Holy Water

Holy water is a sacramental, a religuous object created by the Catholic Church as opposed to those instituted by Jesus himself. Helpful but optional, sacramentals are viewed as inferior to the seven sacraments, which are seen as necessary in order to receive grace from God. Sacraments give the recipient a special grace necessary to fulfill the corresponding sacrament, but sacramentals offer a different sort of grace, depending on the recipient's demeanor. In other words, sacraments give grace regardless of the spiritual state of the recipient. For example, a groom who is in the state of mortal sin can still be legitimately married. However, a groom with mortal sin on his soul will not receive any grace from the blessing given by the priest to the newlyweds. As an analogy, think of sacraments as food for the soul and sacramentals as supplemental vitamins.

Holy water (water blessed by a member of the clergy) is the most widely-used sacramental. Holy water is often depicted in pop culture as being used to drive out demons, and it can be used for that purpose by the Church on rare occasions. Usually, however, it's used as a symbolic reminder of Baptism. Whenever they enter or leave a church, Catholics will dip their right hands (usually two fingers) into a font, which is a bowl of holy water that's near the door to the church. They will then make the sign of the cross with that hand, touching their forehead, chest, and shoulders. This is a visible reminder that the person is entering the House of God.

Holy water is also occasionally sprinkled on the congregation whenever a priest chooses to do so instead of performing the Penitential Rite, which would otherwise occur at that point. Individual Catholics also take small quantities of water to fill their own fonts at home. They will bless themselves whenever they leave their house.

Anytime a priest blesses a religious article (such as a rosary), he will sprinkle holy water onto the object after saying a prayer of blessing. The holy water reminds the owner that the object is now reserved only for sacred use and cannot be used for any profane (nonreligious) purposes. In case you were wondering, holy water is blessed when Baptisms are celebrated in the Church, particularly during the Easter vigil, which takes place the Saturday night before Easter Sunday. However, it can be blessed any time of year when the quantity runs out.