Talk:Holy water

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This is a decent article as far as it goes, but I see a couple ways it could be improved:

• It should also discuss the role of holy water in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
• While there is lots here about the mechanics and rules etc. regarding holy water, there is little or nothing of the theology that underlies its use.
• Anyone want to take a stab at why Protestants don't bless water, or use holy water? Do Lutherans or Anglicans use it?

I'll work on these areas as time allows, but help is always welcome. Something to think about: how should the Catholic and Orthodox sections be organized; how little or much should they be split? For example, the Orthodox bless holy water at Theophany (January 6) each year, not Easter, and distribute it at that time. Thus it's connected with Jesus' baptism. The bit about the different sorts of holy water (Gregorian etc.) sounds pretty close, but they probably have different names for them at the least. Wesley 05:36, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Lack of information is the chief reason why I did not address Orthodox holy water.  :) Holy water is addressed only briefly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church; I will add a reference to it. Some history of the practice might also be nice. Smerdis of Tlön 13:26, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)

• Perhaps, in the section "Anglican Holy Water", the word "Anglicans" should be changed to Anglo-Catholics (or High-Church Anglicans), as it should be noted that the majority of Anglicans neither use statues nor bless themselves with holy water at Church (I'm speaking primarily from experience here). Irishmaestro 00:38, 27 Feb 2006 (GMT)

Contents 1 Weapon against unholy creatures 2 Popular culture 3 Introduction 4 Density 5 Possible vandalism? 6 Origins?

[edit] Weapon against unholy creatures

As widely known, holy water also is a successful weapon against unholy creatures like vampires or zombies. I think this should be mentioned in the article. --IN·VINO·VERITAS (talk) 06:19, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Popular culture

I have no problem with this section as such, but do we really need to provide transcripts of dialogue from multiple TV shows? TCC (talk) (contribs) 07:38, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

• How do you on-holy hloy water? What is its exact opposite?

The opposite of holy water is cursed water, or "unholy water". To obtain it, drop bottles of tap water on a non-aligned altar (e.g. if you are Christian, use a Muslim or Buddhist altar), then pray. Note that this may be dangerous in several ways. Muad 04:15, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Introduction

"Aside from other substances that may be added to the water as it is blessed, holy water is indistinguishable from ordinary water[citation needed]." Why does a citation need to be added to that? The chemical make up does not change at all, unless the person blessing the water has particularly bad breath and breathes near it.

The Roman Catholics add salt. In the Orthodox Baptismal rite, but not at other time when holy water is blessed, oil is poured in as the water is blessed. In those cases, you can detect either salty or oily water, so to that extent the water is distinguishable. But it beats me why anyone would think a cite is needed for such a trivially true statement. TCC (talk) (contribs) 23:44, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Density

I understand that holy water has a different density than normal water. What is the difference? In theory, I would assume that the molecules in holy water would have more energy, and therefore be less dense than normal water... This logic seems sound, assuming that the blessing adds energy. Doesn't this make sense? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 159.178.50.186 (talk • contribs).

In a word, no. TCC (talk) (contribs) 21:12, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Are the Blessing Propagations (measured in m/s) and Blessing Contents (measured in ppm) for real? I had to laugh out loud reading that section, wondering how one could assign scientific measures to a belief system. Do "Blessions" add to the molecular weight of the Holy Water? Where do Blessions appear on the Periodic Table? ...thanks! Promethh 13:59, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Possible vandalism?

In the first paragraph: "... holy water is water which has been passed by a priest..." I don't know enough about the subject to say one way or the other, so I haven't changed it; while the word may be used in the context of "passed quality control", 'passing water' is a wee bit different. --StarChaser Tyger (talk) 06:30, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

I've reverted that vandalism before. :( jonathon (talk) 11:57, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Origins?

I think a section describing how and when Holy Water came into use would be very helpful. Does anyone have any sources for this? Paulistano (talk) 03:40, 29 January 2008 (UTC)paulistano