Is the Sea of Galilee a giant natural holy water font?

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AveOTheotokos

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With how prominent the Sea of Galilee is in the gospels and the miracles that took place in, on, and around it, I was wondering… is the water considered holy water?

The lake is fed by the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptized), so I’m curious if it is/could be/ever was considered to be a kind of natural holy water font or relic?

If it was holy water in the past, how long would that characteristic last (evaporation, non holy rain water, etc) or would the effect be permanent? Is there any tradition/history in our church of this being a belief?

Just a curiosity that crossed my mind today and I figured I would throw it out here and see what ideas come back.
 
AveOTheotokos said:
With how prominent the Sea of Galilee is in the gospels and the miracles that took place in, on, and around it, I was wondering… is the water considered holy water?

The lake is fed by the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptized), so I’m curious if it is/could be/ever was considered to be a kind of natural holy water font or relic?

If it was holy water in the past, how long would that characteristic last (evaporation, non holy rain water, etc) or would the effect be permanent? Is there any tradition/history in our church of this being a belief?

Just a curiosity that crossed my mind today and I figured I would throw it out here and see what ideas come back.
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I don’t think it would be because pretty much none of the water in the sea today is water that Jesus touched. Holy water fonts are continually refilled and re-blessed. Apart from the water of Lourdes, I don’t know of any water that is considered blessed simply for being part of a specific body of water.
 
AveOTheotokos said:
The lake is fed by the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptized), so I’m curious if it is/could be/ever was considered to be a kind of natural holy water font or relic?
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I think the Jordan river flows FROM the Sea of Galilee TO the Dead Sea.

But on a more positive note, the water used to baptize Jesus has evaporated, formed into clouds which travel all over the world, and “baptizes” the Earth every time it rains.
 
ricmat said:
I think the Jordan river flows FROM the Sea of Galilee TO the Dead Sea.

But on a more positive note, the water used to baptize Jesus has evaporated, formed into clouds which travel all over the world, and “baptizes” the Earth every time it rains.
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The SOG is not the head of the River Jordan, which flows into, and then out of the Sea again.

ICXC NIKA
 
AveOTheotokos said:
With how prominent the Sea of Galilee is in the gospels and the miracles that took place in, on, and around it, I was wondering… is the water considered holy water?

The lake is fed by the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptized), so I’m curious if it is/could be/ever was considered to be a kind of natural holy water font or relic?

If it was holy water in the past, how long would that characteristic last (evaporation, non holy rain water, etc) or would the effect be permanent? Is there any tradition/history in our church of this being a belief?

Just a curiosity that crossed my mind today and I figured I would throw it out here and see what ideas come back.
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No.

It is nice to have a little bottle of water from the Jordan or from the Sea of Galilee as a souvenir and it nice to have that water blessed by a priest but that is as far as it goes.
 
We also don’t know where our LORD was baptized, whether in the north by the SOG, or further down into Judaea.

Historians believe the second, but that area being off-limits, a spot in the north is part of the standard pilgrimage route.

ICXC NIKA
 
Thanks for all the replies! This has been such a random pondering today, and I’m very glad to see peoples thoughts on it.

I have read elsewhere on the forums that plain water added to holy water becomes holy water as long as there is less plain water added than there is holy water (though not the desired method to make more, blessing by a priest is preferred).

If the Sea of Galilee was ever holy water, and the above is true of plain water that is added to holy water, I would assume that way less water was added at any individual given time from rain, but a constant flow from the Jordan and back out to the Jordan may have washed it’s holiness away.

In my digging around today, I also saw that Lourdes is considered “non-liturgical” holy water, along with water from holy wells and from places associated with saintly apparitions. If these sources don’t loose their status as holy water, I would think that the Sea of Galilee might possibly retain it’s status as well, being a water source touched by Jesus himself several times.

I guess the question is, does being touched by Jesus during miracle working make it holy water, or would it specifically have to have been intended to be holy water?

A woman was healed when she touched “the fringe of His garments”, not because Jesus had intended for his clothes to heal all who touched them, but because of her faith that if she could just touch the fringe of them, she would be healed.

If we had faith that the waters touched by Jesus himself was holy water just the same as the water blessed by priests today, would that make it so?

Just to be clear, this is not a major theological issue or anything, but only random curiosity as to what people think on the matter 👍
 
HelenRose said:
No.

It is nice to have a little bottle of water from the Jordan or from the Sea of Galilee as a souvenir and it nice to have that water blessed by a priest but that is as far as it goes.
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I had the great fortune to go up there back in 09 and to bring back some standard water bottles filled from there.

While I did not deliberately get them blessed, in the bus to the airport, our priest leader performed a blessing for all the “stuff” being brought back. I’d imagine that was enough.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
I had the great fortune to go up there back in 09 and to bring back some standard water bottles filled from there.

While I did not deliberately get them blessed, in the bus to the airport, our priest leader performed a blessing for all the “stuff” being brought back. I’d imagine that was enough.

ICXC NIKA
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I also have a little bottle too and it has been blessed. It is a good thing but we need to be careful about making more of it than it is.
 
AveOTheotokos said:
With how prominent the Sea of Galilee is in the gospels and the miracles that took place in, on, and around it, I was wondering… is the water considered holy water?

The lake is fed by the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptized), so I’m curious if it is/could be/ever was considered to be a kind of natural holy water font or relic?

If it was holy water in the past, how long would that characteristic last (evaporation, non holy rain water, etc) or would the effect be permanent? Is there any tradition/history in our church of this being a belief?

Just a curiosity that crossed my mind today and I figured I would throw it out here and see what ideas come back.
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I’ve been on that lake, I never thought of it that way. I like your idea :cool:

If this land is called the “holy land” why then can’t the lake be called holy as well? As you point out the water coming in and out of the lake is the Jordan River. Jesus was baptized in the Jourdan. He calmed the storm on the lake, He walked on that lake as did Peter, He fished on that lake. He ate fish out of that lake. BTW the fish caught out of that lake are called St Peter’s fish. (Tilapia).

We took large bottles of Jordan water home with us for purposes of mixing that water with water for baptisms of our friends babies. Unfortunately those bottles of water are long gone now.

Obviously “holy” water as we know it has to be blessed. But I still like your idea in the grand scale of things, like the holy land is holy
 
AveOTheotokos said:
With how prominent the Sea of Galilee is in the gospels and the miracles that took place in, on, and around it, I was wondering…** is the water considered holy water?**

The lake is fed by the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptized), so I’m curious if it is/could be/ever was considered to be a kind of natural holy water font or relic?

If it was holy water in the past, how long would that characteristic last (evaporation, non holy rain water, etc) or would the effect be permanent? Is there any tradition/history in our church of this being a belief?

Just a curiosity that crossed my mind today and I figured I would throw it out here and see what ideas come back.
Click to expand...
No.
 
AveOTheotokos said:
With how prominent the Sea of Galilee is in the gospels and the miracles that took place in, on, and around it, I was wondering… is the water considered holy water?

The lake is fed by the Jordan River (where Jesus was baptized), so I’m curious if it is/could be/ever was considered to be a kind of natural holy water font or relic?

If it was holy water in the past, how long would that characteristic last (evaporation, non holy rain water, etc) or would the effect be permanent? Is there any tradition/history in our church of this being a belief?

Just a curiosity that crossed my mind today and I figured I would throw it out here and see what ideas come back.
Click to expand...
No. And it was not considered so in the past as well.

But your idea is tempting though. There was so much happening there with and by the Lord. If we can kiss the relic of the saints, what more then those places that Jesus had set his feet on and performed miracles.

On the other hand, in the extreme, we can get carried away and make tbe sea a cult, which it is not.
 
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