If you’re Catholic, you’re familiar with sacramentals such as holy water, holy cards, blessed oils, and medals. However, up until a couple of years ago, I had never before heard of Blessed Salt.
After moving to our farmhouse in the country, one of our children was repeatedly having nightmares. When I mentioned this to a friend who had a priest visiting from another state, he offered to bring the priest over to bless the house.
The priest came equipped not only with holy water, but also blessed salt, which he used liberally, moving from room to room, praying and giving the house a holy “renovation.”
Suffice it to say that the nightmares ended.
According to Wikipedia, blessed salt was used in the Sacrament of Baptism, and is found in the 1962 Roman Ritual in the rites of baptism, the reconsecration of an altar, and the blessing of holy water.
As with any sacramental, blessed salt is an instrument of grace and its power comes from Christ. St. Augustine called such sacramentals “visible forms of invisible grace.”
After going on retreat one year, all of the retreatants were presented with a gallon of holy water and a full salt container filled with blessed salt to take home. Not only can the blessed salt be used inside or outside the home to protect against evil, but it can also be used in cooking. Ever since our introduction to this sacramental, we always try to have some on hand.
To learn more about the history of blessed salt, read Father John Hampsch’s article.
Here’s the official prayer from the Roman Ritual that a priest can use to bless salt:
“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.”
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I learned about this when I was catering a wedding for a family and the mother gave me blessed salt with which to cook all of the reception food. Now I have all of my salt blessed for home use.
Actually I heard of it a long time ago, from Fr. G. Amorth, a famous exorcist. Exorcists still often use this sacramental toghether with blessed (excorcized) water.
God bless,
Ismael
Reclaim our traditional heritage: Read the 1962 Daily Missal (updated version, Angelus Press). You will find the actual exorcisms and blessing for salt in it.
I have the 1962 Daily Roman Missal from Angelus press and it has both the prayers to exorcise salt and water. The associate pastor at my parish is always more than happy to take the 5 minutes (that’s about how long the prayers take) to say the prayers.
In Trinidad and Tobago many faithful use holy water, blessed oil and blessed salt to defeat occult attacks as well as for domestic use. I always have them blessed using the 1962 Roman Ritual.
You can also mix it with water to make holy water.
@ Blake Helgoth
No. Mixing blessed salt with water will not make it ‘holy/blessed water’.
Holy water must be blessed by a priest, it’s not concocted like a ‘magical brew’.
If a faithful desires to have a bottle of blessed water he should ask the priest to bless it (clean tap water in a bottle is fine for that purpose).
It is important not to abuse the sacramental or treat them as they were some kind of ‘magical’ objects.
I have used blessed salt around the windows and doors of our home and office. Like the Jewish lady who received ashes on Ash Wednesday said, “It’s free and it can’t hurt!”
My son was given salt on his mouth at his baptism. He was two weeks old and when my next child is born (this summer) I hope our new parish lets us have the same rite.
Ismael,
How shure are you about not mixing th salt thing? I was taught this by a priest (who happened to know about blessed salt, so pretty up on the sacramentals) and he said they used to give it to people that lived far from a curch so they could use it to make Hly Water. I do no think adding it to water is a magical brew. The salt dislovse and it is blessed, so the water then is blessed. At the very least the salt is still blessed and is now part of the water.
We have also been told by a priest that putting the salt he blessed into water makes it holy water. We have also been using the sacramental for many years. It can be easier to use in certain situations such as in a workplace.
Our priest in MN always used salt in the Holy Water, and I thought that was part of what Holy Water is….
Here is the blessing of Holy Water I found, dated 1873:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Ps. xlii. 1—5.
Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks: so longeth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God: when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
My tears have been my meat day and night: while they daily say unto me, Where is now thy God ?
Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself: for I went with the multitude, and brought them forth into the house of God;
In the voice of praise and thanksgiving: among such as keep holy-day.
The Priest shall mix a little salt with the water, and shall say;
The Lord hath said; “Salt is good, but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” Mindful of these words we mix this salt with the water, as a token that all who devoutly sprinkle themselves with this water, preserve within themselves the salt of Christian wisdom and strength, and should fulfil themselves with the spirit of peace and love. With this intention we consecrate the water, and sign it with the sign of the holy cross +, that the Almighty, who created it, of his boundless mercy may cleanse our hearts from all sin, may fructify them with the rich stream of his grace, and may satisfy their thirst after righteousness with the water of eternal life, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Priest. Sprinkle me, O Lord, and I shall be clean.
Answer. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Priest. Let us pray.
Almighty Creator, Lord of heaven and earth, who in holy baptism hast made water to be an emblem of the cleansing of our souls; grant, we beseech thee, of thy goodness, to all of us who use this water in enlightened piety and in a Christian spirit, the heavenly water of thy grace, that in accordance with the promise of thy Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, there may be within ourselves a well of living water springing up into everlasting life. This we pray thee through the merits of the same thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.
The salt is in there….therefore, do we really need the salt seperate? Let me know…it would be interesting to see if salt is still added today. Our priest in MN was in his 80s.
Christ’s peace
On the eve of Epiphany 2005 my wife and I were in Salzburg, Austria and attended Vespers in the Church of St. Sebastian, staffed by priests from the Fraternity of St. Peter. After Vespers one of the priests blessed salt and then sprinkling the salt in the form of a cross into the large water font, blessed the water. After the ceremony many in attendance filled jars and vials with the newly blessed holy water.
I too had never heard of blessed salt until a friend of mine gifted us a Morton salt container with a lesson and instructions glued to the side. I have since used the salt in my children’s pancakes on game days and test days.
I built a new home a couple of years ago and had the house blessed by our local pastor shortly after move-in. He came with the usual bread, salt (good old Morton Salt), wine (a nice white Zinfandel) and candle as a housewarming gift, but before the blessing of the house he blessed each item, knowing I knew how each fit into liturgical nuances. I still keep the salt handy for special dishes on special occasions. So, no, I had heard of it.
M+ I continue to use the “old” ritual of solmen blessings for water and salt. Blessing water includes using blessed salt and vice versa. Over the years I have had many requests for these solemn blessings. A family in FL requested holy water; their local priest though it was nonsense. Sad! I encourage you to keep the tradition of a holy water font at your house door-bless yourself when leaving.
Isn’t there a tradition (maybe related to a specific culture?) to bless salt and bread and other foodstuffs on Holy Saturday?
The blessing endures as long as the substance does, so blessed salt would be great to sprinkle around doors and windows and into the corners of rooms.
M+ When new neighbors moved into their new house I gave them a box of blessed salt, a bottle of wine and a loaf of French bread. They were delighted….and they are Baptist.
There is an old ritual of blessing bread and eggs on Holy Saturday. Eggs are an early Christian symbol of the Resurrection.
Over the last 40 years we have lost so many of these beautiful symbols and traditions. Look at the stained glass windows in your parish church. Do you know the means of all the symbols; do your children? Do you know that the father of the family can bless his children?
@Blake Helgoth
In that case it would be blessed salt dissolved in water, yes, in that sense I agree.
If you want to make Holy Water, don’t let your original Holy Water run out. We have a small bottle of Holy Water and I use it frequently. But when I am close to running out, I add regular purified water to it, and say a little prayer, and the whole thing is still Holy. I was told by a very knowledgeable priest to do this.
Also, I use Blessed Salt for cooking everything except pasta. Since, once I boil the pasta, I have to throw the water down the drain with the other sewage. I don’t like the idea treating something holy that way. Holy Sewage?!
Martin
I grew up in a traditional Anglican parish, so it wasn’t until I started going to an RC parish in college (it was all that was available) that I realized that salt wasn’t a standard part of the rite of Baptism anymore. It was used at my baptism, and it was used at my brother’s baptism (I remember this one: I was holding him, and he kicked me in the arm when he received the “salt of wisdom”). Of course, the use of salt in Baptism is only one of many traditional Catholic rites and rituals that we in the Church of England grew up with but that are utterly unknown to most “Catholics” today. (For the record, I still say “And with thy spirit”.)
Our now-grown children all had blessed salt put on their lips as part of their baptism ceremony. We used to keep a Holy water font by our door and used it as we left to go out. We had a family reunion on our 50th wedding anniversary. At that time I happened to have some NARD which I had received
from the HOLY Land. My husband and I got our whole family together the last night they were here, and blessed each one with the sweet-smelling
Nard and prayed for each person. There were 23 of us. What a beautiful and memorable time that was! I think all the children and grand-children will always remember that night.
We had our parish priest bless our table salt and we keep it in a beautiful glass jar by the front door.
My husband daily puts some in his pocket on his way out to work, I’ve sprinkled it in my children’s hair and my teens have used it on their way out of the door to college. It has helped in many ways and keeps our minds focused on the Lord throughout our travels during the day.
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