Baptism
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 16 October 2005 06:12:47
 Icon from OCA | As many as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia! As many as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia! As many as have been baptised into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia! Orthodox Baptismal Hymn - cf. Galatians 3:27 |
The son of two of our parishioners was baptised after the Divine Liturgy today. For those interested in the liturgical texts: the Making of a Catechumen and the the Service of Holy Baptism.
Briefly, the Making of a Catechumen, which is also a separate service when an enquirer formally enters the catechumenate (the period of instruction) is a series of exorcisms (not in the sense of The Exorcist, but commands for Satan to depart), and the renunciation of Satan and the acceptance of Christ by the catechumen (or the Godparents in the case of an infant). I will participate in this service sometime soon as I am formally made a catechumen before my Chrismation (Confirmation). The Service of Holy Baptism contains prayers, and many wonderful prayers for the blessing of the water; the baptising (which is done by immersion three times, even for infants); chrismation (marking with oil, symbolising the seal of the Holy Spirit -- and thus recalling Pentecost); an Epistle and Gospel reading; and some further washing and prayers. In addition, the child also partakes of the Holy Communion for the first time -- infants and children receive the Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church.
These three services (Baptism, Chrismation and First Communion), which are often separated in "the West" (sorry to use labels, but I need to distinguish somehow!), are done at the one time in Orthodoxy. There are noticeable differences as I've outlined above: the three-fold immersion (once for each person of the Holy Trinity) being one of the striking ones -- the baby came up coughing and spluttering but was otherwise fine. The fact that Chrismation (Confirmation) takes place at the same time is another, as is the fact that infants may receive Holy Communion.
It was truly a wondrous and joyful service, and a blessing to welcome young J into the church. God grant him many, many years! The lunch put on afterwards was also rather wondrous!
Two visitors also came to our parish last night for Vespers and today. Like me, they found out about our parish via our website. It was a great blessing to have them worship with us, and they are both interested in joining our parish.
We also had an interesting sermon on our Gospel text, Luke 8:5-15. Our sub-deacon told us not only to look within ourselves to see where we are and what sort of soil we are, but are we thorns or rocky ground for those around us? Particularly with young J being baptised, and with it being of prime importance that we assist him in his growing in the faith, we were asked to ensure that we were not only cultivating good soil within ourselves so that the bear the Word fruitfully, but that we help others around us to bear fruit, and not be a stony path or thorns to them. I gained much from that analysis of the Gospel.