Holy Water, Blessed Bread, and the Sign of the Cross

1. Holy Water

Its Origin.—In front of the primitive churches, in the midst of an open enclosure, was a fountain for the use of the faithful for washing the face and hands. This was a pious testimony of respect for the Holy Eucharist, which the Christians took in the right hand crossed upon the left, to administer to themselves. The washing of the face was to the same end, for the communicant, before nourishing himself with the consecrated bread, kissed it respectfully, then raised it to his forehead and his eyes. The holiness of the sacrament demanded this preparatory purification. Eusebius, speaking of these fountains, calls them “symbols of the holy expiation”; his language clearly shows that the Church had attached a symbolic thought to the use of these ablutions. The exterior purification could only be an image of the purification of the soul.

Every Sunday before Mass they went solemnly to these fountains to bless the water. The suppression of the custom of receiving the Blessed Sacrament in the hand rendering the ablutions less necessary, the vases diminished in size, and became the holy-water basins of the present time. The Church continues to bless the water; by her prayers she gives it power to purify souls, but, at the same time, she makes it the memorial of our spiritual regeneration.

The Aspersion.—The blessing given in Baptism might be forgotten; the Church wishes that every Sunday—the day commemorative of the institution of this sacrament—the aspersion of water shall be made upon the faithful before Mass, to recall to them that holy water in which they, Christ’s little fishes, found their life.

During this ceremony the thought of our Baptism should be present in our minds; let us regret our lost innocence, lost, perhaps, long ago. And when we come to the holy place, in taking the water which the Church’s pious intention has placed at the door, let us not forget that this sacrament has given us admittance to the sheepfold of the Good Shepherd.

Use of the Blessed Water.—Holy water is placed at the entrance of our churches that our souls may be penetrated with a profound respect toward the God Whom we come to adore. To those who will listen holy water speaks thus: “Before presenting yourselves before the Lord purify yourselves of even venial faults; His infinitely pure eyes cannot endure spot neither in the angels nor in His elect. If you would see Him with the eyes of faith through the veil of the sacrament, efface from your soul anything that can lessen its whiteness. If you would receive the caress of your God, wash your heart: ‘He that loveth cleanness of heart shall have the King for his friend’ (Prov. xxii. 11.) Purify with holy water your hands from their evil p. 57works, your mind from its guilty thoughts, your heart from its irregular affections.”

But why? To drive away the demon. He is to be found even at the foot of the altar, during prayer, after communion. Holy things are like rich treasures; the latter attract thieves, the former demons.

Why, then, is holy water at the doors of our churches? To prepare us for the eucharistic banquet. In the ages of ancient hospitality, when a stranger was received under the roof, before he was admitted to the intimacy of the hearth, and sat at the table, his feet were washed, to remove the dust of the road. Our Lord consecrated this custom before the last supper. If the stranger was a person of distinction, rich perfumes were mingled with the water of the ablutions.

Strangers and travellers upon the earth: God gives us hospitality in His temple; we come to rest there from the weariness of life; there He breaks with us the bread of friendship.

At the entrance of His palace He receives all as His guests; He purifies us from the stains of the roadside with water in which He has put the strength of His blood.

In ancient times who was honored by his host as the Christian is by his God? If we are to communicate, taking the holy water, let us say with St. Peter: “O my God, wash me wholly: my eyes, which are to see Thee; my tongue, which is to serve as Thy throne; my heart, which in a moment will be Thy tabernacle.” If we are not to communicate, let us humble ourselves for not accepting the invitation of Jesus Christ.

God treats all His children as His guests at His heavenly banquet; His wish would be to see all reunited there each time that they assist at the divine mysteries.

2. Blessed Bread

A Memorial of the Eucharist.—There was a time, in the dawn of Christianity, when the Eucharist was really “the daily bread.” The happy witnesses of the holy mysteries all approached the sacred banquet; in the days of persecution they carried the holy species into their houses, to fortify themselves each morning. This blossoming of Christian fervor lasted three centuries. But, jealous of the virtues blooming under the dew of the precious blood, the devil breathed upon souls the icy breath of tepidity. The guests at the sacred banquet grew less numerous day by day. To reanimate Christian fervor a council at Agde, in 506, made communion obligatory at Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas. This state of things lasted until 1215, when the general council of Lateran established the discipline followed in our day.

From the beginning of these guilty desertions the Church, hoping to diminish their number, instituted a symbol which would at the same time express to her children the fervor of the first centuries, and the desires of the Saviour and His chosen ones.

She selected for this even the same material as that of the Eucharist, bread, and she called it eulogy, that is to say, bread of benediction. The simplicity of the Middle Ages, marvellously interpreting the intention of the Church, called the blessed bread vicarius, or that which took the place of the Eucharist. It was p. 58really intended to replace the Eucharist in the case of those whom tepidity or indifference withdrew from holy communion.

How many Christians on Sunday, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament ought to reproach themselves with sluggish tepidity? This is not earthly bread, they can say to themselves, which Jesus Christ would like to give me, but the bread of angels; not that bread which changes into the substance of man, but that which changes man even into the same substance as God. In my Father’s house celestial dainties abound for those seated at the banquet of the Lamb, and I, like the prodigal, am dying for lack of nourishment. If you languish, O my soul, if you painfully drag your feet through the hard road of duty, search no longer for the reason: you do not receive often enough the bread of the strong.

A Symbol of Christian Charity.—The blessed bread, memorial of the Eucharist, is also the symbol of Christian charity.

The same bread distributed to all, eaten by all, is it not a striking expression of our brotherhood? Nothing is sweeter to the soul than brotherhood. Twice God has willed to make all men brothers: in the cradle of the human race, in Adam, and in the cradle of Christianity, in Jesus Christ. His merciful providence wished to soften by the ties of blood and faith the sorrows of exile.

The spirit of hatred has sown discord in hearts made to love each other, and the Church tries on all occasions to recall to her children the great truth, too easily forgotten, of our common origin and our common destiny. p. 59She gathers us all into one house, the rich and the poor, the servant and the master, to teach that we ought to form but one family. She puts upon the lips of all the same prayer: “Our Father, Who art in heaven.” Who can forget in saying it that the same Father takes care of all? She distributes the same bread, like a mother sharing with all her children around her hearth. The Master often said: “My commandment is that you love one another, as I have loved you,” that is to say, as brothers, and each Sunday the Church repeats this teaching of love by the distribution of blessed bread.

Christians should be one body, the mystical body of which Jesus Christ is the head; now could we find a more expressive figure of the union of several things than in bread made of many grains of wheat united and blended together? “For we being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread” (1 Cor. x. 17), says St. Paul, because we ought to be all united in Jesus Christ. No more of these distinctions of false pride between the fellow-citizen and the stranger, the master and the servant, the learned and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, but let us only recognize Christians, the sole family of Jesus Christ, fed with one spiritual bread.

Effects of Blessed Bread.—These are enumerated in the formula of benediction: “Grant, O Lord, that all those that eat of this bread may find there health for body and soul, and a preservative against the assaults of enemies.” God Himself has often been pleased to manifest the efficacy of this remedy, and St. Gregory Nazianzen speaks of white bread marked with the sign of the cross, which it was customary to bless, and which miraculously gave his mother health. Only by thinking that she had eaten this bread while she slept she was cured. (Orat. xix.) These are good reasons for our confidence as well as our respect; we can apply to blessed bread what St. Augustine said of the salt distributed to the faithful: “Although it is not the body of Jesus Christ, it is nevertheless a holy thing, and more sacred than other food, for it is a sacrament, that is to say, the sign of a sacred thing.” (De Peccat. Merit. et Remiss.) And, again, a council held at Nantes, toward the year 800, went so far as to warn the faithful to “take care not to allow a crumb of the blessed bread to fall to the floor.”

3. The Sign of the Cross

Symbol of the Three Principal Mysteries.—The sign of the cross is filled with sacred associations; like a golden vase, it pours over the attentive soul a soothing and vivifying unction. That Christians do not oftener find either perfumes or strength in this sacred sign is because they do not understand enough of its sublime teaching.

In the first place, by its name as well as its form, the sign of the cross recalls the mystery of the redemption. We bring our hand to the forehead, to figure the head of Jesus Christ crowned with thorns, to the breast, in remembrance of His side pierced by a lance, to the left side, and then to the right, and yet can forget those shoulders wounded by the cross, and those hands torn with nails!

The sign of the cross also recalls to Christians the two other great mysteries of the faith, the Blessed p. 60Trinity and the Incarnation. While pronouncing the name of the Father, we raise our hand to the forehead; the forehead, seat of intelligence, principle and source of life, symbolizes God the Father, eternal principle of all life, human and divine, which, by the way of intelligence, begot the divine Word. The Word of God was made flesh, descended, and annihilated Himself; He descended from heaven into the womb of Mary, from the womb of Mary into the humiliations of the manger, from the humiliations of the manger into the labor of the workshop, from the labor of the workshop into the ignominy of the passion, from the ignominy of the passion into the silence of the tomb, from the silence of the tomb into the solitude of the tabernacle, He descended to repair the revolt of the first man and of his posterity, for the madness of wishing to elevate one’s self is the foundation of all going astray. The hand which descends from the head to the breast, while the lips pronounce the name of the Son, figures the profound abasement of the Incarnation. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is the love of these divine persons; He is also the spirit of strength which the faithful receive on the day that they are enrolled in the army of Christ. These various attributes are indicated by the transverse line which we make from the forehead to the breast, and which, touching the shoulders, seat of strength, passes over the heart, the throne of love. (Inn. III., ii. 43.)

A Sign of Our Immolation.—Condemned as we are to suffering, as the guilty children of our Father, and the disciples of a crucified God, “we are become as sheep appointed for sacrifice.”

The cross formed on us and by us is the sign of our immolation, the solemn profession of our obedience to the grand and universal law of suffering announced by Jesus Christ: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (St. Luke ix. 23.) But to make this sacred sign upon flesh plunged in all the weakness of sensuality; upon a brow which shelters nothing but thoughts of vengeance, pride, and impurity; upon lips soiled by lying or obscene conversation; upon a heart given over to criminal affections, what is this but a tremendous lie? We profess that the sword of immolation has been girded on our entire being, the sword of chastity on our body, the sword of faith in our minds, the sword of restraint on our tongue, the sword of charity on our heart. Let each one answer the question: Is this always true?

Efficacy of the Sign of the Cross.—“The sign of the cross,” says St. Augustine, “is to us a pledge of triumph; it reduces to powerlessness all the attacks of hell. That which Our Lord did while on earth by His bodily presence He does to-day by the confident invocation of His name.” (Serm. xix., de Sanctis.)

And whence comes to the sign of the cross such strength? St. Ignatius, martyr, answers: “This sign is like a trophy on the brow of the Christian; a trophy which reminds the demon of his shameful defeat on Calvary, so that at the sight of it alone he trembles, and flies.”

The sign of the cross is not only a weapon: it is, above all, an excellent prayer. When we are signed with this sign of redemption, God sees us no longer as sinners, but as brothers of Jesus Christ; it is no longer p. 61our crimes which strike His eye, but the wounds of His Son on the cross; He forgets our iniquities, and remembers nothing but the merits of Jesus Christ. The cross, then, prays for us, and the prayer is heard. “The voice is indeed the voice of Jacob,” says the Lord, “the voice of the sinner, but the smell is the odor of the garments of Esau. I see only the cross, I see but the blood, I see only the wounds of My beloved Son.” He who kneels in the sacred tribunal of penance makes the sign of the cross. Short but sublime prayer! Eloquent cry! Lord, I am deserving of punishment, but oh, remember Calvary!

And, again, what a sublime prayer before receiving communion! He is there before us, the God of heaven; but an instant more and our hearts will possess Him. The purest soul in this solemn moment is seized with fear, the throne of sanctity is necessary for the Holy of holies. The sign of the cross reassures you, calls down upon your soul the blessings which Our Lord has merited by His death.