Keep holy water from turning erm... green

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Hey I was just wondering is it ok to mix a little bit of rubbing alcohol with holy water I keep at home to keep it from going bad?
 
I’m pretty sure most parishes add a bit of salt to prevent algae from growing
 
You can either ask the priest to bless some water for you if they don’t mix salt in already, and ask him to also put blessed salt in it, or you can keep the water in the dark.
 
If your roman catholic u may need to put salt in it, but for some reason eastern catholic/orthodox holy water never really goes bad…
 
I don’t know if it’s particularly advisable to cut holy water with another substance. Even diluted rubbing alcohol could irritate the skin and if it gets in the eyes could be really painful. It also can damage vinyl and plastics if you’re of a mind to sprinkle your holy water around.

If you’re keeping a holy water font that’s going brackish, try putting letting less water in the font and washing it out before refilling it.

Luna
 
Have you actually experienced it going green?

I’ve had the same bottle of holy water since my daughter’s baptism. I’ve never done anything special to it and it’s still fine now getting on for two years later.
 
Batfink said:
Have you actually experienced it going green?

I’ve had the same bottle of holy water since my daughter’s baptism. I’ve never done anything special to it and it’s still fine now getting on for two years later.
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Me, too. My holy water bottle has water in it from 4 years ago.
 
THE_ENCORE said:
If your roman catholic u may need to put salt in it, but for some reason eastern catholic/orthodox holy water never really goes bad…
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LOL I was going to say, “use it or lose it.” Mine doesn’t last long enough to go bad. Also, regarding some previous comments- I know that my pastor has put blessed salt into the water at times as part of the blessing, not as a preservative. If someone has holy water that has “turned green” or gone bad in whatever way, perhaps from a contaminated bottle, it is probably time to go get more from the church.
 
Rhuarc said:
Hey I was just wondering is it ok to mix a little bit of rubbing alcohol with holy water I keep at home to keep it from going bad?
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alcohol evaporates, the traditional additive, and it works pretty well, is salt.

like any standing water if it is not used within a week or so dump it, clean the container well, and get fresh.
 
I keep sponges in the holy water fonts in my home. That keeps the holy water from evaporating so fast. It still evaporates, just not as quickly. It’s also not as sanitary, but as there isn’t much traffic in and out of the house, not a big deal.

I have never seen holy water turn green. What kind of vessel are you keeping it in?

It shouldn’t matter, anyway, because you shouldn’t be consuming it.
 
The priest in Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches blesses a large quantity of water involving prayer and scripture readings and candles and the hand cross during our Divine Liturgy on the eve of Theophany, the baptism of our Lord in the Jordan by John. The priest actually immerses the hand cross in the water three times and that cross is far from sterile. We have the big tub of water in the temple for a couple of weeks for people to drink from and take home. People take home various amounts. I usually take home about a quart. One year I had it in one bottle in the cupboard and another out above the sink in a “green house” window. I put it in coffee and soup etc so I had just left it out. I did find that it began to turn green eventually which surprised me. Since then I’m just careful to not leave the bottle in the direct sunlight.

I was taught that water blessed in this annual Great Blessing of Waters is transformed in a way which water blessed in other blessings is not and that would make it incorruptible. And it could be that that particular bottle I had which was sitting out in the sunlight also wasn’t sufficiently clean when I poured the water into it. 🙂
 
to the OP: I think that’s not a good idea to mix it with alcohol, or with anything, actually, including other water.

It goes green because there’s something contaminating it.

I would reverently pour the greenish water into the ground someplace, vigorously clean out the holy water receptacle, let it dry cleanly, and then get a new supply of holy water to start over.

Use a bottle that is clean and has not touched anything that can contaminate it, and don’t put your fingers into the bottle. If you are talking about a font, just let the water evaporate naturally over the course of the week or whatever as you are using it, and then before you refill it, clean out the font carefully as above, and it should never go green.

Salt is not put into the water in the Latin rite in order to keep it from going green - it has liturgical significance (as the prayer indicates). In the 1984 Book of Blessings, salt is not required during the blessing. It is, however, in the Roman Ritual that was in use exclusively until 1984. Many priests prefer to use that older book.
 
Batfink said:
Have you actually experienced it going green?

I’ve had the same bottle of holy water since my daughter’s baptism. I’ve never done anything special to it and it’s still fine now getting on for two years later.
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Yep. Happens to me with the small plastic bottle we use to refill the font by the door. The bottle sits out and the sunlight through the plastic causes creatures to grow. :eek:😛

If you keep the bottle from your daughter’s baptism tucked away in a closet it will likely stay clear for quite some time.

The greeness doesn’t bother us. We go through the holy water pretty fast usually, and addign a bit of salt (blessed or not) does help.
 
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