the ground it is a blessing to say a prayer for the poor souls in Purgatory, but I don’t know of any official Church documentation to support this. Then wash the font the way you would wash a food dish, and refill it.
 
MaryandJesus said:
Okay, so I recently went to someone’s house - they are devout Catholics of the Armenian rite. They had Holy Water in their kitchen, in a font mounted on the wall beside their Christ worship altar. I thought it was strange.

****Isn’t Holy Water a sacramental meant for parishes only?

Is it permissible to have a priest bless water for your personal prayer use at home? ****

And is it okay for Latin Riters, like me, to use this “home holy water”, if it is allowed at all?
:confused:
Click to expand...
We had Holy Water in a font mounted on the wall too. It was in the entrance to the home. This was at my grandmother’s house. My parents never had one that I can recall.
 
I have holy water at home and sometimes carry a small bottle with me.
 
Holy water is recommended for all homes. As long as it remains in it’s normal state (i.e., not evaporated), it carries the prayers with it that blessed it.

Same holds true for blessed salt, which is usually blessed with an exorcism prayer. Rock salt is best since it lasts longer. Sprinkle it around your doors and windows for protection.
 
When I was little, my great-grandmother had a bottle on her vanity.

Every morning after she made her bed, she would say a Hail Mary, an Our Father and a Glory Be…, as she made the sign of the cross on herself , then her bed, all in Italian, with me at her side, copying her every move! :love:
 
It’s fine to have holy water around the house. There’s bottles of the stuff stashed in all sorts of places in mine. 😃

Rite doesn’t matter with sacramentals. As you might note from my religion box I’m sort of turning Byzantine on everyone slowly but surely, but I still wear a scapular, for example. These kind of things fall into private devotion that anyone can do.
 
You can even have blessed salt and olive oil to sprinkle on food as an added blessing.
 
Holy water in a small ‘fount’ hung on the wall beside the kitchen door, or whichever door is most frequently used by the family, is a wonderful way to remind yourself, and especially children, to make the sign of the cross when they leave the house, after all your home is a domestic church. It may seem very old fashioned, but it is a comfort and a blessing.
 
How ironic. I was just wondering about this yesterday as I was at a Catholic store and wanted to buy a font for my home. However, since I never saw one in anyone’s home, I didn’t really know what to think of it.🤷 Now I know! 🙂 I actually was thinking of putting it in my walk-in closet, I have religious statues, pics, etc in my home but felt this was more “personal”. Would that be disrespectful?
 
MaryandJesus said:
Okay, so I recently went to someone’s house - they are devout Catholics of the Armenian rite. They had Holy Water in their kitchen, in a font mounted on the wall beside their Christ worship altar. I thought it was strange.

****Isn’t Holy Water a sacramental meant for parishes only?

Is it permissible to have a priest bless water for your personal prayer use at home? ****

And is it okay for Latin Riters, like me, to use this “home holy water”, if it is allowed at all?
:confused:
Click to expand...
I think this thread would be more appropriate in the Eastern Catholic Forum. The way Eastern Catholics use Holy Water is different from how Roman Catholics do. For one thing, we drink Holy Water. And we do get to bring them home and either have them for a drink or to pray for blessings.

But I know this practice is also common in Roman Catholicism. I still have a jar of Holy Water blessed by my RC parish priest when I had my home blessed. Although I would not dare drink that because he had his hand in it 😃
 
I have a little font at the front door to bless myself coming and going…it is a sacramental to remind us to be Christian inside and outside the home.

I decant a small container from the large container at church that is freely available to all.
 
jeanannemarie said:
I have holy water and I have blessed salt.
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I know someone who dissolved the blessed salt in Holy Water and used it to put a layer of salt on a statue of the Blessed Mother. Blessed salt is something I’m not at all familiar with. Can you or someone else give us the background?
 
Oneofthewomen said:
When I was little, my great-grandmother had a bottle on her vanity.

Every morning after she made her bed, she would say a Hail Mary, an Our Father and a Glory Be…, as she made the sign of the cross on herself , then her bed, all in Italian, with me at her side, copying her every move! :love:
Click to expand...
That brought to mind a really nice memory of my own Italian grandmother. When she baked bread, right before putting it in the oven, she would cut a cross with her finger and kiss her hand. Thanks for stirring the memory!
 
I carry a 1 oz micro bottle of holy water with me in my laptop bag.

Sign myself with it all the time. Satan hates it.

-Tim-
 
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