Not that it matters, I couldn't care less... but FYI
The wafer-and-wine-to-body-and-blood-of-Christ is a specific ritual called the "consecration."
A "blessing" is something pretty simple. My wife bought a Rosary in Saint Peter's in Rome and had one of the hundreds of priests about, bless the Rosary, it was a simple prayer and a sign-of-the-cross with the hand.
Some Catholics have a priest come to their home for a blessing, I've seen a priest come with a little flask of holy water and scatter a few drops, again a little prayer and the sign of the cross.
I don't honestly know how one makes tap water into "Holy Water." I think the main source of the "Holy Water" is the larger baptismal font that every church has, and from that, water is put into the smaller receptacles at the entrances to the church so people can dip a finger and bless themselves while making the sign of the cross.
There are also persons called "Eucharistic Ministers" who are regular folks, they probably have to sit through some four-hour training session, and they pass out the wafers and wine at communion, assisting the priest.
Consecrated wafers and wine can also be "stored" so that a priest can gather a few to administer to someone in a hospital, for example, he doesn't have to do the whole ritual over again. I think only the priest can do that.
The guy wanting to take the consecrated wafer home... I don't see the harm in it, he probably sincerely believes that it will be good for him to have "just in case" he's having a heart attack, or he senses Lucifer is present, or whatever loony pretext... but I suppose the priests don't want this practice repeated, so they want to stop it so others don't attempt it.
More useless trivia: Catholics can't receive communion more than once per day (there is an "abbreviated" Mass, Monday through Saturday), except on Easter Sunday, they can receive communion twice. There is also a full Mass Saturday evening, for people that can't get to Mass Sunday
reply
share
Otter (24464)
3 years ago
"I don't honestly know how one makes tap water into "Holy Water." I think the main source of the "Holy Water" is the larger baptismal font that every church has, and from that, water is put into the smaller receptacles at the entrances to the church so people can dip a finger and bless themselves while making the sign of the cross."
Ah, but how does the holy water get into the baptismal font? I was told that the Pope himself blesses warehouses full of water, making it holy, and it's shipped all over the world to go into baptismal fonts! What a weird job the Pope has, weirder than royalty.
reply
share
chilidoggg (14327)
3 years ago
I seriously doubt that that is how the water is made "holy." I would guess that when a church opens for the first time, there's a big celebration, and likely the Bishop, or the Archbishop or Cardinal in a larger region (or richer parish), comes and does some specific ritual on the water in the baptismal font, and it becomes like the sourdough bread dough, it retains the "holiness" forever, and all someone has to do is get the garden hose and replenish it from time to time.
Another bit of trivia: the expression "hocus pocus" often referenced in magic tricks, comes from the language in the consecration (when the Mass was in Latin.) Apparently this was offensive to Catholics, or so I was told by an old Irish priest many moons ago.
reply
share