question about holy water and baptismal fonts?

Question

I sometimes see people, especially in movies, dip their fingertips in the baptismal fonts and do something with it as they enter catholic churches. What is the motion, is it a cross on the head or a cross from head to chest and shoulder to shoulder? thanks

Answer 1

With all due respect it isn't necessary, my friend. Baptism, while not necessary for salvation, is nonetheless commanded by our Lord. It is baptism by complete immersion as he was. In the end, it is largely ceremonial as true salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. Baptism is ostensible in that it depicts the washing away of sin(s).

Answer 2

It is commonly known as crossing yourself.

1) Dip your right hand (usually just a fingertip or two) into the Holy Water
2) Touch your forehead and say "In the name of The Father"
3) Touch the middle of your chest and say "The Son"
4) Touch your left shoulder and say "and the Holy"
5) Touch you right shoulder and say "Spirit"
6) Press your palms together and say "Amen"

It is a reaffirmation of our Baptismal vows. It is also a little prayer to the Holy Spirit.

I believe the Orthodox Christians do the same thing but they use the thumb and first two fingers and do forehead, chest, right shoulder, then left shoulder.

Answer 3

Actually it's not a baptismal font. It's just a container with Holy Water. The baptismal font is much bigger and used only for baptisms. They are making the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Answer 4

It's a reminder of our own Baptism. We make the sign of the Cross and say "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen."

It can be done either way....but the most common is "head, chest, left shoulder, right shoulder"

Interestingly enough, in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, it's "head, chest, right shoulder, left shoulder."

Answer 5

I is called the sign of the cross. I don't know the significance of it. They touch their forehead, heart, left then right shoulder which forms a cross. Perhaps someone knows the origin of it. I know the Pope uses the motion out in front of him when he blesses crowds of people. What that signifies or what blessing someone is supposed to do, I do not know.

Merry Christmas!

Answer 6

Touch your head, chest, left shoulder, right shoulder...all with your right hand. It is for a renewal of your baptismal promise.

Answer 7

Father, Son, Holy Spirit... Ring any bells, yet?

Answer 8

It also remits venial sins, as prophesied in the old testament, God said I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be freed from all your uncleanesses. Thats our catholic beleif in holy water.

Answer 9

it is a prayer:
In the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit
Amen

Answer 10

Its the sign of the Cross. We bless ourselves in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

We dip our fingers to remind us of our baptism.

The sign of the cross reflects biblical reality. The cross of Christ is the crossroads of history and the central event of Scripture. Just as in the Church year Good Friday stands between Advent and Easter, so the Crucifixion stands between the Incarnation and the Resurrection.

Scripture teaches that the purpose of the birth of the Son of God was to die. He came to redeem, ransom, and restore a people--his church. We should place the cross on ourselves as a reminder of the reality of the Crucifixion.

John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople in the fourth century, recognized the biblical nature of the sign of the cross. He encouraged his flock, "When, therefore, you sign yourself, think of the purpose of the cross, and quench any anger and all other passions. Consider the price that has been paid for you."

The early Christian apologist Tertullian wrote, "In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our forehead with the sign of the cross."

Athanasius, the great bishop of Alexandria who almost single-handedly stood for Christian orthodoxy against the powerful Arian heresy, taught his flock that "by the sign of the cross...all magic is stayed, all sorcery confounded, all the idols are abandoned and deserted, and all senseless pleasure ceases, as the eye of faith looks up from Earth to heaven."

Cyril of Jerusalem echoed Tertullian as he encouraged the Church: "Let us not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Let the cross, as our seal, be boldly made with our fingers upon our brow and on all occasions over the bread we eat, over the cups we drink, in our comings and in our goings, before sleep, on lying down and rising up, when we are on the way and when we are still."

The great bishop of Cappadocia, Basil, taught that the sign of the cross was a tradition the originated with the apostles, "who taught us to mark with the sign of the cross those who put their hope in the name of the Lord."

Even Martin Luther urged his followers to use the sign. In his Catechism of 1529 he instructed fathers to teach their households the following: "In the morning, when you rise from bed, sign yourself with the holy cross and say, 'In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.'...At night, when you go to bed, sign yourself with the holy cross and say, 'In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.'"

The Christian who rejects the sign of the cross is rebelling against his own roots and is guilty of what C. S. Lewis called "chronological snobbery" about the superiority of modern thinking. Instead we should learn from our fathers, thereby heeding the wisdom of Bernard of Chartres, who recognized that the history of the Church Church enables us to be "dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants."

Southern philosopher Marion Mont-gomery writes of the need to recover "known but forgotten things." We Christians, being finite and fallen, must be reminded who we are: subjects and children of the Lord. "We have the mark of the cross upon our souls," wrote Augustine, and placing the sign upon ourselves reminds us of this truth.

In his classic Screwtape Letters, Lewis revealed remarkable insight into the nature of mankind. As a senior devil in the Lowerarchy of Hell, Screwtape writes to a junior tempter, Wormwood, with helpful hints on how unsuspecting human beings may be lured by temptation.

One counsel from Screwtape concerns the relationship between body and soul, in particular the relationship between prayer and kneeling. He says: "At the very least, [humans] can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers, for they constantly forget, what you [Wormwood] must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls."

Lewis's point is profound: Kneeling reminds us to whom we are praying, thereby prompting us to be more prayerful. In the same way, making the sign of the cross reminds us of the one who bought us with his own body, and that reminder prods us toward holiness.

As justification of their rejection of the sign of the cross, Protestants point to perceived abuses, such as when a baseball player crosses himself before stepping into the batter's box. Aside from the difficulty of determining motives of another individual, such arguments forget that many good things are abused and counterfeited, yet we do not reject them.

Augustine answered this fallacious reasoning sixteen centuries ago by teaching that "abuse does not negate use." Improper use of an object does not mean we abandon its proper use--and so we Catholics will reject Protestant prejudice and will continue to place upon ourselves the holy sign of the Triune God.