HOW TO STOCK YOUR SPIRITUAL STRONGBOX, AND AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOTION PROPER TO EACH HOLY ITEM

I put holy water into a jug and pour the water on my fingertips to bless myself.  

I submit that you keep 8 essential holy items in your Spiritual Strongbox;  a blessed crucifix, a blessed rosary, blessed oil, blessed salt, blessed scapulars, blessed candles, blessed water ("holy water") and blessed medals. You may follow the acronym, CROSS, as in the Crucifix, Rosary, Oil, Salt, Scapulars, and then the mnemonic, "Christ With Me" for the Candles, Water and Medals. After you have bought these items you need to take them to a priest for them to be blessed. I keep extra accouterments in my box such as a jug for the holy water, a pretty glass bowl for the salt and a sheet of velvet to wrap the items.

We may show devotion to each item by ordering our will to regard them as extremely important, and by simply kissing them with love before we employ them. Of all our holy possessions, we may kiss the crucifix first. There is a beautiful 10.2 inch crucifix for sale at the Spirit Daily store which also has a St Benedict Medal at the center.

There is the prayer before the crucifix that I invite you to learn by heart, Behold, Oh Good and Most Sweet Jesus, before Thy Face I humbly kneel and with the fervent desire of my soul I pray and beseech Thee to impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment, while with deep affection and grief of soul I contemplate Thy five wounds, having before my eyes the words the Prophet David said of Thee, "They have pierced My Hands and My Feet, they have numbered all My Bones." Amen.

Aside from the 8 holy items, you may add relics. I did not include relics in the list of essential items because they are often so hard to come by that I did not want to dissuade anyone from putting their spiritual strongbox together because they do not yet have a relic. I have a relic of St Michael (a piece of rock from the cave where St Michael appeared - the walls of the cave were bathed in Michael's angelic spirit and as a result are relics). This relic of St Michael was given to me as a birthday gift by my friend, Michelle. 

My relic of St Michael

You may have several blessed rosaries, and a few varieties of scapulars and medals but I strongly advise having two essential scapulars: the Brown Scapular and the Green Scapular. You may already be wearing a Brown Scapular, but 'tis so handy to have a stash of them stored in a box and to give them to people who do not have one. There is one multi pack available here, but I have not bought from this company before.  The Green Scapular is remarkable for healing and conversions. If someone is ill, you may invite them to wear the Green Scapular. A pack of 10 may be purchased here.

I urge you to keep two classes of medals: the St Benedict Medal and the Miraculous Medal, and then add other medals, such as the medal of St Michael which may be part of the beads on which is prayed the chaplet to St Michael that I keep in my strongbox. I made my first Spiritual Strongbox for a young couple, newly married who already wear blessed miraculous medals all the time, so I did not include certain items in the box that I know they already have, but as this was a wedding gift I did include a few items of crystal for them to use in pouring holy water and for keeping their blessed salt. I also gave them the beads of the Chaplet to St Michael.

As for my rosary with the photo of Padre Pio at the center, this was handmade for me by my friend, Danny Risdon. With this in mind, I cannot recommend a store where this rosary may be bought because it is one of a kind. But I do advise that you urgently avail of a photo of Padre Pio which you may find on the internet. If you have watched my video on the necessity of a strongbox to fight the demonic, you will know that a man on his deathbed saw a photo of Padre Pio chase away the demons which he saw flying at him...

Also, I am going to suggest to Danny that he start a little business in making Rosaries that have photographs of the Saints.

I bought a bottle of 100% olive oil and my priest blessed it using his Roman Ritual. The salt is sea salt that was blessed by an exorcist who prayed the full blessing. I bought my candles from a young couple who sell pure bees wax candles. These are such elegant candles with a heavenly honey scent. While you need candles that are at least 51% bees wax, you may wish to buy ones that are purer that you may give as gifts. Blessed candles and blessed candle sticks make a great present for a husband and wife celebrating their wedding anniversary. 

As for the St Benedict Medals - I highly recommend the Caritas company - you may buy 25 large medals with accompanying booklets for a very fair price. There is a very reasonably priced silver oxidized and enameled St Benedict Rosary for sale at the Spirit Daily Store. You may pray the St Benedict Medal Prayer: May the intercession of the Blessed Patriarch and Abbot Benedict render Thee merciful unto us, O Lord, that what our own unworthiness cannot obtain, we may receive through his powerful patronage. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.  

You may buy Miraculous Medals here in bulk from The Association of the Miraculous Medal. Tis a good arrow prayer to recite often the inscription around the medal, O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.