Holy water and anointing oil

[Terry]

What purposes are holy water and anointing oil used for? can we anoint ourselves or only a priest or member of the clergy do that?

When I was baptized, the priest told me I cant shower for two days because i was anointed....

can somebody pls explain further...

[Father David Moser]

What purposes are holy water and anointing oil used for? can we anoint ourselves or only a priest or member of the clergy do that?

You can drink holy water, you can sprinkle it on things, you can splash it on yourself (I recall seeing old films of the Tsar's Royal Family taking the water from the priest in their hands and then splashing their own faces). This is simply something blessed by which you ask God's blessing on yourself or on something else.

Holy oil is most often used as an ointment for healing - just get some on the tip of your finger and then make the sign of the cross over the place where it hurts. It can also be used to bless yourself by making the same cross on your forehead.




When I was baptized, the priest told me I cant shower for two days because i was anointed....

can somebody pls explain further...

Somewhat different since this was not a simple "annointing" but rather you received the Holy Mystery of Chrismation and it is the Holy Chrism that is not to be washed off, but rather it remains and is absorbed into the skin.

Fr David Moser