Sprinkling holy water in your home

[Searching1]

Every few days I am taking my little bottle of holy water and sprinkling my home with this sacramental. I am throwing the water so it falls on the ground, the furniture, the appliances, etc., and I am asking God to bless my home and all who dwell in it.

This isn’t sacrilegious, correct? Because I walk and sit upon those places where the holy water falls.

 

[Sursumcorda1]

That is what we do. Remember that you can replenish your Holy Water by adding water to it as long as the original Holy Water doesn’t go below half the volume.

 

[Gorgias]

Remember that you can replenish your Holy Water by adding water to it as long as the original Holy Water doesn’t go below half the volume.

Authoritative reference, please, or else this is just an “old wives’ tale.”

 

[Sursumcorda1]

The GIRM didn’t have it, but the 1962 Sancta Missa (https://sanctamissa.org/en/resource...7-the-sacrament-of-baptism-general-rules.html ) instructs the following about baptismal water which possibly infers the same instructions for a vial or bottle of Holy Water:

1. If the baptismal water has so diminished that it is foreseen it will not suffice, unblessed water may be added even repeatedly, but in lesser quantity than the blessed each time this is done.

 

[Fauken]

I don’t think though that infers that the unblessed water becomes blessed. Using holy water is preferred for baptism, but water that hasn’t been blessed is perfectly valid material to use for baptism, and that is I think the point of that statement in the Sancta Missa.

 

[Gorgias]

instructs the following about baptismal water which possibly infers the same instructions for a vial or bottle of Holy Water

I’m not convinced that this is a valid inference.

I couldn’t find the “blessing of water” – which would be the relevant reference, no? – at the SanctaMissa site, so I pulled my copy of “The Roman Ritual – Volume 3 – The Blessings”, and read the rite there. There’s a “translator’s note” at the beginning of “The Blessing of Holy Water” that makes an interesting comment:

The holy-water font is a counterpart of the baptismal font; the sacramental is related to the great sacrament. … On the Lord’s day the Church blesses water to be used in the renewal of baptism. … The rubrics direct that this water be blessed either in sacristy or sanctuary.

So, although they’re “related”, we see that the rubrics call for the “blessing of water” and not the “pouring of water into previously blessed water.”

At the start of the rite, the following rubric is stated:

On Sundays, or whenever water must be blessed, salt and fresh water are prepared in church or in the sacristy.

At the conclusion of the rite, the following rubric appears:

Christ’s faithful are permitted to take holy water home with them to sprinkle the sick, their homes, vineyards, and the like. It is recommended too that they put it in fonts in the various rooms, so that daily and frequently they may use it to bless themselves.

So… what do we see here? I think the following are clear:

• priests may add water to the baptismal font to “top it off”. Remember, however, that there’s a blessing of water as part of the baptismal rite.
• priests bless fresh water in church.
• the laity are recommended to take blessed water home and use it regularly.
• Nowhere is it mentioned that laity (or clergy!) should augment holy water for blessings with fresh unblessed water.

Agreed?

So: if you need holy water, don’t “top off” what you have. Ask your priest to bless water for you.

 

[Sursumcorda1]

Good information! I won’t be “topping off” my holy water anymore. I know someone who brings 2L soda bottles which have been emptied, cleaned, and filled with tap water, to the priests for a blessing, and they don’t have any problem with blessing a large amount of water.