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Orlando, Florida – In remarks at the opening session here of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) International Christian Media Convention on Monday night, Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to continue taking on woke agendas, make pro-family decisions and support Americans’ right to practice their faith. DeSantis, believed to be throwing his hat in the ring (on Wednesday) as a presidential candidate in 2024, spoke through strong applause at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando as he outlined his views on protecting faith and family. DeSantis began by telling a personal story about the personal importance of a bottle of holy...

Due to several requests we have received since the Catholic Liturgical Library went down about the practice of removing holy water from fonts during Lent, I am reposting the official answer here. The Library should be back up tomorrow. Can the holy water be removed from fonts during Lent? No. Here is a letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship responding to this question on 3/14/03: Prot. N. 569/00/L Dear Father: This Congregation for Divine Worship has received your letter sent by fax in which you ask whether it is in accord with liturgical law to remove the Holy Water...

“Something in the Water” (Mark 1:4-11; Romans 6:1-11; Genesis 1:1-5)I don’t listen to pop music or country music on the radio, but recently I read that there is a song that’s popular on the airwaves right now that makes some references to baptism. That caught my attention, naturally, so I looked it up and listened to it online. It’s a song called “Something in the Water,” by a singer named Carrie Underwood. I don’t know if you’ve heard it or not. But it does have to do with baptism. Now very likely it’s coming from a theological perspective on baptism...

Russian Warship Gets Holy Water Blessing © Photo JSC Shipbuilding plant «Severnaya verf» MOSCOW, April 1 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s newest Baltic Fleet warship was sprinkled with holy water during a blessing over the weekend, a Navy spokesman said on Monday. The Project 20380 Boiky corvette, which is currently undergoing sea trials, was blessed by a priest in a ceremony attended by the corvette’s crew, said Baltic Fleet spokesman Capt. 2nd Rank Vladimir Matveyev. The priest blessed the corvette’s hull, weapons systems and superstructures, as well as the ship’s interior. The trials are due to end by mid-April, Matveyev said....

HUNTSVILLE, January 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An elderly woman was handcuffed and charged with misdemeanor harassment after spraying holy water outside a Huntsville abortion facility. Joyce Fecteau, who is in her seventies, was arrested after pro-abortion counter protestors complained after coming into contact with holy water from the spray bottle she was carrying. Pro-abortion demonstrator Lisa Cox accused Fecteau of spraying her in the face with an “unknown substance.” She claims the incident occurred December 22 on the sidewalk outside the “Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives” abortion clinic. As a result of Cox’s allegations, Fecteau was arrested outside the...

The true nature of water has its destiny in the salvation of man and the world. The blessing of waters doesn’t “make bad water good”. It restores the water to its original state. The prayer at the blessing of water causes the revelation of the true 'nature' and 'destiny' of water, and thus of the world. By being restored through the blessing to its proper function water becomes again a means of communion with God. Christ in His baptism purified the nature of the waters. He came to redeem not only human beings but, through them, the entire material...

POMPANO BEACH, Fla., - A Florida school district said two teachers are under investigation for allegations they poured holy water on an atheist colleague. Schandra Rodriguez, a teacher at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach who identifies herself as an atheist, alleges colleagues Leslie Rainer and Djuna Robinson, both self-proclaimed Christians, poured holy water on her March 11 because of her beliefs, WPLG-TV, Miami, reported Tuesday. The Broward School Board said Rainer and Robinson were removed from their classrooms and the allegations are being investigated. Johnny McCray Jr., an attorney for the pair, said the incident was a joke...

POMPANO BEACH — Two teachers accused of sprinkling holy water onto an avowed atheist colleague have been removed from the classroom, and may be fired. The teacher who was allegedly sprinkled filed a complaint with the Broward County school district, which is investigating the incident as an act of bullying. At the center of the investigation are Blanche Ely High School reading teachers Leslie Rainer and Djuna Robinson, who profess that they are Christians. They are accused of sprinkling holy water onto fellow teacher Schandra Tompkinsel Rodriguez. On March 11, Rodriguez was in her classroom discussing her disbelief in God...

MOSCOW – More than 100 Russian Orthodox believers have been hospitalized after drinking holy water during Epiphany celebrations in the eastern city of Irkutsk, an official said Monday. A total of 117 people, including 48 children, were in the hospital complaining of acute intestinal pain after drinking water from wells in and around a local church last week, said Vladimir Salovarov, a spokesman for the Irkutsk Investigative Committee. Salovarov said 204 people required some medical treatment after consuming the water, the source of which was a stagnant lake. He said, however, that it was too early to say what caused...

<p>MOSCOW – More than 100 Russian Orthodox believers have been hospitalized after drinking holy water during Epiphany celebrations in the eastern city of Irkutsk, an official said Monday.</p> <p>A total of 117 people, including 48 children, were in the hospital complaining of acute intestinal pain after drinking water from wells in and around a local church last week, said Vladimir Salovarov, a spokesman for the Irkutsk Investigative Committee.</p>

Swine Flu Forces Changes In Church TraditionsNov 11, 2009 11:26 pm US/Eastern SACRAMENTO (CBS) - The swine flu outbreak has forced local Catholic churches to revamp some rituals in hopes of slowing the spread of the disease, CBS station KOVR-TV reported. The bishop of Sacramento ordered Catholic churches to make changes during mass, so parishioners will no longer drink from the cup, hold hands during the Lord's Prayer or shake hands as a sign of peace. The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is also changing the holy water regularly and wiping down the bowl, and is asking sick church members...

Holy Water 1335. On entering a Catholic Church I noticed people taking holy water Why is this? Holy water is placed at the doors of Catholic Churches to remind us of the waters of Baptism which once flowed over our foreheads, to signify that we are not worthy to enter into the Presence of Christ without purification, and to forgive us those venial sins for which we are sorry, as well as remitting the temporal punishment due to our sins according to the measure of our regret and contrition. I do not know how you feel, but I know that...

Catholic churches in southern New Jersey are taking extra precautions since the Diocese of Camden received a letter saying biological agents would be placed in holy-water fonts and ventilation systems, a diocesan spokesman said Tuesday. The diocese received an anonymous letter last week threatening to put biological contaminants in Catholic churches in New Jersey, said Andrew Walton, a spokesman for the diocese. The letter, which was mailed May 1 and has a Bellmawr postmark, was received in the Camden office May 4 and opened May 5. The letter has been turned over to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, which is...

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont.–A Brooklyn, N.Y., man faces drug charges after a shipment of vials labelled Holy Water turned out to be a powerful date rape drug. The seizure was made Oct. 16 after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped a 50-year-old man after he crossed the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, officials said yesterday. The motorist told border officials he was returning home after purchasing religious items in Canada. Further questioning raised the officers' suspicions and the man was referred for a secondary inspection. One hundred vials of "Holy Water" were found in his vehicle. A narcotics detector dog sniffed out 42 bottles...

TWO SYDNEY good samaritans may have pulled Margaret Cornell and her two children from their blazing car on Easter Monday, but it was a sprinkling of Holy Water in the family Commodore that Ms Cornell believes really saved their lives. A shaken Mrs Cornell said yesterday she believed God had a hand in the miraculous escape of her and children James, 14, and Enya, 8, when their car crashed and burst into flames on the F3 Freeway. The Cornell family attended an Easter vigil at a Revesby Catholic church on Saturday, where Mrs Cornell was given two satchels of Holy...

ROME (Reuters) - The real miracle would have been getting it past airport security. Inspectors at Tarbes-Lourdes airport in France refused to give their blessing to holy water that passengers tried to bring on board the Vatican's new pilgrim flights this week, saying it was a security threat just like any other liquid. The water, which is said to have miraculous healing powers, came from a sacred grotto where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858. Passenger Paola Saluzzi told Corriere della Sera newspaper she was carrying the water in eight small plastic bottles "in the shape of the...

"[Prior to Vatican II, w]hen holy water [was] blessed, the priest reads several prayers, which included an exorcism of the salt and the water. An exorcism is the banishing of evil spirits......therefore, when any material object is to be devoted to the service of God, the Church often prescribes for it a form of exorcism, to free it from the power of the Evil One....... Exorcism of Salt O salt, creature of God, I exorcise you by the living God, by the true God, by the holy God, by the God who ordered you to be poured into the water...

Psalm 28:3 ``The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of majesty hath thundered, The Lord is upon many waters." Water Numbers 5:17 "And he shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth of the pavement of the tabernacle into it."   For the Christian, water, as the matter of Baptism, is life. Tertullian (b. 160), making a play on words based on the Greek acrostic ICQUS , or Ichthys, meaning "fish" and indicating "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour", wrote in "De Baptismo," "But we, little fishes, after...

When you go through the streets you see buildings which are quite different from warehouses or cinemas or living-houses or shops or public-houses. Sometimes they have towers or pointed windows instead of square ones, but there is always something about them which makes you say, "That is a church" or possibly a "chapel." There is also usually a board outside them with a name upon it and hours of "services." Sometimes these churches are open; if they are Catholic ones, they nearly always are. But a man might well feel too shy to go in, at any rate without being...

Bottled water said to come from Mecca has been found to contain high levels of cancer-causing chemicals. People have been told not to buy Zam Zam water after tests showed three times the permitted level of arsenic. The water is advertised as coming from the sacred well of Zam Zam in Mecca, which is the most holy city in Islam, and demand increases during Ramadan.