2 Creative Ways to Carry On Holy Water

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One thing that’s really cool about pilgrimages is being able to talk about the travel aspects. Being a pilgrim is being at the intersection of faith and travel, after all. Therefore, I don’t consider travel as an excuse to NOT practice devotions, disciplines, and traditions. Basically, I’m here to say that you can carry on holy water.

Holy water is a frequent devotion in Catholicism. Most people’s encounters with using holy water are at baptisms and entering or exiting a church. We use holy water at baptism as the visible sign of the inward reality that original sin is washed away by God’s grace. For more info, you check out when we use holy water here, and some origin stories here.

Typically, holy water can be found in fonts at the entrances of churches. Some people like to keep holy water in their home with smaller fonts or maybe even bottles of it.

So how about traveling with holy water?

Why bring holy water with you?

When I traveled to Japan frequently for work, I knew I wanted to maintain my faith and devotions. An easy way for me to do that was to keep a small bottle of holy water packed in my carry on. I would use it bless myself before flights, and kept it just in case I needed to perform emergency baptisms. Or something.

Once on the ground, I kept a bottle on my hotel bedside table and used it before leaving for work each day. Again, just because I was out on travel didn’t excuse me from practicing this little devotion to holy water.

Using holy water while traveling is good way to feel #blessed and remember one’s own baptism.

TSA Rules for Liquids

I hope you’ve been able to fly recently. If you’ve traveled via air anytime since 9/11, then I’m sure you probably know that TSA requires liquids to be in a container  3.4 ounces or less and your containers to be in a quart-sized bag when in your carry on bag.

The rules haven’t really changed since then, but you can always check out TSA’s website for the current rules regarding liquids. I also recommend flying more than once a year because it helps keep you most up-to-date with changing airport security restrictions.

For the pilgrim traveling with holy water, it’s important to know easy ways to carry on holy water while remaining within airport security restrictions.

Don’t be that guy or gal who tried sneaking in a keg of holy water in your carry on and get questioned for a few hours causing you to miss your flight for your pilgrimage to Assisi.

That’s never happened, but I’m just sayin’.

Two Creative Ways To Carry On Holy Water

I recommend these based on creative ways I’ve seen holy water transported in a portable manner. Unless you plan on blessing large areas or amounts of people, I don’t think you would need to carry a lot of it.

Small containers are sufficient enough.

Hence, these ideas:

Contact Lens Case

My first time chaperoning youth on my parish’s annual youth pilgrimage to the March for Life in Washington, DC was in 2013. Back then, I bought a Benedictine crucifix and so did one of our youth. We both wanted to get our crucifixes blessed by a Benedictine because we knew that any religious item with the Benedictine medal also gets a minor exorcism prayer when getting it blessed. For next level legitimateness and spiritual extra, we wanted a Benedictine to do it.

While hanging around the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception before and after the Vigil Mass for Life, we finally saw a Benedictine-looking monk hiding out behind some of the statues in the crypt level of the basilica. We awkwardly went up to him and asked a) if he was of the Benedictine order and b) if he could bless our crucifixes. He thankfully agreed, despite looking busy in prayer.

He had a small backpack, but he pulled out a small satchel and an iPhone (monks with iPhones, wut) for the blessing. The smart phone was for him to look up the words for the blessing and minor exorcism, and the satchel contained a contact lens case and a small bottle of oil. During the blessing, he utilized these items.

Inside the contact lens case was holy water! I remember being surprised because I thought it to be really weird for him to bust out a contact lens case.

We got our crucifixes blessed, and we were on our way.

Contact lens cases are great for carrying on holy water because they’re small and portable. They’re not shady-looking because they are everyday items that I’m sure the TSA frequently sees because a lot of people wear contact lenses (I mean, I do…). Lastly you only need to dip a fingertip or two in order to use holy water contained in a contact lens case.

If you’re a contact lens wearer, then I’m sure you have several of these laying around. If you’re not, they’re pretty easy to pick up at the store, or you can order sets of them on Amazon. I recommend these because they’re from a reputable brand and won’t leak on you.

Small Soy Sauce Bottle

Wait. Before you freak out, I know this is a weird-sounding way to carry on holy water, but it’s very practical.

In Japan, if you order take out and ask for soy sauce, they usually don’t give you the small packet where you tear away from a corner to use the sauce like we’re familiar with here in the United States. Rather, they typically give you a small plastic bottle with a screw-on cap filled with soy sauce that you squeeze out to use.

The church I frequented in Japan made it a point to stock up on these bottles, fill them with holy water, and made announcements at nearly every Mass for the faithful to take home. And I totally did. Multiple times (because multiple trips to Japan).

Soy sauce bottles, especially Japanese-style ones, are a great way to carry on holy water because they are also small and portable. They can easily fit in a quart-sized bag per TSA. And to dispense holy water, you only need to lightly squeeze.

If you live in the US, these bottles are a little hard to obtain though you could check out your local Asian store or maybe even Japanese dollar store.

Otherwise, Amazon sells these small plastic soy sauce bottles. They come in bags containing different shapes, and most seem to be animal-shaped. Sometimes rectangular ones are part of the bag.

If that idea seems a little weird, you can upgrade the weirdness by using those squeezable salad dressing bottles like these.

Just please don’t put holy water on your food.

Bottom Line

Being a pilgrim involves some creativity in order to maintain practices and devotions while traveling. Air travel security restrictions shouldn’t hinder you, especially when bringing holy water. While I’m sure you can think of other ways to carry on holy water, the ways I mentioned in this post are ways I know to be easy and unique. You can be THAT pilgrim who busts out a contact lens case of holy water. Or (pig-shaped) soy sauce bottle.

Also, these containers are good for their intended design and purpose. I just don’t recommend using them for actual contact lens solution or sauces AND THEN holy water. Set aside a container or two for holy water use only that way you’re not potentially mixing uses. Use a sharpie to draw a cross on it so you know it has holy water.

Question for you–do you have any other creative ideas for carrying on holy water?