Friday, February 16, 2007

Holy Water


The Power of Sacramentals

" It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins" (2 Mac 12:46)

Great video in YouTube on the power of holy water, go here to view it. (Tried to embed it, but couldn't get it to copy right!)

Sacramentals are those rites, actions, prayers and objects, instituted by the Church as a means to obtain for the faithful spiritual and temporal favours from God. The sacramentals benefit the faithful by obtaining actual grace, forgiveness of venial sin, remission of temporal punishment, health of body, material blessings, conversion of hearts, and protection from evil spirits.

These effects depend upon the mercy of God Who regards the prayers of the Church, and upon the dispositions of those who use the sacramentals. The chief sacramentals are the many blessings given by members of the clergy, exorcism, and the blessing and use of such objects of devotion as holy water, candles, medals, rosaries and incense.

Father Paul O'Sullivan in "How to Avoid Purgatory":
"Only in Purgatory can one understand ardently the poor souls longing for Holy Water. If we desire to make a host of intercessors for ourselves, let us try to realize now some of their yearnings, and never forget them at the Holy Water font."

When blessing yourself with holy water mentally offer this act for the benefit of the Holy Souls. Consider offering this for priests, especially those of your own parish, who have served the sacraments and said masses. In gratitude offer this act of blessing with holy water several times daily and have Masses offered up for the repose of their souls.

Bless your home, car, workplace, public places such as airplanes, ATM's, train stations,etc. Sprinkle a few drops of Holy Water and pray fervently:
“O God, in Your Mercy multiply these drops into as many drops of Holy Water as there are souls in Purgatory, and allow them not to fear the pains of Purgatory, as long as the moisture of Holy Water is present. Bring down blessings upon this {place, object, area, etc} and all who come into contact with it. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen+”

6 comments:

Staying in Balance said...

Thank you for this post, especially the prayer at the end. I have added you to my link's list on my blog.

Anita Moore said...

Belle, the video you linked to isn't there anymore.

Anita Moore said...

By the way, speaking of holy water, when I was little, I was taught to shake the excess holy water on the ground after I blessed myself, so that these drops would go down to soothe the Souls in Purgatory. I still do this.

Sanctus Belle said...

Anita - Oh what a wonderful idea, I will do this from now on!

Sanctus Belle said...

I see that video was removed by the person who posted it. I suspect it was due to a barrage of negative comments it was attracting on YouTube. Its really too bad, it was a Powerpoint with many suggestions on uses for Holy Water. It comes to mind, how genuine Catholicism, especially as it relates to spiritual warfare is viciously attacked.

Anonymous said...

Sanctus Belle,

I run a website called CatholicDaily (www.catholicdaily.org) - a growing apostolate and we are hoping to make use all of the compiled information on the website to assist in faith-based adult education programs as well as for the purpose of providing solid, apologetic materials to anyone who needs them. Also, we want writers with a focus on spirituality, in general - this may be where you fit into the picture?

I really like your writing that I've seen here on your blog and I wanted to know if you have a minute to visit my site, you will see that I am working with a couple of other contributing authors and I also wanted to ask you if you would consider becoming a contributing writer for our site, as well. By spending a little bit of time poking around our site, you will get a good idea of what sort of topics we try and cover but honestly, if it has anything to do with the Catholic faith, I want to cover it - from current news to articles about matters of faith to doctrine and dogma...I want to have a broad collection of material to work with as I believe this will better our chances of reaching more people in the future once we build our content base a little more.

I must thank you again for such wonderful writing and for your time in reading this and for considering what I propose. May our Lord
bless you abundantly in all you do!

Sincerely in Christ,
Chris