8:2 (2003)
. . . . the Church gratefully remembers the fact that human
beings and things are already blessed by creation and
redemption and it thanks God for this.
52
Houck, Fountains of Joy, 123.
53
Houck, Fountains of Joy, 122; for a similar but more
detailed description of the effects of holy water, see J. Gaume,
Leau bniteau dix-neuvimesicle, 3
rd
ed. (Paris: Gaume Frres
et J. Duprey, 1866) 262-79 and 295-315.
54
Gaume, Leau bnite, 103: En effet, sanctifier une chose,
cest la soustraire linfluence du dmon, la purifier des
souillures dont il la salie et la rendre sa puret native. Que
par suite de sa victoire sur le Roi de la cration, le dmon ait
fait des cratures ses esclaves et les instruments de sa haine,
aussi bien dans lordre physique que dans lordre moral, cest
le grand fait sur lequel pose tout lhistoire de lhumanit;
my translation: In effect, to sanctify a thing is to remove it
from the influence of the demon, to cleanse it of the impurities
with which he had soiled it and to return it to its native
purity. In consequence of his victory over the king of creation,
the demon had made some creatures his slaves and the
instruments of his hate, both in the physical order as well as
in the moral; this is the grand reality on which all of human
history stands.
55
Gaume, Leau bnite, 106; Theiler, Holy Water, 23.
56
Debaptismo adultorum8-9, in TheRoman Ritual in Latin
and English with Rubrics and Planechant [sic] Notation, vol. 1:
TheSacraments and Processions, ed. Philip T. Weller (Milwaukee:
Bruce, 1950) 70: in the Tridentine baptismal rite, the power
of the evil spirit was cast out before the Holy Spirit was
invoked to take up its dwelling in the catechumen. The priest
was directed to exsufflate (exsufflat) or blow three times into
the face of the catechumen whether an infant or an adult
and command, Go out from him (her) unclean spirit, and
make way for the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. This was
immediately followed by an insufflation with obvious eplicetic
force: Here in the form of a cross he breathes (halat) in his
face, and says: N., receive the good Spirit through this
insufflation (insufflationem), and the blessing of God.
57
Gignac, Les bndictions, 588-89; Kaczynski,
Blessings in Rome, 400; Lessi-Ariosto, Linee
interpretative, 224: Leredit liturgica del titolo IX del Rituale
Romanum, Debenedictionibus, dal 1614 in poi, nonostante la
purificazione operata in rapporto a collezioni di benedizioni
medievali, era infatti ancora troppo tributaria di una visuale
pessimistica della realt che portava pi alla tendenza
invocativo-impetrativo-esorcistica e insieme a quella
consacratorio-sacralizzante come controparte positiva; my
translation: The liturgical inheritance of Title IX of the
RitualeRomanum, Debenedictionibus, from 1614 on, despite
the purification effected with relation to collections of
medieval blessings, was in fact still too indebted to a
pessimistic view of reality that inclined more toward the
invocative-imperative-exorcistic tendency, and at the same
time toward the consecratory-sacralizing as its positive
counterpoint.
58
For an example of such an overly-optimistic view, see
Lessi-Ariosto, Linee interpretative, 225.
59
Achille M. Triacca, Exorcisme: un sacramental en
question: quelques pistes de rflexion pour des recherches
Exorcizo te ou Benedico te? in Les bndictions et les
sacramentaux dans la liturgie, Confrences Saint-Serge, XXXIVe
SemainedEtudes Liturgiques, Paris 1987, ed. Achille M. Triacca
and Alessandro Pistoia (Rome: C.L.V.-Edizioni Liturgiche,
1988) 281-83.
60
Sacrosanctumconcilium, 79.