A few reminders from Fr Z about Holy Water

I benefit from refreshers on Holy Water from time to time.

Blessed Salt too.

Use them.  A lot.

Have a small bottle in your purse, in your desk at work, in your car, buy a contest for your house and keep it filled.

Any time you experience the slightest feeling that something is off, going wrong.  The devil hates it and takes flight.

Find a priest who says the Latin Mass, buy a gallon of distilled water and some Kosher salt and call to make arrangements to have him perform the Rite.

Don't dilute it.

A few weeks back I went into an antique store to try to find an antique pin.  The woman who ran the store, a lovely woman, told me the building was an old freemason's hall and after that, a funeral parlor.   She told me she was into ghost chasing, showed me a few pictures of ghosts captured in and around the building and on ghost tours in CE!Etwroes and other places around town.  She took me to the funeral parlor room and said a woman comes once a week for small group sessions to summon the dead, how she "cleans" things with sage.

When I find people who are caught up in "ghost" hunting, I try to find ways to explain that these manifestations do rarely occur, but they are souls trying to reach out to us in their suffering to ask us for prayer.   

And, my simple response to an invitation to summon the dead is to explain I am a practicing Catholic and follow Church teaching on the matter.  They are often practicing Catholics too and it's enough to drop the seeds upon their thick heads, praying for them to take root.

I couldn't get out of the antique stores fast enough, and when I got to my car, I rummaged through it to see if I had Holy Water.  I was so glad to find it.    It is a good practice to keep supplies in various places to use when you come across a little locus of principalities and powers.  And I don't have to tell TTC readers, these sacramentals are not magical forces that are effective in a state of mortal sin, so always keep yourself in a state of Sanctifying Grace.   Most demons would rather host on somebody who is less work to convince, but there are demons who like the challenge and if you enter a locus, they'll hop a ride on your back to cause mischief with you or in your home.

With the 100th anniversary of Fatima, it is a big year for spiritual stuff.  Keep on your toes!