Holy Water

When I was still new to Hawai'i, I heard or read about how rainbows were regarded as blessings. I had already experienced the gentle rain that was sufficient to produce a rainbow but not enough to cause me to run for cover if I was out on the street. I thought, "How cool." Then the old spirituality that saw God's hand in the rainbow and a sign of God's providence through it. And I began the habit that continues to this day of making the sign of the cross whenever I see a rainbow.

The purpose of this gesture, for me, has several parts:

• I recognize God's hand in the world around me
• I remind myself that God is in charge
• I remember that it's not all about me. It's all about God.
• I claim God's strength in a world that too often seems bereft of the Godly

Something like that happens whenever I make the sign of the cross with holy water. I first discovered it for my personal devotions many years ago. As a child I would have thought of holy water, if at all, as one of those strange magical things that Roman Catholics do. Then, in my 20's I discovered that making the sign of the cross with the holy water at the entrance to an Episcopal Church I attended allowed me to mark the entrance into a sacred space, to recognize God's sphere of activity. It became a holy gesture. I have appreciated holy water ever since.

I was so touched when so many folk took little vials of holy water after my sermon last Sunday. My emphasis on Sunday had been the connection between the salt and the water and our baptism into Christ's death and resurrection. The water is for us a sign of of deliverance and the passage from death to life. Whenever we use it it becomes a blessing because of that sign.

I also made some reference to how salt, and holy water (sometimes with salt in it) is a way to claim God's blessing on a place, a blessing that casts out darkness, a blessing that claims God's sovereignty. It could be over a place, over a thing, over a time.

So in answer to the question, "What do I do with this vial of water?" I would say:

• Remember and Proclaim God's blessing whenever you feel the need for reminding.
• After a long day. After a trying time. Take the vial out, sprinkle it on your hand. If you feel comfortable with the gesture, make the sign of the cross: touch your fingers to your forehead, your diaphragm, your left breast and then your right breast. There are variations that include touching your thumb to your mouth and the eastern orthodox have a slight variation. It all means the same thing.
• If you feel dis-ease within yourself or your surroundings. That is an illness or a discomfort of any kind, sprinkle the water to remind yourself, to claim for yourself, that God is in charge. That in God "all shall be well."