The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-06-24

SUNDAY QoeS me NnuTCH WiSH 40 "
preserve in our homes the water that
is blessed and distributed in the
Church on Holy Saturday?
Several questions of a similar inn
port have been received by this de-
partment since last Easter Sunday.
The interest thus shown may justify
us in saying word about Holy
Water is general. The use of water
in religious ceremonies did not begin
in the Christian era. 1t was common
ly in use both in the Pagan and
Jewish religious worship. The Mosaic
law which gives us the first detailed
account of the obseryances to be FOL
lowed in divine worship, mentions IN
several places the religious use OF
water. In the book of Numbers, chap.
10, for instance, God commands Moses
to preserve the ashes that remain
from the burnt sacrifice for sin, and
these ashes are to be mingled with
water, which is to be sprinkled on
any one who has become deiled, and
the sprinkling is to be made on the
third and seventh day. Thus the one
defiled was purified. In pagan
temples also water was commonly
used in the religious ritual. The
Roman shepherd we are told sprinkled
his sheep with water and offered
incense and sacrifices to Pales,
the god of shepherds. How water
came 10 be so commonly used
=, C,br; .;o, ,oI;o;o,,c ritac 1Oay have
a natural explanation first in the ma
ture of the element itself, as it is
well adapted for removing physical
and external deflements and so its
use is readily symbolical of the in
ternal and spiritual cleanliness that
is desired Secondly, the fact that
its religious use had been so general
before the Christian era urged the
Apostles to allow it still to be used
applying to it Christian Specification
and thereby supplanting the supersti-
tious use to which it had been put by
had appointed water to be used in the
sacrament that admitted one into His
kingdom. unless one is born again
Of water and the Holy Ghost, etc.
Going baptize." The water
actually used in administering bap-
tism became thereby the material
element of the sacrament. The
reverence for the sacrament was at
tached by the faithful to the water
We see this today in the eagernesS
with which Catholics supply them
selves with the water that is blessed
by the Church for baptismal water.
For these various reasons, it is
possible and at least somewhat
probable that water was used by
Christians in religious ceremonies as
holy water even in the beginning of
the Christian era. We have not pre-
served for us, however, any historical
evidence of the fact reaching back
farther than the end of the fourth
century. The earliest Christian legis-
lation that we have handed down to
us on the question is that of Pope Leo
", who ordered that each priest bless
water every Saturday in his own
church and sprinkle the people with
it. We have, however, in the ritual
of Bishop Serapion, who lived in the
fourth century, the prayer used in
blessing water and oil during the
Mass. That it was an established
custom to bless water in the public
liturgy Of the Church about the year
375 would tend TO show that the
practice had already obtained for some
considerable time.
The Church today has various
blessings for water that is, when
blessed, used in her different liturgical
functions. There is a special bless
ing, for instance, given to water that
is to be used in the baptism or
blessing of a bell; another for water
to be used in blessing the corner
stone and foundation of a church,
another for the water used in the
conservation of a church, another for
the water to be used in administering
baptism, and another for the water
used ordinarily throughout the year
in sprinkling the people before the
Mass on Sunday.
The faithful are more generally
acquainted with the last two; the
former of which, in churches supplied
with a baptismal font, is blessed on
Holy Saturday and on the vigil OF
Pentecost. In both cases the water
is intended to be used in administer.
ing baptism. 1t is blessed only on
these days because formerly baptism
was administered, except in case OF
necessity, only on Easter and Pente
cost. 1t is with this water before the
holy oils are mingled with it that
the priest sprinkles the people on
these two Sundays and which the
Church invites the people to take to
their homes and to sprinkle it in their
homes, on their farms, on their grain
on their stock, etc.
Does the Church expect this "Eas
ter Water" as it is commonly called
to be reserved in the homes through
out the year? We are not acquainted
with any positive legislation of the
Church for or against this custom
Nevertheless many facts in the disci
pine of the Church discourage us
from following any such practice. Ii
the first place, there is no positive
authorization in its favor. Secondly
the Church forbids the priest to bless
the water on Holy Saturday and the
vigil of Pentecost if there is ne
baptismal font in the Church. Thi:
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