That weekend, we paid a tourist trip to Knock Airport and Knock Basilica. In the car-park of the church, there were a few taps dispensing holy water. I still have a printed photograph of this as it was something well beyond my experience and comprehension.
At that time, holy water was blessed by a cleric and elder members of my family arrived home with it in small containers – generally blue. My understanding that each containers was individually blessed.
Knock was an eye-opener in terms of the shops and stalls selling religious paraphernalia but even more so in terms of Holy Water on Tap – it was as if the reservoir or tanker was blessed in a sort of mass-production. I had changed from being a Catholic some years before this but I do remember that thinking that this concept of Holy Water on Tap was a fraud and wrong.
A few weeks ago, I was in Ballyhooly and stopped at St Brendan’s Well. I have been intrigued somewhat by Holy Wells and the like of late – from my travels and observations; and from Liminal Entwinings and Holy Well.
The surface water from the landscape was flowing down into and out of the well. From there the surface water and well water combined to flow onto the roadway.
It brought me back to the taps at Knock. I did pause to consider what would be considered water from the Holy Well if one were trying to collect it on that day.
V and M must now be approaching their twenty-ninth anniversary – tempus fugit and all that…….