Holy Water

[Monica4316]

Hi

I’ve been thinking about Holy Water lately… is it true that it is used by exorcists to determine if a person is possessed? (ie: the possessed person would react negatively to holy water as well as blessed objects, crucifixes, etc)

My other question is… are there stories from the lives of the Saints that show how Holy Water could be used to fight the enemy? (I seem to remember something about St Teresa of Avila…). Are there any modern stories as well?

I read somewhere that Holy Water tends to stay fresh for much longer… is this true too, does it have different properties from regular water?

is water used for baptism blessed as well?

sorry so many questions

thank you!

 

[Monica4316]

I found this…

“From long experience I have learned that there is nothing like holy water to put devils to flight and prevent them from coming back again.

They also flee from the cross, but return; so holy water must have great value. For my own part, whenever I take it, my soul feels a particular and most notable consolation.

In fact, it is quite usual for me to be conscious of a refreshment which I cannot possibly describe, resembling an inward joy which comforts my whole soul.

This is not fancy, or something which has happened to me only once it has happened again and again and I have observed it attentively. It is let us say, as if someone very hot and thirsty were to drink from a jug of cold water: he would feel the refreshment throughout his body.

I often reflect on the great importance of everything ordained by the Church and it makes me very happy to find that those words of the Church are so powerful that they impart their power to the water and make it so very different from water which has not been blessed.”

“One night, too, about this time, I thought the devils were stifling me; and when the nuns had sprinkled a great deal of holy water about I saw a huge crowd of them running away as quickly as though they were about to fling themselves down a steep place.”

“I will only describe something that happened to me one night of All Souls. I was in an oratory: I had said one nocturn and was repeating some very devotional prayers which follow it — they are extremely devotional:

we have them in our office-book — when actually the devil himself alighted on the book, to prevent me from finishing the prayer. I made the sign of the Cross and he went away.

I then began again and he came back. I think I began that prayer three times and not until I had sprinkled some holy water on him could I finish it.

Keep your soul beautifully pure in God’s sight by making the Sign of the Cross carefully while saying, “By this holy water and by Thy Precious Blood wash away all my sins, O Lord.”

(Saint Teresa of Avila)

 

[ConstantineTG]

Water for baptism need not be blessed, but if the Rite of Baptism is to be used then the water is indeed blessed.

I don’t know much about Holy Water staying fresh for long other than priests knowing which kind of water to use. A former priest of mine will always use hot water, because the water would have been boiled in the boiler so many of the impurities would have been gone.

 

[Chris_Etzel]

In the book “The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist” by Matt Baglio (yes movie based on it), Father Carmine would use holy water almost immediately when an afflicted person entered the office. He never told them what it was, but they sure reacted nasty to it.

 

[ConstantineTG]

In the book “The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist” by Matt Baglio (yes movie based on it), Father Carmine would use holy water almost immediately when an afflicted person entered the office. He never told them what it was, but they sure reacted nasty to it.

He sprinkles them or gives them to drink?

 

[Chris_Etzel]

Squirt bottle, oddly enough.

 

[ConstantineTG]

LOL

Reminds me of our former pastor’s story. When during Easter was it, that he would go around through the pews sprinkling holy water on the people. And after Mass one of the altar boys suggested to him to use a Super Soaker instead and get the job done faster