The Christian Life: March 2004 Archives

A close friend of my Guardian Angel sent me a container of Blessed Salt in the mail to help with some home stuff. My first question was "OK, now what do I do with it?" to which she replied "There is some info on Domestic-Church." I found this interesting tidbit which I thought I would share.

Blessed Salt

by Maria Hernandez, used with permission.

This information is taken from a pamphlet written by Father Hampsch. You can obtain the entire pamphlet, tapes, and books by contacting his ministry at Claretian Tape Ministry, P.O. Box 19100, Los Angeles, CA 90019

Blessed salt is an instrument of grace to preserve one from the corruption of evil occurring as sin, sickness, demonic influence, etc.

As in the case of all sacramentals, its power comes not from the sign itself, but by means of the Church's official (liturgical, not private) prayer of blessing -- a power the Church derives from Christ Himself. (see Matt. 16:19 and 18:18).

As the Vatican II document on the Liturgy states, both Sacraments and sacramentals sanctify us, not of themselves, but by power flowing from the redemptive act of Jesus, elicited by the Church's intercession to be directed through those external signs and elements. Hence sacramentals like blessed salt, holy water, medals, etc., are not to be used superstitiously as having self-contained power, but as 'focus points' funneling one's faith toward Jesus, just as a flag is used as a focus point of patriotism, or as handkerchiefs were used to focus faith for healing and deliverance (Acts 19:12).

Thus, used non-superstitiously, modest amounts of blessed salt may be sprinkled in one's bedroom, or across thresholds to prevent burglary, in cars for safety, etc. A few grains of blessed salt in drinking water or used in cooking or as food seasoning often bring astonishing spiritual and physical benefits. As with the use of Sacraments, much depends on the faith and devotion of the person using salt or any sacramental. This faith must be Jesus-centered, as was the faith of the blind man in John 9; he had faith in Jesus, not in the mud and spittle used by Jesus to heal him.

Blessed salt is not a new sacramental, but the Holy Spirit seems to be leading many to a new interest in its remarkable power as an instrument of grace and healing. Any amount of salt may be presented to a priest for his blessing using the following official prayer from the Roman Ritual:

"Almighty God, we ask you to bless this salt, as once you blessed the salt scattered over the water by the prophet Elisha. Wherever this salt (and water) is sprinkled, drive away the power of evil, and protect us always by the presence of your Holy Spirit. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen"

If you are interested in getting blessed salt, print this information out and present the blessing prayer to your parish priest. Ask him to bless the salt for you using the official prayer from the Roman Ritual printed above.

If it's not possible for you to get your priest to do this, you can write me for a 'starter supply' of blessed salt. Please send a stamped self addressed envelope to: M. Hernandez, 15581 W. 141 St, Olathe, KS 66062. Mention that you'd like the blessed salt. I don't include any information about its use, as it's all printed here, so print this information out for yourself if you want the blessed salt.

I can personally attest to the power of this sacramental to keep away evil. When we first moved to this house, a very evil family lived next door. The man and woman were not married, he was a drug dealer, she was ...I don't know what. Their teenaged boys were almost worse, loud, destructive and violent. We had rocks and bricks thrown against our house, the children's bikes were stolen, their basketball net was broken and our lawn was regularily littered with broken bottles. We considered moving to get our children away from this family and the danger they presented. A family friend presented us with a large container of blessed salt, and (feeling very conspicuous) I sprinkled it around the perimeter of our yard.

Within a week, there was a For Sale sign. Next door.

I hope my husband does not notice if the red clam sauce tonight is a bit salty. Just kidding...sort of.
PS The friend of my G.A also sent me some bad a%$ white chocolate peppermint fudge that she made with her own two hands, that I am not sharing. It is one of the few foods that do not make me gag.

...in other words, that stupid email. I finally wrote and sent it this morning. I will be dreading checking my email for the rest of the day.

I wonder sometimes if I have an unrealistic expectation of friendship. When I was in college I thought that I would stay in close touch with many of my friends there. In a matter of months I found out that wasn't going to be the case -- that for whatever reason, most of the people I thought were my good friends were not going to be making the effort to maintain our friendship by keeping in touch, whether by letters or phone calls (this was before email was common -- you may commence the dinosaur sound effects.) Was it because they didn't know how to keep a friendship going? Was it because they knew how, but just didn't feel like keeing it going with me? Either way, the net result is the same -- no more friendship.

Now this I did not know! A couple of years ago, the Diocese of Richmond began the cause of Frank Parater, a seminarian from the Diocese who died in Rome at the North American College at the age of 23.

George Weigel's column on the Servant of God Frank Parater.

V. Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae;
R. Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto.
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

V. Ecce ancilla Domini.
R. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
Ave Maria, gratia plena,.......

V. Et Verbum caro factum est.
R. Et habitavit in nobis.
Ave Maria, gratia plena,.......

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genetrix.
R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus:
Gratiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut qui, Angelo nuntiante, Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et crucem, ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum.
R. Amen.

No big plans for festivities here. I detest do not care for corned beef and cabbage, but if I can find some good lamb I will make lamb stew for supper. I did lay out the shamrock tie for my husband, but I haven't been back upstairs yet to see if he actually put it on.

Now, if I could just find an appropriate tie for St Joseph's day, we would be all set.

We need more saints who did things like drive backhoes and use tools and work in zoos and fire off cannons.

Peony, on a more "mature" level, I see the same problem with my husband. There are no men in the Churches. There are like none in the Novus Ordo Churches in Albany except odd, pasty androgenous men, and in the TLM, many are weird. There are some guys, very few in our age group, but no way in proportion to the amount of women.

Many of the teenage boys at Church are attracted to my husband because I think he looks like a regular guy you would see anywhere. It tells me this is a ministry we could use.

I think if my husband had some more Catholic companions that were just regular guys, that would encourage him in his faith.

In Stephen King novels, people get weird, prickly, unsettling feelings when they walk past the old house (hospital, church, pet cemetery, 7-11, whatever) on the corner in the little town in Maine. For weeks I've had this weird nagging feeling every time I passed the dry cleaner's. To my knowledge, it wasn't haunted or anything, so I couldn't think of why it was bothering me so -- until last night, when I was hanging up clothes. I came to the spot where my husband's suit hangs and... no suit. Suddenly I remembered that I had dropped it off at the dry cleaners -- and I couldn't remember when I'd done it. It wasn't this month... did I do it in February? What about in January? I got a sinking feeling as I mentally started to count days. How long does this dry cleaner let you leave your things there before they start calling up the Goodwill (or firing up their eBay account?)

Of course this inspiration came to me after the shop had closed, so I got to spend all night trying to stop myself from staring at the ceiling and fretting about the suit and how I was going to explain this to my husband. When St Peter exhorted us to "cast our cares upon the Lord" I don't know if he had dry cleaning in mind, but I was doing my best to follow his advice.

Morning came (with a shower of snow) and Hambet and I hurried over to the cleaners. The lady nodded -- oh, yes, yes, they have the suit. The clothes swayed as track started to whir. Yes, they keep things for 90 days. Yes, they would have called me before they got rid of it.

She plucked the suit off the track and hung it on the pole. Today is March 10. The date on the tag -- December 11. Approximately 89 days.

As Robert says, mad props to my Guardian Angel.