On Blessing of Salt and Water

Don Nugent

Admin · 26 juillet, 14:57

You have heard of "holy" water, right? How about "holy" salt? Catholics use it this way, they tell us, "Salt may also be blessed for use as a sacramental, using the same prayer as is used during the preparation of holy water. This salt may be sprinkled in a room, or across a threshold, or in other places as an invocation of divine protection. This will keep demons and possessed persons away from a home and crossing a line made of salt. It may also be consumed." Is there any scripture at all for this practice? Or is it just another piece of paganism?

My subthread:

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Salt and water are creatures.

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

DM

No they are not! That’s absurd and is witchcraft

Hans-Georg Lundahl

You mean salt and water are uncreated?

Before the beginning, there was God, but also salt and water?

DM

Hans-Georg Lundahl they are not creatures they are not living creatures - do you preach to the air as well?

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Daniel 3:[73] O ye lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever

And yes, there is a prayer which is a blessing for the weather too.

As to "living" that is not stated in Mark 16:15.

DM

a creature is alive, but then I suppose you could preach to dead rabbits, do you? The context of the word itself carries the unspoken adjective living with it as well as the whole phrase.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

"a creature is alive"

So, is water not a creature? Is water eternal and coeternal with God? Is matter indestructible and increatable?

Is God creator only of life?

Obviously that is not true.

So, we preach to and perhaps even more importantly by inanimate creatures as well.

A Bible as material object is inanimate too. Have you never ever seen a pastor in your Church pray over a Bible for all who read it?

Or a cross?

[Or food just before eating - this last point was never answered by either.]

DM

Hans-Georg Lundahl you insist in not staying with the context of the verse so I can’t help you

Don Nugent

Back in the day my Dad had a "pet rock" which I still have and take care of. Part of God's creation but not alive, I am not thaking the rock out for a walk even though it is a pet Now what would be the difference there? One thing, the rock is not alive. In the English language we recognize the difference between God's creation and God's creatures. Creation includes everything, but creatures are just things alive.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

In the Latin language "creatura" means any thing which is created. Things alive would be "viventia" or even "animalia" (if you don't include plants in your usage of "creatures"). Latin is prior to English in the Church.

A Catholic priest would probably have blessed your pet rock with holy water in order to drive out any possible demons from it, for instance.

DM - context does not change meaning.

Souls of not just living but human creatures have been won because two Franciscans took that verse very literally : the father founder St Francis preaching to birds and St Anthony to fish.

Birds flying out like the four arms of a cross or fish lifting heads out of water helped some people think "oh, we should listen to this/that guy" and that saved their souls.

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Sacramentals
http://newadvent.com/cathen/13292d.htm

Summa Theologiae TP Q[87] Of The Remission Of Venial Sin
http://summa-theologiae.org/question/50903.htm

Don Nugent

Hans-Georg Lundahl He had better leave my pet rock alone.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Better for him, if you'r[e] in a bad mood, perhaps, not sure it's better for you!

Don Nugent

He should go back to preaching to birds and fishes for all the good it does. And he just missed Shark Week. Too bad. I don't think there is a Great White Shark in heaven somehow. Birds would be nice though. Taken altogether, preaching to birds and fishes, is what generally here in Florida could land you in the loony bin.

DM

Hans-Georg Lundahl context is always part of the meaning

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Don Nugent There are no birds or fish from the audience of Sts Francis or Anthony in Heaven - as far as we know, unless God made an exception.

There ARE some crowds of human souls up there, who converted on seeing the behaviour of fish and fowl to those preachers.

Precisely as St Peter's caught and eaten fish presumably are not in Heaven, but he is due to the circumstances when catching them.

DM There is nothing in the context which goes against the Catholic practise.

Also, no - if no sentence had a meaning of its own apart from context, there could be no contextual meaning either, since the sentence you start building that from could be one you misunderstood due to taking that out of context.

However, I will give you : social context about what "creatura" means (Latin in His time and English in ours, slight transscription) is relevant to meaning.

DM will be credited in full name, if so wishing ...