This thread (predictably) brings out certain types to do their thing.

Holy Water is available in most Catholic Churches.  It is usually found in an urn, with a spigot, out in the entryway.  

Feel free to go get some, yes, even you respectful skeptics--the key word being "respectful"--bring a water bottle and fill it up.  The Holy Water in your bottle is a sacramental.  

It has a trace of Blessed salt dissolved in it--and it is a physical embodiment of the Blessing imparted by the Priest.

Consider it a curiosity, if you like, you don't have to show it any extraordinary veneration--but again, don't do anything overtly DIS-respectful with it.

While you are there, consider doing something, just out of respect--even respect for the unknown or of possibilities in which you do not personally believe, go a little deeper into the church, even the top of the center aisle is fine, and bow toward the Altar--bow and if you feel so inclined, ask a God who may or may not exist to make Himself known to you, let Him know that that if He does exist that you would want to know.

Then go about your life, maybe with an openness toward the unexpected.

If God wants to let you know that He exists, you'll know it.

Do you ever wonder what Jesus thinks about you so cavalierly belittling and slandering half of Christendom as being somehow contemptuous and beneath you?

It's funny--the arrogance and condescension of the various sects and denominations--in all my time in a church pew I've NEVER ONCE heard disparaging remarks about non-Catholic Christians from the pulpit in any Catholic church or from the mouth of any priest, even privately.

There is something wrong, there.  Deeply wrong.

Maybe you don't, maybe nobody really does, but the ritual and respect can help a lot of people keep their focus where it should be.  Maybe you should think before you talk trash about what's done by other people with their hearts in the right place.

It can be handy to have around:

The Spanish and Portuguese explorers who sailed their little ships west always had a priest onboard for two reasons. One was to make holy water. Holy water loses potency as it gains distance from the place it was made. So they had to make more fresh holy water from time to time.
The other reason was to convert whatever savages they encountered to Catholicism. Whether they wanted to convert or not. The soldiers would cut off a few natives heads and the rest volunteered to become Catholic.

I thought it was made of religious dogma—written by men who think g-d “talks” to them.

Wouldn’t an omnipotent & omnipotent g-d have mastered all forms of written, spoken, digital & other forms of communication?

Or, would a man, with a desire to control other men—be the desired communication form from an omnipotent & omniscient g-d….?

Who can truly understand the mystery of g-d’s plan…?

Oh, right—only certain men.

Lol... what you talking about? " Loses potency with distance"

Side note - kosher doesn’t mean blessed by a rabbi. It’s more that the rabbi certifies that the kosher process was maintained.

But back to holy water - yep. Water that’s been blessed by a priest. It’s commonly used for baptism and to renew / remember our baptismal vows.

So yeah anything blesses - especially when it’s used to reinforce our vows to God - is going to be hated by Satan. Cos Satan wants us to feel isolated from God.


I’ve never heard that holy water loses potency. That sounds like bad theology.

And yes the Spanish were the “convert or die” type but frankly Mary did a better job of bringing people to her Son. (Our Lady of Guadalupe)

As a Catholic, I find the rhetoric in here from other Christians bizarre and foreign. Not so much that they have those thoughts, I just can't see myself ever reciprocating them. Many sound like the resident atheists we have trolling around.

Kosher: the oldest evidence-based food safety system which had not been updated since its inception.

Why? You don't think that Jesus Christ can delegate?

And that is my problem,   I don't have any faith. And pretending to have it when I don't would be hypocrisy at the very least.

Dihydrogen Monoxide is a very dangerous chemical. It has quite literally killed more people than the plague.
The only things I can recall that Jesus did with water was baptize His disciples, turn it into wine, and walk on it. Oh, and of course drink it. He didn't seem to be overly concerned about using it in ceremonial washing, but as a Jew I'm sure He did a ton of that too.

@nothumanactual

Your teacher speaks truthfully. Kaballah is a beautiful path. I wish you well on your journey. It has sustained me well for the last 25 yrs.

There are better scenes in that movie that involve Charlize Theron.

Do you mean in the 1,436 years before the printing press existed, when only a tiny fraction of people even knew how to read?

Gee--I WONDER why illiterate masses needed learned men to lead them.

Oh, wait--no I don't.