Baptismal Rite
The Baptismal rite and its spirituality
Fr. Maroun Moubarak, M.L.M.
Meeting on the First Wednesday of October 2001
Fr. Maroun Moubarak, M.L.M. – Church of Saint Sharbel, Adonis – The Family of Saint Sharbel
http: //www.ayletmarcharbel.org/content/rtbt-almaamoudyt-ourouhanytha-maa-alab-maroun-mbark
Introduction:
When we participate in a baptismal rite, we rarely understand its symbols and meaning, but we are happy for the newborn, not [merely] because he or she is physically present with us, but even more so because he or she has been integrated in Christ’s Mystical Body, which is the Church. If we examine closely the different sections of the rite, we would understand its depth and dimensions, and we would live out our faith and accomplish God’s will for us in a powerful way. Because whoever knows loves, and whoever loves acts. This is the purpose of this analysis of the rite, followed by the study of its spiritual dimensions based on the Bible and the teachings of the Fathers of the Church.
The baptismal rite according to the Maronite Church is normally divided into five sections. They will be examined in the order in which they are presented in the rite because their ordering makes the liturgical action progressive and developmental in its journey of passage to a second birth.
Fr. Maroun Moubarak, M.L.M.
Meeting on the First Wednesday of October 2001
Fr. Maroun Moubarak, M.L.M. – Church of Saint Sharbel, Adonis – The Family of Saint Sharbel
http: //www.ayletmarcharbel.org/content/rtbt-almaamoudyt-ourouhanytha-maa-alab-maroun-mbark
Introduction:
When we participate in a baptismal rite, we rarely understand its symbols and meaning, but we are happy for the newborn, not [merely] because he or she is physically present with us, but even more so because he or she has been integrated in Christ’s Mystical Body, which is the Church. If we examine closely the different sections of the rite, we would understand its depth and dimensions, and we would live out our faith and accomplish God’s will for us in a powerful way. Because whoever knows loves, and whoever loves acts. This is the purpose of this analysis of the rite, followed by the study of its spiritual dimensions based on the Bible and the teachings of the Fathers of the Church.
The baptismal rite according to the Maronite Church is normally divided into five sections. They will be examined in the order in which they are presented in the rite because their ordering makes the liturgical action progressive and developmental in its journey of passage to a second birth.
Section 1: Prayer Over the Mother and Child.
This happens at the church entrance. The mother, with the child, stands at the door. The priest, wearing his liturgical vestments, prays over her and over the child. He then carries the child to the altar, turns to the mother who now stands at the foot of the altar, and gives the child back to her. This custom was followed in the Old Testament where the law of circumcision was applied, in keeping with the Jewish book of laws, the Book of Leviticus. If the mother gives birth to a boy, she is to go to the Temple after forty days and offer for him a pair of doves or pigeons. But if she gives birth to a girl, she does so in eighty days. This reminds us of the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to the Lord at the hands of Simeon, the Elder. The Torah dictates that the mother be purified and the child offered to the Lord and redeemed with an offering (Luke 2:22-32). We do not follow these laws nowadays, but the priest still welcomes the parents and the child at the church entrance or at the altar.
Section 2: Pre-Baptismal Prayers.
This is a collection of preparatory prayers where both people and vessels are being prepared. It is the prayer of the Office that contains:
1- Opening prayer:
This prayer focuses on how the baptismal ritual has been handed down to us from the Apostles, and how we received it from them. The soul of the child here is also being prepared to receive baptism.
2- Psalm 50: “Have mercy on me, O Lord.”
This Psalm reminds us that we are born in sin and that sin is before us at all times, but God’s mercy is bigger than our sin and it lifts us up.
3- The prayer of forgiveness (Hoosoyo):
This prayer is composed of an introduction (proemion) and a main body (sedro), and the main ideas in it are:
a. Jesus sets himself as an example for us in purification, whether in his own baptism or in his life on earth as a whole.
b. Enumeration of Jesus’ acts: He is born a virginal birth and renews the image of Adam after the Fall. His baptism in the Jordan River, and all that accompanied it are signs of Divine manifestation.
c. Intercessions addressed to Jesus: to bless and sanctify the child as he or she is presented to baptism and to make us worthy to raise glory to the Trinity by our renewal through baptism.
4- A hymn appropriate for the occasion.
5- Prayer of Incense (Etro):
This prayer is offered up with the incense that ascends in smoke and fragrance from the crucible. We offer it up to the Lord and ask Him to sanctify us wholly - our hearts, minds, thoughts and ears - so that all of us would be made worthy of His indwelling through the descent of the Holy Spirit.
6- Psalms of the Readings:
In them are verses from the Psalms that talk about the water’s submission to the Lord.
7- The Readings:
Titus 3:4-7 and John 3:1-9. They emphasize the second birth through water and Spirit.
8- The Homily:
The homily contains an explanation and teaching on the meaning and effects of baptism in order to refresh the community’s memory, and it exhorts the community to accompany the soul on its new journey.
Section 3: Prayers of the Catechumens
These are prayers over the baptismal candidate, followed by a profession of faith on the candidate’s behalf. This is part of preparing the persons and confirming their worthiness of receiving the sacrament.
This section is composed of:
1- Hymn - “O Lord, Our God”
In this hymn, baptism is proclaimed as a new mother, and Jesus is said to have purified all water through his baptism in the Jordan River so that anyone who descends into these waters is prepared to reach eternal life.
2- Prayer to prepare the baptismal candidate.
3- Prayer of exorcism in the name of the Holy Trinity over the baptismal candidate to rid him or her of all impurity of soul.
4- Profession of Faith:
These are three prayers through which the Christian faith in all its elements is professed. The first prayer is a renunciation of Satan. The godparents turn toward the West, the place of sunset, symbolizing the darkness of Satan, and they repeat after the celebrant the renunciation of Satan, all his pomp and his power. The godparents then turn to the East, from where the sun rises, symbolizing the light of Christ, and they proclaim, on behalf of the baptismal candidate, their faith in Jesus and in His Church and her teachings. After that, all recite the Creed.
5- Prayer:
After the Creed, the priest recites a prayer containing some titles of Christ (Shepherd, Baptizer, Teacher) and mentions His immersion in the waters of the Jordan by which He sanctified the waters for us.
Section 4: Anaphora of the Consecration of the Baptismal Water.
This is a collection of prayers and blessings that serve to consecrate the baptismal water. The celebrant may perform this blessing before the baptism or during the celebration. The water is consecrated thus:
1- The celebrant makes the signs of the Cross three times over the water in the font.
2- He blows over the water in the form of a Cross, symbolizing the descent of the Holy Spirit which chases away all that is contrary to the Lord. He prays that the waters in the font become a spiritual womb that gives birth to spiritual children of God. He then calls upon the Holy Spirit three times over the water to make it like the purifying and cleansing water that flowed from the side of Christ.
3- The Chrism is mixed three times in the water in the form of a Cross to purify and sanctify it in the name of the Trinity.
Section 5: Baptismal Prayers.
This last section follows the preparatory sections, and in it occurs the baptism. This section is composed of the following prayers:
1- Prayer of signing
The child is signed with the oil of the catechumens and admitted as a lamb in the Church of Christ.
2- Baptism with Water:
This used to be done by a triple immersion in the water in the name of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Today, this is done by pouring water over the candidate’s forehead and head three times in the name of the Trinity, to baptize the child as a lamb in the Church of God. This change of method was made for health reasons.
3- The child is clothed in white,
symbolizing the purity of his or her soul, which has received baptism and a new robe.
4- Anointing with Chrism:
The Sacrament of Chrismation (Confirmation) is given at the same time as baptism, as taught by the Second Vatican Council. We will explain this sacrament at length later.
5- Vesting the Child
by placing a veil on his or her head and a rope around his or her waist to confirm them, symbolizing the robe of glory they have received from the Trinity.
6- The Procession:
The procession expresses the joy of the community for the new member joining them, as well as the community’s acceptance of this new person in his or her new state, meaning that he or she is now in the Church and is the Church’s child who has been clothed with a new life. The Church receives them in their new life. The procession takes place inside the Church while the community sings and carries candles as a symbol of the light of Christ that illuminates their path towards the Kingdom. In ancient times, the procession used to go from the baptismal font or basin towards the altar so that the newly baptized would be given the Eucharist because the Eucharist forms, with Baptism and Chrismation, the Sacraments of Initiation. These sacraments were later separated for pastoral reasons.
7- Concluding Prayer:
The concluding prayer petitions that the baptized stay firm in faith and faithful to his or her commitment that they may be made worthy to reach eternal glory.
After closely examining the baptismal ritual, we will now talk about the spirituality of baptism as a whole according to the Gospel, the Church Fathers and the teachings of our Mother, the Church. Baptismal spirituality rests on three pillars: faith, death and resurrection, and the action of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism confirms the truth of faith and requires faith.
There is a close relationship between baptism and faith that Jesus indicated, first, in his address to his disciples after the resurrection. He said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16). Faith is necessary for baptism because someone may believe and not receive baptism but still be saved. But for someone to be baptized without faith, this will lead him to damnation. This is why Jesus insisted in John 3:16-18 that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. […] Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
The Early Church learned to combine faith and baptism as we are told in the episode of the baptism of the court official of the Queen of Ethiopia (Acts 8:26-40). After Philip had talked to this man, the man believed and asked to be baptized: “‘Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?’” (Acts 8:36). Then came all the interpretations of the words of Jesus to His disciples after the resurrection. Athanasius says: “the Lord did not only command baptism, but He first said: ‘Teach,’ and then, ‘baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,’ so that true faith may come from teaching, and that faith may complete the baptismal preparation.” Saint Jerome says that the Apostles “started to teach all nations, and after having taught them, they baptized them in water. It is possible for the body to receive the sacrament of baptism if the soul had, first, received the truth of the faith.” Following the Fathers, the Church emphasized in the Council of Trent the necessity of faith for salvation. In Chapter 7 of its sixth session, the Council teaches that “baptism is the sacrament of faith, since man cannot be saved without faith.” Saint Thomas Aquinas adds that “the first relation to God happens through faith.” Saint John of the Cross reaffirms this in his spiritual writings, as he says in his book, Ascent of Mount Carmel 2:9, “Faith alone is the proximate and proportionate means whereby the soul is united with God…the more the soul believes, the more it is united to God.” In his book The Dark Night of the Soul (I/11) he also says: “Pure faith is a unique means through which the soul is united to Him.”
Baptism also presupposes faith and requires it. It is simultaneously an act of commitment to faith, and, therefore, it requires the baptized to profess and give evidence of personal faith. Our faith does not consist of reciting verses, written and pre-packaged definitions, or empty expressions. “Faith is accepting the Word of God, obeying God’s authority, an act of submission to God’s truth, and, consequently, to Jesus Christ who is the Word of God.” In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Saint Augustine explains the meaning of the powerful preposition “in” when we say, “we believe in Him.” He says: “What then is ‘to believe in Him?’ By believing to love Him, by believing to esteem highly, by believing to go into Him and to be incorporated in His members.”
The Church today started to take new measures, such as creating a short ritual of renewal of the effects of baptism, or, what is called in the Latin Church, a “profession of faith,” where the child, who has reached the age of reason, declares again during a celebration the faith that his or her godparents professed on his or her behalf when he or she was baptized as an infant.
The seal of Christ with which we are sealed leads us to imitate and follow Christ. This is why Saint Ignatius of Antioch asked the citizens and members of the Church of Philadelphia to “imitate Jesus Christ, for he did as the Father wanted him to do.” Addressing the Church of Rome as he was being led to martyrdom, Saint Ignatius implored them: “Let me imitate the Passion of my God.” This makes our commitment of faith at baptism our own Cross, through which we follow Jesus even to martyrdom, if need be. This is what is meant by the connection between faith and faithfulness. They go hand in hand.
Lastly, since baptism presupposes our faith and commits us to it, it also unites us to Christ. We have already explained that the verb “to baptize” means to be immersed in Christ and to become a member of His Body. Christ’s mystical Body is the Church, and baptism incorporates us into the Body of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ. The Church is the Temple of faith, “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15). Faith, Church and baptism are three interconnected realities. We enter the Church to embrace her teachings, walk in her path, and participate in her life of prayer, especially the sacraments.
Baptism adds another meaning to faith: illumination, which comes from the Greek word phôtismos. It is the sacrament of light.
Clement of Alexandria in the third century says (Teaching 1 and 4:26-32), “Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated, we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal. I, says He, have said that you are gods, and all sons of the Highest. This work is variously called grace, illumination, perfection, and washing: washing, by which we cleanse away our sins; grace, by which the penalties accruing to transgressions are remitted; and illumination, by which that holy light of salvation is beheld––that is, [the light] by which we see God clearly. Now we call that perfect which wants nothing, and He who is only regenerated — as the name necessarily indicates — and is enlightened, is delivered immediately from darkness, and on the instant receives the light. As, then, those who have shaken off sleep immediately become all awake within––or, rather, as those who try to remove a film that is over the eyes––do not supply to them from without the light which they do not possess, but removing the obstacle from the eyes, leave the pupil free, thus also we who are baptized, having wiped off the sins which obscure the light of the Divine Spirit, have the eye of the spirit free, unimpeded, and full of light by which alone we contemplate the Divine, the Holy Spirit flowing down to us from above… As soon as we return to God, we no longer bear the consequences of our sins, and speed back to the eternal light, children to the Father.”
This light has been mentioned in the New Testament, and especially in the Letter to the Hebrews (10:32): “Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened.” The same letter had mentioned in 6:4: “For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” We find in this verse the components of baptism in all its preparatory stages through teaching, and its main moments, such as receiving the Holy Spirit and the illuminating Word. This reminds us of Saint Paul’s saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph 5:14). Thus, baptism removed man from the claws of darkness and the Evil One, the Prince of darkness. It opens man’s inner eyes and enables him to witness God’s light. With God’s power, man sees God. Saint Irenaeus says that “it is difficult for man to know God without God.” Thus, illumination leads to spiritual knowledge. This is what Saint Augustine teaches us when he explains the healing of the blind man by the pool of Siloam (which could be translated as “the Sent One”). The blind man was baptized in Jesus because Jesus is the One Sent from the Father. Jesus was, then, looking for someone who believes to make him someone who understands the Mysteries. This adds to “illumination” the meaning of purity of the heart, which enables man to see God. Baptism cleanses the soul. It bathes the ones who receive it in purity and light. Saint Cyprian says in this sense: “By the help of the water of new birth, the stain of former years had been washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, had been infused into my reconciled heart — after that, by the agency of the Spirit breathed from heaven, a second birth had restored me to a new man — then, in a wondrous manner, doubtful things at once began to assure themselves to me, hidden things to be revealed, dark things to be enlightened, what before had seemed difficult began to suggest a means of accomplishment.” So also, we can relive with him this same experience, especially if our heart is as innocent as a pure child’s. This way we affirm what Jesus says in Mt 6:22, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light.” We conclude our discussion of the light of faith with what the Letter to the Hebrews says about Moses, who stood firm in the face of difficulties: “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s fury, for he persevered as if seeing the one who is invisible” (Heb 11:27). With faith we see the invisible, who is God.
Baptism carries us into the death and resurrection of Christ.
Baptism is also the sacrament of death and resurrection. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mt 16:16). There is salvation only in Christ. “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12).
To be saved, we, therefore, must participate in Christ’s economy: he died, rose, and conquered death and sin. This participation happens by faith. It is internal work and an inner loving conduct which resembles faith in its moral dimension. Faith and love are translated through the sacraments. As Saint Thomas Aquinas says in his Summa Theologica: “If we share in his passion through faith and love, and through the sacraments of faith, the virtue of the passion of Christ reaches us through faith and the sacraments.”
Baptism unites us to the death and resurrection of Christ. The way the baptized is immersed in water symbolizes this double operation: immersion in the baptismal font symbolizes being dead and buried to all that is sinful; emerging from water symbolizes resurrection and the New Life. Saint Paul affirms this in his letter to the Romans (6:3-5): “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in the newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.” He reiterates in Col 2:12: “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (+387) explains all these ideas under the title: “Baptism is your grave and your mother”:
“After these things, you were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was carried from the Cross to the Sepulcher which is before our eyes. And each of you was asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and you made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three days burial of Christ. For as our Savior passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so you also in your first ascent out of the water, represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and by your descent, the night; for as he who is in the night, no longer sees, but he who is in the day, remains in the light, so in the descent, as in the night, you saw nothing, but in ascending again you were as in the day. And at the self-same moment you were both dying and being born; and that Water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother. And what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he said, in that case, There is a time to bear and a time to die; but to you, in the reverse order, there was a time to die and a time to be born; and one and the same time affected both of these, and your birth went hand in hand with your death.”
Saint John Chrysostom says in his commentary on the Letter to the Romans: “What the Cross then, and Burial, is to Christ, that Baptism has been to us, even if not in the same respects. For He died Himself and was buried in the Flesh, but we have done both to sin.” Thus, our whole spirituality stands on this double principle of death and resurrection, as Romans 6:11 explains: “You must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”
Baptism is the action of the Holy Spirit.
The Acts of the Apostles (19:1-3) tells us about Paul’s encounter with the Ephesians: While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and came (down) to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a holy Spirit.” He said, “How were you baptized?” They replied, “With the baptism of John.” If this incident happened around 54 A.D., this means that these people had met John 25 years beforehand, when John was baptizing with water and calling people to repent. Perhaps they had heard John talk about the Holy Spirit. This is because, while baptizing, John also announced the coming of the One who is mightier than him: “I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8). The Evangelist John elaborates more on this proclamation and explains it more through the words of John the Baptist, who testified saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the holy Spirit.’”
What does “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” mean?
If we go back to the Bible, we find that the inspired writers have tried to show that water is fertile and supportive of life, in addition to symbolizing the Holy Spirit: “The spirit of the Lord swept over the water” (Gen 1:2). Water even burst out of a rock during the Exodus journey (Exodus 17:5-6), and this image foreshadows the water which will overflow in the days of the Messiah and which symbolizes New Life and inexhaustible spiritual fertility. Isaiah said in that vein: “Waters will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the Arabah.” (Is 35:6), “I put water in the wilderness and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink” (43:20). Prophet Ezekiel clearly shows the connection of water to the Spirit when he says “I will sprinkle clean water over you to make you clean; from all your impurities and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (36:25-26). Hence, if water symbolizes the Spirit and means Spirit, then the term “baptism” bears two meanings: to baptize, meaning to be immersed, to descend in the waters of a river or a sea, but it also means to descend and be immersed in a spiritual reality, which is the death and resurrection. Descending in the water simply means, and symbolizes, descending in the Spirit, which means descending into a new life with the Spirit as its principle. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem confirms this by writing: “The water flows round the outside only, but the Spirit baptizes also the soul within, and that completely” (Catechetical Lecture 17:14). The Holy Spirit is present in baptism and operates in it. It is He who baptizes. “You who prepare to descend in these waters, do not regard it as ordinary water, but accept salvation through the operation of the Holy Spirit.” These waters purify the body, and the Spirit seals the soul. Thus, the heart is washed with the Spirit and the body with pure water. This is how we are enabled to approach God (See Heb 10:22).
Since the Holy Spirit is present and operative in baptism, this means that baptism gives us the Holy Spirit and is “the gift of the Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Before his death, Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them an Advocate (John 14:16-17), and after he rose from the dead, he gave them the Holy Spirit when he breathed on them (John 20:22). The disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which is when they got baptized by that same Spirit (Acts 1:5). They started their predication after Jesus’ Ascension to heaven, and they started baptizing people and giving them the Spirit. When the Spirit descended on the Apostles in the Upper Room, Peter started teaching his brothers: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37-38).
If a Christian receives the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism, then the Holy Spirit lives in him or her as in a real Temple (1 Cor 3:16). Saint Cyril of Alexandria emphasizes this presence and explains that it is a real presence, not like the presence of “illumination” in the mind of prophets. It is an actual presence, “because those who believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling in them, and we may truly call them Temples of God.”
This is the Holy Spirit. He gathers us in brotherly love in the heart of the Church to which he gives life. Saint Paul says in the First Letter to the Corinthians: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:13).
This Spirit gives us his life, so we live through him. The life of the baptized is but the “fruits of the Spirit,” as Saint Paul calls them: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22). This life in the Spirit is beset by two dangers: the danger of the body, and the danger of the letter. The body is God’s creation, and it is worthy of respect, but, because of the effects of sin, it becomes a “sinful body” (Romans 6:6) and a mortal body (Romans 7:24). Baptism is a purification of the body, not by the hand of man, but by sharing in the death of Jesus and His victory over sin in the resurrection. The body starts to live a new life “according to the Spirit,” but it is still affected by appetites that are contrary to the Spirit. Hence the necessity of “crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). It is necessary to “face death everyday” (1 Cor 15:31) so we can live in the freedom of the Spirit, because “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17). The letter, which means holding on to the letter of the Law, is called by the Apostle Paul the “stumbling block of the Cross to Jews” (1 Cor 1:23). The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Saint Paul urges us, as he urges the Romans, “now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter” (Romans 7:6). The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the principle of freedom because it is the principle of inner life. He works in us, in our hearts (Romans 5:5). The heart is the center of man’s life, the center of all emotions, thoughts, and knowledge. When the Law of the Spirit starts to work in man, on the inside, it moves him to live life in the Spirit. It is a law “written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh” (2 Cor 3:3). Thus, when we live as believers in the Law, the latter is no longer a burden to us. We follow it simply and peacefully. We do not follow the Law fearfully, like slaves, but we embrace it with the freedom of the sons and daughters who have received grace. This is how the Holy Spirit teaches us to be sons and daughters following the example of the First Born, Jesus Christ. If we all form the Mystical Body of Christ, this Body must derive life from the Spirit of Christ. This truth is taught by Saint Thomas Aquinas and is applicable to the whole Church because the Church is the Body of Christ. This truth is also applicable to every faithful [person] because he or she is a member of this body. Finally, we arrive at the conclusion that to live in the Spirit is to live according to the Gospel.
In conclusion, if we were to summarize all this information in one outline, it would look like this:
- Action of the Holy Spirit
- Death and Resurrection
- Faith
- Anointing with the oil of the Catechumens and with Chrism
- Water and its symbolism
- Renouncing Satan
- Blessing of the water
- Immersion or pouring of water
- Profession of faith in Jesus and his Church
- Prayers of invocation of the Holy Spirit
- Light and candles
- The Creed
- White Clothes
- The teaching
- Procession and joy
- The role of the godparents
- Exorcism of the child
- In the end, we ask ourselves the questions that must accompany our journey of spiritual growth:
How do I turn my baptism into a new life? In other words, how do I live my faith daily? What is my daily death and resurrection? How am I a Temple through which the Holy Spirit operates every day? Amen.
This happens at the church entrance. The mother, with the child, stands at the door. The priest, wearing his liturgical vestments, prays over her and over the child. He then carries the child to the altar, turns to the mother who now stands at the foot of the altar, and gives the child back to her. This custom was followed in the Old Testament where the law of circumcision was applied, in keeping with the Jewish book of laws, the Book of Leviticus. If the mother gives birth to a boy, she is to go to the Temple after forty days and offer for him a pair of doves or pigeons. But if she gives birth to a girl, she does so in eighty days. This reminds us of the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to the Lord at the hands of Simeon, the Elder. The Torah dictates that the mother be purified and the child offered to the Lord and redeemed with an offering (Luke 2:22-32). We do not follow these laws nowadays, but the priest still welcomes the parents and the child at the church entrance or at the altar.
Section 2: Pre-Baptismal Prayers.
This is a collection of preparatory prayers where both people and vessels are being prepared. It is the prayer of the Office that contains:
1- Opening prayer:
This prayer focuses on how the baptismal ritual has been handed down to us from the Apostles, and how we received it from them. The soul of the child here is also being prepared to receive baptism.
2- Psalm 50: “Have mercy on me, O Lord.”
This Psalm reminds us that we are born in sin and that sin is before us at all times, but God’s mercy is bigger than our sin and it lifts us up.
3- The prayer of forgiveness (Hoosoyo):
This prayer is composed of an introduction (proemion) and a main body (sedro), and the main ideas in it are:
a. Jesus sets himself as an example for us in purification, whether in his own baptism or in his life on earth as a whole.
b. Enumeration of Jesus’ acts: He is born a virginal birth and renews the image of Adam after the Fall. His baptism in the Jordan River, and all that accompanied it are signs of Divine manifestation.
c. Intercessions addressed to Jesus: to bless and sanctify the child as he or she is presented to baptism and to make us worthy to raise glory to the Trinity by our renewal through baptism.
4- A hymn appropriate for the occasion.
5- Prayer of Incense (Etro):
This prayer is offered up with the incense that ascends in smoke and fragrance from the crucible. We offer it up to the Lord and ask Him to sanctify us wholly - our hearts, minds, thoughts and ears - so that all of us would be made worthy of His indwelling through the descent of the Holy Spirit.
6- Psalms of the Readings:
In them are verses from the Psalms that talk about the water’s submission to the Lord.
7- The Readings:
Titus 3:4-7 and John 3:1-9. They emphasize the second birth through water and Spirit.
8- The Homily:
The homily contains an explanation and teaching on the meaning and effects of baptism in order to refresh the community’s memory, and it exhorts the community to accompany the soul on its new journey.
Section 3: Prayers of the Catechumens
These are prayers over the baptismal candidate, followed by a profession of faith on the candidate’s behalf. This is part of preparing the persons and confirming their worthiness of receiving the sacrament.
This section is composed of:
1- Hymn - “O Lord, Our God”
In this hymn, baptism is proclaimed as a new mother, and Jesus is said to have purified all water through his baptism in the Jordan River so that anyone who descends into these waters is prepared to reach eternal life.
2- Prayer to prepare the baptismal candidate.
3- Prayer of exorcism in the name of the Holy Trinity over the baptismal candidate to rid him or her of all impurity of soul.
4- Profession of Faith:
These are three prayers through which the Christian faith in all its elements is professed. The first prayer is a renunciation of Satan. The godparents turn toward the West, the place of sunset, symbolizing the darkness of Satan, and they repeat after the celebrant the renunciation of Satan, all his pomp and his power. The godparents then turn to the East, from where the sun rises, symbolizing the light of Christ, and they proclaim, on behalf of the baptismal candidate, their faith in Jesus and in His Church and her teachings. After that, all recite the Creed.
5- Prayer:
After the Creed, the priest recites a prayer containing some titles of Christ (Shepherd, Baptizer, Teacher) and mentions His immersion in the waters of the Jordan by which He sanctified the waters for us.
Section 4: Anaphora of the Consecration of the Baptismal Water.
This is a collection of prayers and blessings that serve to consecrate the baptismal water. The celebrant may perform this blessing before the baptism or during the celebration. The water is consecrated thus:
1- The celebrant makes the signs of the Cross three times over the water in the font.
2- He blows over the water in the form of a Cross, symbolizing the descent of the Holy Spirit which chases away all that is contrary to the Lord. He prays that the waters in the font become a spiritual womb that gives birth to spiritual children of God. He then calls upon the Holy Spirit three times over the water to make it like the purifying and cleansing water that flowed from the side of Christ.
3- The Chrism is mixed three times in the water in the form of a Cross to purify and sanctify it in the name of the Trinity.
Section 5: Baptismal Prayers.
This last section follows the preparatory sections, and in it occurs the baptism. This section is composed of the following prayers:
1- Prayer of signing
The child is signed with the oil of the catechumens and admitted as a lamb in the Church of Christ.
2- Baptism with Water:
This used to be done by a triple immersion in the water in the name of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Today, this is done by pouring water over the candidate’s forehead and head three times in the name of the Trinity, to baptize the child as a lamb in the Church of God. This change of method was made for health reasons.
3- The child is clothed in white,
symbolizing the purity of his or her soul, which has received baptism and a new robe.
4- Anointing with Chrism:
The Sacrament of Chrismation (Confirmation) is given at the same time as baptism, as taught by the Second Vatican Council. We will explain this sacrament at length later.
5- Vesting the Child
by placing a veil on his or her head and a rope around his or her waist to confirm them, symbolizing the robe of glory they have received from the Trinity.
6- The Procession:
The procession expresses the joy of the community for the new member joining them, as well as the community’s acceptance of this new person in his or her new state, meaning that he or she is now in the Church and is the Church’s child who has been clothed with a new life. The Church receives them in their new life. The procession takes place inside the Church while the community sings and carries candles as a symbol of the light of Christ that illuminates their path towards the Kingdom. In ancient times, the procession used to go from the baptismal font or basin towards the altar so that the newly baptized would be given the Eucharist because the Eucharist forms, with Baptism and Chrismation, the Sacraments of Initiation. These sacraments were later separated for pastoral reasons.
7- Concluding Prayer:
The concluding prayer petitions that the baptized stay firm in faith and faithful to his or her commitment that they may be made worthy to reach eternal glory.
After closely examining the baptismal ritual, we will now talk about the spirituality of baptism as a whole according to the Gospel, the Church Fathers and the teachings of our Mother, the Church. Baptismal spirituality rests on three pillars: faith, death and resurrection, and the action of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism confirms the truth of faith and requires faith.
There is a close relationship between baptism and faith that Jesus indicated, first, in his address to his disciples after the resurrection. He said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16). Faith is necessary for baptism because someone may believe and not receive baptism but still be saved. But for someone to be baptized without faith, this will lead him to damnation. This is why Jesus insisted in John 3:16-18 that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. […] Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
The Early Church learned to combine faith and baptism as we are told in the episode of the baptism of the court official of the Queen of Ethiopia (Acts 8:26-40). After Philip had talked to this man, the man believed and asked to be baptized: “‘Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?’” (Acts 8:36). Then came all the interpretations of the words of Jesus to His disciples after the resurrection. Athanasius says: “the Lord did not only command baptism, but He first said: ‘Teach,’ and then, ‘baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,’ so that true faith may come from teaching, and that faith may complete the baptismal preparation.” Saint Jerome says that the Apostles “started to teach all nations, and after having taught them, they baptized them in water. It is possible for the body to receive the sacrament of baptism if the soul had, first, received the truth of the faith.” Following the Fathers, the Church emphasized in the Council of Trent the necessity of faith for salvation. In Chapter 7 of its sixth session, the Council teaches that “baptism is the sacrament of faith, since man cannot be saved without faith.” Saint Thomas Aquinas adds that “the first relation to God happens through faith.” Saint John of the Cross reaffirms this in his spiritual writings, as he says in his book, Ascent of Mount Carmel 2:9, “Faith alone is the proximate and proportionate means whereby the soul is united with God…the more the soul believes, the more it is united to God.” In his book The Dark Night of the Soul (I/11) he also says: “Pure faith is a unique means through which the soul is united to Him.”
Baptism also presupposes faith and requires it. It is simultaneously an act of commitment to faith, and, therefore, it requires the baptized to profess and give evidence of personal faith. Our faith does not consist of reciting verses, written and pre-packaged definitions, or empty expressions. “Faith is accepting the Word of God, obeying God’s authority, an act of submission to God’s truth, and, consequently, to Jesus Christ who is the Word of God.” In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Saint Augustine explains the meaning of the powerful preposition “in” when we say, “we believe in Him.” He says: “What then is ‘to believe in Him?’ By believing to love Him, by believing to esteem highly, by believing to go into Him and to be incorporated in His members.”
The Church today started to take new measures, such as creating a short ritual of renewal of the effects of baptism, or, what is called in the Latin Church, a “profession of faith,” where the child, who has reached the age of reason, declares again during a celebration the faith that his or her godparents professed on his or her behalf when he or she was baptized as an infant.
The seal of Christ with which we are sealed leads us to imitate and follow Christ. This is why Saint Ignatius of Antioch asked the citizens and members of the Church of Philadelphia to “imitate Jesus Christ, for he did as the Father wanted him to do.” Addressing the Church of Rome as he was being led to martyrdom, Saint Ignatius implored them: “Let me imitate the Passion of my God.” This makes our commitment of faith at baptism our own Cross, through which we follow Jesus even to martyrdom, if need be. This is what is meant by the connection between faith and faithfulness. They go hand in hand.
Lastly, since baptism presupposes our faith and commits us to it, it also unites us to Christ. We have already explained that the verb “to baptize” means to be immersed in Christ and to become a member of His Body. Christ’s mystical Body is the Church, and baptism incorporates us into the Body of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ. The Church is the Temple of faith, “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15). Faith, Church and baptism are three interconnected realities. We enter the Church to embrace her teachings, walk in her path, and participate in her life of prayer, especially the sacraments.
Baptism adds another meaning to faith: illumination, which comes from the Greek word phôtismos. It is the sacrament of light.
Clement of Alexandria in the third century says (Teaching 1 and 4:26-32), “Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated, we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal. I, says He, have said that you are gods, and all sons of the Highest. This work is variously called grace, illumination, perfection, and washing: washing, by which we cleanse away our sins; grace, by which the penalties accruing to transgressions are remitted; and illumination, by which that holy light of salvation is beheld––that is, [the light] by which we see God clearly. Now we call that perfect which wants nothing, and He who is only regenerated — as the name necessarily indicates — and is enlightened, is delivered immediately from darkness, and on the instant receives the light. As, then, those who have shaken off sleep immediately become all awake within––or, rather, as those who try to remove a film that is over the eyes––do not supply to them from without the light which they do not possess, but removing the obstacle from the eyes, leave the pupil free, thus also we who are baptized, having wiped off the sins which obscure the light of the Divine Spirit, have the eye of the spirit free, unimpeded, and full of light by which alone we contemplate the Divine, the Holy Spirit flowing down to us from above… As soon as we return to God, we no longer bear the consequences of our sins, and speed back to the eternal light, children to the Father.”
This light has been mentioned in the New Testament, and especially in the Letter to the Hebrews (10:32): “Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened.” The same letter had mentioned in 6:4: “For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” We find in this verse the components of baptism in all its preparatory stages through teaching, and its main moments, such as receiving the Holy Spirit and the illuminating Word. This reminds us of Saint Paul’s saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph 5:14). Thus, baptism removed man from the claws of darkness and the Evil One, the Prince of darkness. It opens man’s inner eyes and enables him to witness God’s light. With God’s power, man sees God. Saint Irenaeus says that “it is difficult for man to know God without God.” Thus, illumination leads to spiritual knowledge. This is what Saint Augustine teaches us when he explains the healing of the blind man by the pool of Siloam (which could be translated as “the Sent One”). The blind man was baptized in Jesus because Jesus is the One Sent from the Father. Jesus was, then, looking for someone who believes to make him someone who understands the Mysteries. This adds to “illumination” the meaning of purity of the heart, which enables man to see God. Baptism cleanses the soul. It bathes the ones who receive it in purity and light. Saint Cyprian says in this sense: “By the help of the water of new birth, the stain of former years had been washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, had been infused into my reconciled heart — after that, by the agency of the Spirit breathed from heaven, a second birth had restored me to a new man — then, in a wondrous manner, doubtful things at once began to assure themselves to me, hidden things to be revealed, dark things to be enlightened, what before had seemed difficult began to suggest a means of accomplishment.” So also, we can relive with him this same experience, especially if our heart is as innocent as a pure child’s. This way we affirm what Jesus says in Mt 6:22, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light.” We conclude our discussion of the light of faith with what the Letter to the Hebrews says about Moses, who stood firm in the face of difficulties: “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s fury, for he persevered as if seeing the one who is invisible” (Heb 11:27). With faith we see the invisible, who is God.
Baptism carries us into the death and resurrection of Christ.
Baptism is also the sacrament of death and resurrection. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mt 16:16). There is salvation only in Christ. “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12).
To be saved, we, therefore, must participate in Christ’s economy: he died, rose, and conquered death and sin. This participation happens by faith. It is internal work and an inner loving conduct which resembles faith in its moral dimension. Faith and love are translated through the sacraments. As Saint Thomas Aquinas says in his Summa Theologica: “If we share in his passion through faith and love, and through the sacraments of faith, the virtue of the passion of Christ reaches us through faith and the sacraments.”
Baptism unites us to the death and resurrection of Christ. The way the baptized is immersed in water symbolizes this double operation: immersion in the baptismal font symbolizes being dead and buried to all that is sinful; emerging from water symbolizes resurrection and the New Life. Saint Paul affirms this in his letter to the Romans (6:3-5): “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in the newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.” He reiterates in Col 2:12: “You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (+387) explains all these ideas under the title: “Baptism is your grave and your mother”:
“After these things, you were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was carried from the Cross to the Sepulcher which is before our eyes. And each of you was asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and you made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three days burial of Christ. For as our Savior passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so you also in your first ascent out of the water, represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and by your descent, the night; for as he who is in the night, no longer sees, but he who is in the day, remains in the light, so in the descent, as in the night, you saw nothing, but in ascending again you were as in the day. And at the self-same moment you were both dying and being born; and that Water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother. And what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he said, in that case, There is a time to bear and a time to die; but to you, in the reverse order, there was a time to die and a time to be born; and one and the same time affected both of these, and your birth went hand in hand with your death.”
Saint John Chrysostom says in his commentary on the Letter to the Romans: “What the Cross then, and Burial, is to Christ, that Baptism has been to us, even if not in the same respects. For He died Himself and was buried in the Flesh, but we have done both to sin.” Thus, our whole spirituality stands on this double principle of death and resurrection, as Romans 6:11 explains: “You must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”
Baptism is the action of the Holy Spirit.
The Acts of the Apostles (19:1-3) tells us about Paul’s encounter with the Ephesians: While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior of the country and came (down) to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a holy Spirit.” He said, “How were you baptized?” They replied, “With the baptism of John.” If this incident happened around 54 A.D., this means that these people had met John 25 years beforehand, when John was baptizing with water and calling people to repent. Perhaps they had heard John talk about the Holy Spirit. This is because, while baptizing, John also announced the coming of the One who is mightier than him: “I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8). The Evangelist John elaborates more on this proclamation and explains it more through the words of John the Baptist, who testified saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the holy Spirit.’”
What does “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” mean?
If we go back to the Bible, we find that the inspired writers have tried to show that water is fertile and supportive of life, in addition to symbolizing the Holy Spirit: “The spirit of the Lord swept over the water” (Gen 1:2). Water even burst out of a rock during the Exodus journey (Exodus 17:5-6), and this image foreshadows the water which will overflow in the days of the Messiah and which symbolizes New Life and inexhaustible spiritual fertility. Isaiah said in that vein: “Waters will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the Arabah.” (Is 35:6), “I put water in the wilderness and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink” (43:20). Prophet Ezekiel clearly shows the connection of water to the Spirit when he says “I will sprinkle clean water over you to make you clean; from all your impurities and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (36:25-26). Hence, if water symbolizes the Spirit and means Spirit, then the term “baptism” bears two meanings: to baptize, meaning to be immersed, to descend in the waters of a river or a sea, but it also means to descend and be immersed in a spiritual reality, which is the death and resurrection. Descending in the water simply means, and symbolizes, descending in the Spirit, which means descending into a new life with the Spirit as its principle. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem confirms this by writing: “The water flows round the outside only, but the Spirit baptizes also the soul within, and that completely” (Catechetical Lecture 17:14). The Holy Spirit is present in baptism and operates in it. It is He who baptizes. “You who prepare to descend in these waters, do not regard it as ordinary water, but accept salvation through the operation of the Holy Spirit.” These waters purify the body, and the Spirit seals the soul. Thus, the heart is washed with the Spirit and the body with pure water. This is how we are enabled to approach God (See Heb 10:22).
Since the Holy Spirit is present and operative in baptism, this means that baptism gives us the Holy Spirit and is “the gift of the Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Before his death, Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them an Advocate (John 14:16-17), and after he rose from the dead, he gave them the Holy Spirit when he breathed on them (John 20:22). The disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which is when they got baptized by that same Spirit (Acts 1:5). They started their predication after Jesus’ Ascension to heaven, and they started baptizing people and giving them the Spirit. When the Spirit descended on the Apostles in the Upper Room, Peter started teaching his brothers: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37-38).
If a Christian receives the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism, then the Holy Spirit lives in him or her as in a real Temple (1 Cor 3:16). Saint Cyril of Alexandria emphasizes this presence and explains that it is a real presence, not like the presence of “illumination” in the mind of prophets. It is an actual presence, “because those who believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling in them, and we may truly call them Temples of God.”
This is the Holy Spirit. He gathers us in brotherly love in the heart of the Church to which he gives life. Saint Paul says in the First Letter to the Corinthians: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:13).
This Spirit gives us his life, so we live through him. The life of the baptized is but the “fruits of the Spirit,” as Saint Paul calls them: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22). This life in the Spirit is beset by two dangers: the danger of the body, and the danger of the letter. The body is God’s creation, and it is worthy of respect, but, because of the effects of sin, it becomes a “sinful body” (Romans 6:6) and a mortal body (Romans 7:24). Baptism is a purification of the body, not by the hand of man, but by sharing in the death of Jesus and His victory over sin in the resurrection. The body starts to live a new life “according to the Spirit,” but it is still affected by appetites that are contrary to the Spirit. Hence the necessity of “crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). It is necessary to “face death everyday” (1 Cor 15:31) so we can live in the freedom of the Spirit, because “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17). The letter, which means holding on to the letter of the Law, is called by the Apostle Paul the “stumbling block of the Cross to Jews” (1 Cor 1:23). The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Saint Paul urges us, as he urges the Romans, “now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter” (Romans 7:6). The Holy Spirit is, therefore, the principle of freedom because it is the principle of inner life. He works in us, in our hearts (Romans 5:5). The heart is the center of man’s life, the center of all emotions, thoughts, and knowledge. When the Law of the Spirit starts to work in man, on the inside, it moves him to live life in the Spirit. It is a law “written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh” (2 Cor 3:3). Thus, when we live as believers in the Law, the latter is no longer a burden to us. We follow it simply and peacefully. We do not follow the Law fearfully, like slaves, but we embrace it with the freedom of the sons and daughters who have received grace. This is how the Holy Spirit teaches us to be sons and daughters following the example of the First Born, Jesus Christ. If we all form the Mystical Body of Christ, this Body must derive life from the Spirit of Christ. This truth is taught by Saint Thomas Aquinas and is applicable to the whole Church because the Church is the Body of Christ. This truth is also applicable to every faithful [person] because he or she is a member of this body. Finally, we arrive at the conclusion that to live in the Spirit is to live according to the Gospel.
In conclusion, if we were to summarize all this information in one outline, it would look like this:
- Action of the Holy Spirit
- Death and Resurrection
- Faith
- Anointing with the oil of the Catechumens and with Chrism
- Water and its symbolism
- Renouncing Satan
- Blessing of the water
- Immersion or pouring of water
- Profession of faith in Jesus and his Church
- Prayers of invocation of the Holy Spirit
- Light and candles
- The Creed
- White Clothes
- The teaching
- Procession and joy
- The role of the godparents
- Exorcism of the child
- In the end, we ask ourselves the questions that must accompany our journey of spiritual growth:
How do I turn my baptism into a new life? In other words, how do I live my faith daily? What is my daily death and resurrection? How am I a Temple through which the Holy Spirit operates every day? Amen.
