Holy water is a sacramental used by the Catholic Church. Like all sacramentals, holy water works with the sacraments and brings us closer to God.
As a sign of Baptism, being sprinkled or making the sign of the Cross with holy water reminds Catholics of the grace of Baptism and their baptismal promises.
When used with faith and prayer, holy water can remove venial sins and protect against evil and illness.
Holy water is used for dedications, exorcisms, and to bless people, places, and things.
Bishops, priests, or deacons can make holy water, taking ordinary water and using different prayers to ask God to bless it, cleanse and purify it, making it holy and set apart for sacred use.
Regular water that is blessed:
Holy water reminds us:
Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man. In accordance with bishops’ pastoral decisions, they can also respond to the needs, culture, and special history of the Christian people of a particular region or time. They always include a prayer, often accompanied by a specific sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling of holy water (which recalls Baptism).
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1668
Assisting in the spiritual life and fighting off evil:
Helping to bring God’s grace to people:
In effect, Sunday is the day above all other days which summons Christians to remember the salvation which was given to them in Baptism and which has made them new in Christ. “You were buried with Him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead”. The liturgy underscores this baptismal dimension of Sunday, both in calling for the celebration of Baptisms — as well as at the Easter Vigil — on the day of the week “when the Church commemorates the Lord’s Resurrection”, and in suggesting as an appropriate penitential rite at the start of Mass the sprinkling of holy water, which recalls the moment of Baptism in which all Christian life is born.
Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini, May 31, 1998
A beautiful Catholic practice:
Used to bless people, places, and things:
Holy water is a powerful sacramental:
In an earthen vessel he shall take holy water, as well as some dust from the floor of the tabernacle and put it in the water.
Numbers 5: 17
God uses water and other matter:
Using holy water is not superstitious:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
A history of cheerfulness:
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