Purge Me With WHAT?
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It’s fascinating that I haven’t ever wondered what in blazes hyssop is before now. I guess I’ve always thought it was something rough and rigid used for cleaning pots and pans. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article linked above, it is the plant used to sprinkle the blood of sacrifice over those who needed cleansing, as well as sprinkling the water of purification over those who needed ritual purification.
Wait. The Jews had a rite of purification with water being sprinkled over them? Holy water goes back to the Old Testament?
Even a know-it-all learns something now and again.
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3 Responses to “Purge Me With WHAT?”
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April 18th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Isn’t that cool? And, amazing when we figure out something like that – an aha moment, so to speak.
April 18th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Mimi, you’re absolutely right. I remember I used to have moments like that all the time during my pilgrimage to the Church and for quite awhile once I was chrismated. But as time went on, I seem to hear fewer and fewer things that really strike me as information I’ve never heard. Sometimes I still feel a thrill of excitement from sensing the truth in our faith — the bite of reality; but I rarely feel that thrill of discovering something I really didn’t know before.
April 19th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
That’s ok, this Lent I found out that the reason we have Presanctifieds on Wednesday and Friday is because of the strict fasts those days during Lent. Wha????? I had never realized that. And, I’d read the book (Great Lent by Father Alexander Schmemann) before too.
So, I know exactly what you mean, and I also know how sometimes it seems those “a-ha” moments are few and far between – but then, even now, I get them.