What are Holy Water Fonts for? By making the sign of the cross with holy water at the entrance to churches, we defend ourselves against the snares of the devil, distance ourselves from worldly things, and ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts.
Newsroom (26/01/2025 16:10, Gaudium Press) The refreshing contact of fingertips with holy water, followed by the superior spiritual refreshment of making the sign of the cross, usually marks the transition between the hustle and bustle of the street and the peace of the sacred precinct when entering a Catholic church. But have you ever wondered why this happens right at the gates of the temple? What are Holy Water Fonts for?
In the Book of Exodus, we read that God commanded Moses to install a bronze basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, so that Aaron and his sons could perform their ritual ablutions there before the service of worship (cf. Ex 30:17-21). Solomon later had a large reservoir of water, called the Sea of Bronze, built in the court of the Temple in Jerusalem so that the priests could purify themselves before beginning their daily duties (I Kings 7:23-26).
According to Eusebius of Caesarea (Historia Ecclesiastica. L.X, c.4, n.40), when building places of worship, the Holy Church preserved the custom of building fountains or pools in its courts – called cantharus aquarum – where the faithful washed their hands and feet. These ablutions no longer had a ritual purpose, but a clean and symbolic one: they were an image of the regenerating bath of Baptism and recalled the inner purity necessary to enter the house of God. However, it was still ordinary water, lacking any supernatural virtue.
With the passage of time, the primitive fonts gave way to holy water basins, smaller in size and placed at the entrance to churches. Already at the beginning of the 9th century, Charlemagne prescribed in his Capitularies that at Sunday Masses the priest should pour holy water into an appropriate container, so that the faithful could sprinkle themselves before entering the sacred precincts.
By making the sign of the cross with holy water at the entrance to churches, we defend ourselves against the snares of the devil, we distance ourselves from the things of the world and we ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts, infusing the devotion, reverence and silence proper to the house of God.
Excerpted from the Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, Jan. 2025
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
