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Morning Father. There was a post on the group about someone asking for Holy Water from the Panayia tis Tinou. My family live there and I have been brought up to understand that if you need her help, you need to show your faith by visiting it and that someone giving you holy water from there is not the same. Just curious as to an opinion about this. I would have thought that if you needed help of the Panayia's healing powers, then you are to make the journey yourself. I have seen old women on their hands and knees carrying their ill middle aged children on their backs all the way from Rafina in Athens on a boat and up the hill as a show of their faith.
Answer to Question 513 I saw the post and I think I did make a comment on it. Firstly I want to clear up a misunderstanding about holy water. There are two types of holy water which in Greek we call Agiasmos and Agiasma. Agiasmos is the holy water that is blessed and Agiasma is the water that flows from the spring near the monastery which people take as a blessing, but does not necessarily mean that it is blessed. Agiasmos is available at most churches and it is the same whether it came from your local church or from Jerusalem or Panagia tis Dinou.
The same can be said about the oils people get from various churches and monasteries. Holy oil is a sacrament and is blessed by a priest and one can ask a priest to come to your bedside and perform the sacrament for your healing. All the other oils which people take from various places are not holy oil, they are ordinary oils taken from the vigil lamps and have no specific prayers read over them.
Let's now see the Panayia's healing powers. We can ask for her help or any of the saints from where ever we are, we do not need to get on our hands and knees and go to Dinou for the Mother of God to hear our prayers and it doesn't mean that someone who does make the pilgrimage will be heard above someone else who can't make the journey. Many things people do to show their faith touches on superstition and a belief in magical potions. What God requires is for us to pray with a contrite heart, to offer ourselves to him totally and put our complete trust in him. I am not trying to belittle people's faith in visiting places of pilgrimage or using water and oil from these places, but many people come close to hoping in them as they would in magical potions.
Same member I agree, superstition is one thing and faith is another. And as for magical potions, indeed, faith is all you need. Faith heals all. I am not saying there is a 'club class' service for the Panayia to heal those who ask for her help. But, I admire and respect those who actually stop, drop and go and do at whatever cost in order to show their faith, whether it helps or not.
Who actually heals? Is it God or the particular saint we pray to for help?
Reply The saints live in God and God is the source of their holiness. If a saint heals someone it is because God has given them the power. God has honoured the saint and allowed miracles to happen to glorify his saint
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