The Mystery of Baptism
The Church welcomes a newborn child and—as soon as the child gains a little strength—invites him to the temple for baptism. Baptism is a spiritual birth. From that moment, the person no longer walks through life alone but together with Christ, whose path ends in eternity.
Among the seven Church sacraments, baptism is the first to be administered to a person in time: it grants the right to be called a Christian and to partake of the other sacraments. In this sacrament, a person is cleansed from sins—both original and personal—and becomes renewed, innocent, and sinless.
Preceding the sacrament of baptism are:
a) prayers for the woman who has given birth, and
b) prayers at the naming of the infant.
In the prayers for the mother, the priest entreats the Lord to forgive her sins, to restore her health, and to preserve the lives of both mother and child. In the prayer at the naming of the infant, the priest prays that the child, living according to the commandments of God, may be deemed worthy to receive the kingdom of heaven. The child is given the name of a saint as a sign that he is being received into the communion of the heavenly and earthly Church and is to follow the saint’s footsteps in works of righteousness, which lead from the earthly Church to the heavenly one.
The sacred rite of baptism itself consists of two parts: the rite of catechism (instruction) and the baptism proper. Following these, the sacrament of chrismation is performed.
The Rite of Catechism
The word catechism means instruction in the Orthodox faith. After blessing the catechumen, the priest reads five prayers. In the first, he asks the Lord to grant the baptized person strength to fulfill the holy commandments and to unite him to the flock of His inheritance. “And he lays his hand upon his head” as a sign of imparting grace to the catechumen, just as the apostles invoked the Spirit by the laying on of hands. The catechumen, under the priest’s hand, is kept as if “under the shadow of God’s wings.”
In the next three (exorcistic) prayers, the priest, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, commands the devil to depart from the catechumen, “the newly chosen warrior of Christ God.” Finally, in the last prayer, the priest asks the Master and Lord to receive the catechumen into the number of His rational sheep and to assign him a guardian angel.
Then the priest breathes thrice in the form of a cross upon the catechumen, saying: “Expel from him every evil and unclean spirit, hidden and lurking in his heart.”
God, when He first created Adam, breathed into him the breath of life. Now, through divine breathing, the soul corrupted by sin is renewed.
“And the priest signs the forehead, mouth, and breast of the catechumen thrice with the sign of the Cross.” He signs the forehead to sanctify the mind, the lips that they may confess the truth, and the breast that the heart may be pure—beholding God, living in Him, moving in Him, and abiding in Him.
Renunciation of the Devil
Next follows the renunciation of Satan. After the person has been instructed in the true Christian teaching, he is ready to reject his former beliefs and habits, which have taken root in him not without the influence of the unclean power—that is, the devil. Therefore, over the catechumen, the priest pronounces the so-called exorcistic prayer, in which, by the name of the Lord, he casts the devil out of the catechumen along with all his servants, thus purifying the soul of the one preparing to receive the grace of baptism. After this exorcism is made in the name of God, the priest turns three times to the free will of the one to be baptized, asking whether he himself renounces Satan and all his works. The catechumen or his sponsor, turning to the west (which, as the place of sunset and darkness, symbolizes the kingdom of evil and unclean spiritual power), answers three times: “I renounce” Satan and all his works.
To ensure that the renunciation is made by all three powers of the soul—mind, heart, and will—the priest asks three more times: “Do you renounce Satan?” and the catechumen replies three times, “I have renounced Satan.”
Promise to Christ
The person to be baptized has renounced his former life and former master—that is, Satan. Now he must join a new fellowship, submit to a new saving authority, and begin a better life. The catechumen turns to the East. This symbolizes the desire of the one who wishes to be baptized to seek the light, to search for Christ, who is the “Dayspring from on high” (Luke 1:78) and the source of spiritual enlightenment, and to go to Him.
The lowering of the hands, performed by the adult to be baptized, signifies that he had until now been a prisoner and slave of the devil, wearied and burdened by the yoke of bondage, and that he now hopes to receive deliverance from this slavery through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and through Holy Baptism.
The priest asks the catechumen whether he desires to be united to Christ: “Do you pledge yourself to Christ?” And the catechumen, with hands lowered—or, if it is an infant, the sponsor in his place—responds: “I do pledge myself to Christ, and I believe in one God, the Father Almighty…” and recites the Creed. After the catechumen finishes reciting the Symbol of the Orthodox Faith, the priest again asks the previous question: “Do you pledge yourself to Christ?” Upon another affirmative response, the Creed is once again pronounced. A third time the priest poses the question: “Do you pledge yourself to Christ?” And for the third time, with firm resolve and full awareness, the catechumen answers: “I do pledge myself,” and “I believe,” and again confesses the Orthodox Faith. Finally, the priest three more times asks the catechumen whether he has pledged himself to Christ and whether he believes in Christ—and three times calls on the catechumen to bow down before the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Consubstantial and Undivided Trinity.
The rites accompanying baptism and chrismation are solemn and worthy of God.
The clergy vest in full liturgical garments, including the phelonion (a sign of joy and gladness). The sponsors are given lit candles as a sign of joy and of the gracious light the catechumen is about to receive. The water prepared for baptism is sanctified according to ancient custom: with prayer, with the priest’s threefold breath upon it—symbolizing the life-giving Spirit of God who moved over the waters at the creation of the world—and with the sign of the Cross, which protects the water from every harmful influence. On this blessed and sanctified water, the sign of the Cross is then made three times with oil—that is, with consecrated olive oil.
Next, just before the actual immersion of the person being baptized, various parts of the body are anointed in the form of a cross with the holy oil: the forehead, eyes, nostrils, ears, lips, chest, hands, and feet. This signifies that the one being baptized is now set apart for a new life—like a wild olive branch being grafted into the fruitful Olive Tree, Jesus Christ—and, anointed with oil, is about to enter into a lifelong struggle against all enemies of salvation: the world, the devil, and the flesh. The oil, which in the sacrament of Holy Unction serves for the healing of the sick, here becomes an outward sign of the inward healing granted to the baptized through immersion in water.
The person is then immersed in the water three times. The water must be clean, without admixture. It is essential that during the first immersion, the priest says: “The servant of God (or handmaid of God), [Name], is baptized in the name of the Father, Amen”; at the second immersion: “and of the Son, Amen”; and at the third: “and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.” The immersion in water signifies that the baptized person dies to the sinful life and is buried with Christ, so that he may rise with Him and live in Him (Romans 6:3–11; Colossians 2:12–13). This is the central mystery of baptism.
The child is received from the font by the sponsor—either the godfather, the godmother, or both godparents together. The godparents pronounce, on behalf of the infant, the renunciation of Satan, the promise to Christ, and the Symbol of Faith (the Creed). Since the infant is not yet able to speak prayers and make promises for himself, the baptism is performed on the basis of the faith of his parents and sponsors. The adults thereby take upon themselves the responsibility to do all they can to ensure that the newly enlightened Christian becomes a faithful child of the Church of Christ.
The baptized is clothed in a white garment as a sign of the purity of soul he has received and as a reminder that he must now lead a life within the Christian community that is bright, holy, and pure. In ancient times, those who were baptized would wear their baptismal garments for seven days and would spend that entire time reverently, preserving beneath it the anointing of holy chrism. Along with the white garment, a cross is placed upon the newly baptized as a sign that he must now fulfill the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified for us—even if the believer should have to bear the cross of suffering and sorrow.
Next, the hair of the baptized is cut in the form of a cross, symbolizing his complete submission to Jesus Christ.
At the conclusion of the entire rite, the newly baptized infant is carried around the font by the sponsors, while an adult baptized person walks around it himself three times with lit candles. This expresses his spiritual joy—that he, once a child of wrath, has now become a beloved son of the Heavenly Father; once dead in sins, he has become alive to God; once lost, he has been saved.