Holy water... what does this mean?

[Eli Garza]

I have just had the worst experience ever. My Mother brought me and my step son some holy water. I had some already so I placed mine on a book shelf to use at a later time. They came in two bottles, one for me and one for my step son, but they are from the same source. I went to bless myself with the stored water when I noticed a terrible smell. At first I didn't know where it came from. Then I took a sniff of the bottle. It took my breath away. A very strong Sulphur smell. Worse then rotten eggs. I immediatley called my mother, and she got very upset and told me to get rid of it. I called my step son, and asked him to smell his bottle. His did not smell. Does this mean anything or am I just over reacting. I have searched the internet for something that would explain why water would have a sulfur smell after storage. The water was fine when I received it. The only thing I found is explaining the smell out of the tap, or out of wells. Nothing about water being stored turning bad. My mom has had bottles of Holy water for months and her's never smelled. There are no records of Holy water ever turning to sulphur water or having a bad smell. Please shed some light on this for me. Thank you.

[Antonios]

Hi Eli,

I don't think you need to make too much of it. If the bottle has contaminants in it prior to the addition of the Holy Water, such as chemical debree or biological organisms, it can create such a smell after being stored for a certain amount of time, especially in a warm enviroment.

It is similar to how our own hearts may become, when, after partaking in the sacramental life of the Church, such as in receiving the Life-Giving Mysteries of the Holy Eucharist, we allow our passions and sins over time to defile or stink the Divine Presense it contains.

Don't take the event personally. And at the same time, do so. Let it make us ask ourselves: How do we spoil Christ in us? How do we quench the Spirit?

[Andreas Moran]

Dear Eli,

I fully understand your feelings. I sometimes have the thought that bad things shouldn't happen to holy things, and that having used, say, holy water or oil, bad things shouldn't happen to me for a while. As to the latter thought, such things are not like proprietary drugs and certainly are not magic! As to the former case and holy water in particular, I can tell you that they had this problem at the monastery here in Essex: having blessed large quantities of water at Theophany and bottled it, much of it went sour-tasting. They tracked down the problem to the cork stoppers they had been using. They now use new plastic stoppers and all is well. Nothing more than that.

In Christ,

Andreas.