I need advice please!

Those of you who have seen my various bloggity incarnations over the past year will know that I am interested in, but not particularly committed to, religion per se.

I was brought up CofV ("Church of Village" the religion where everyone wonders what hat Mrs so-and-so is wearing and meditates whilst guzzling communion wine, on whether their Sunday roast is incinerating in the oven at home).

I discovered Buddhism in the 80s and read and read about that for a while. In the 90s married a lapsed Catholic with a very committed Mother and Father who naturally wanted their son married a Catholic (:oops:) and their grandchildren baptised Catholic too (double :oops:)

Then came lots of reading about Paganism - which was more natural to me as my rural up-bringing had meant that my life was very closely bound to the Seasons and to my history. More recently I have been fascinated by Islam and have launched myself into a pocket home-structured course on Islamic studies just because.

So, when Mr Not's parents came to visit us in 2006 I thought I would work with them on the religion thing. We all marched off to Mass on Sundays (some of us more willingly than others) and on the last weekend of their trip, Mog, always keen to indulge her Grandma, brought back a little plastic squeezy bottle of "Holy Water" which I have just re-discovered on a bookshelf in the kitchen!

So here are my questions:

Question 1: What does Holy Water Do?
Question 2: Where should it be sprinkled?
Question 3: Does it have a "use by" date? This was blessed in October 2006
Question 4: Can it be sprinkled by a heathen like me?

Tell you what though this religion thingy seems to be helping Grandma in her battle against the evil "C" Seemingly faith is thing not to be sniffed at.