Our friend Father Zuhlsdorf compared yesterday the ritual of blessing of water for the confection of holy water in the traditional Roman Ritual and its equivalent in the new rite:
In my review of the Ordo ad faciendam aquam benedictam, used outside Mass to “bless” water, even though I found a rubric that says that the “celebrans… dicit orationem benedictionis… the celebrant … says the prayer of blessing” and there are three options that follow, I cannot find in any of the three prayers, in the Latin mind you, an explicit statement that the water is to be blessed water. These paragraphs use the word “blessing” throughout and the prayers ask for blessings on those on whom the water is sprinkled. Also, the “celebrans” can also be a deacon, which is not possible in the older rite, with the traditional Rituale Romanum.
Here is the first of the new prayers as an example:
Benedictus es, Domine, Deus omnipotens, qui nos in Christo, aqua viva salutis nostrae, benedicere dignatus es et intus reformare: concede ut qui huius aquae aspersione vel usu munimur, renovata animae iuventute per virtutem Sancti Spiritus in novitate vitae iugiter ambulemus.
[Translation:] Blessed are you, Lord, Almighty God,
who deigned to bless us in Christ, the living water of our salvation,
and to reform us interiorly,
grant that we who are fortified
by the sprinking of or use of this water,
the youth of the spirit being renewed
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
may walk always in newness of life.
The others are not more explicit.
Upon reading this, an old friend of Rorate remarked: "I already knew that water used in the new rite was not exorcised, but I had never realized the element itself is not even actually blessed. What is it, then?"
We would say it is water filled with good intentions.
