Baptisim

Baptism is the sacrament which takes away our sins, regenerates to a new life of grace, unites us with God and makes us members of Christ’s Church. Baptism is necessary for salvation because as Christ said: ”Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

My dear brothers and sisters we celebrate today the Baptism of our Lord. St. Luke in today’s Gospel tells us about Jesus` Baptism. After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

My dear Brothers and sisters, when we celebrate this feast we remember our baptism.

Our baptism, probably for most of us, took place as infant, in the presence of parents and godparents, by water and the Holy Spirit, by a priest or maybe a deacon, who called down the Trinity as we were blessed “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Our baptism took place physically inside a church, and sacramentally in the Catholic Church; we were welcomed into the Christian community.

Our relationship with God is not simply “God and me.” Our relationship with God necessarily includes the Church which Jesus founded, and all humankind whom Jesus came to save. As we celebrate today the Baptism of our Lord let us renewed now our baptismal vows. Many years age our parents and grandparents did during our baptism.
Now let us say together:

• I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord, Who was born and suffered for us; in the Holy Spirit; the holy Catholic Church; the Communion of Saints; the forgiveness of sins; the Resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
• I renounce the world, with its vanities, and false maxims, which I despise because they are accursed by You.
• I renounce the flesh, with all its temptations, and sincerely resolve to endeavor to amend my faults, to conquer my passions, and to sacrifice all that is most dear to me rather than again deliberately sully that robe which I promised to carry unstained before the judgment seat of Christ.
• O my good God, Who did love me before I could love You, and did apply to my soul the merits, of Jesus Christ when I was unable to implore that favor, look on me with compassion, and grant me all those graces, which will enable me to keep my baptismal engagement without reproof.
• Increase in my soul the heavenly virtues of faith, hope and charity, which I received at baptism, and teach me to make faith the rule of my conduct, that it may avail me to life everlasting; through the infinite mercies and merits of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who, with You and the Holy Spirit, live and reign, one God, world without end.
• Priest: Almighty, eternal God, when the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, you revealed him as your own beloved Son. Keep us, your children born of water and the Spirit, faithful to our calling. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.