Purging; purification; an apotropiac. In Christianity, it signifies penitence; humility; its purgative properties depict innocence regained, hence baptism.
Otto Scharf :: Taufgang, ca. 1905. Photogravure. The photograph depicts the faithful standing in line outside a church to be baptized. In: Photografische Mitteilungen 1905. | src Photoseed
Otto Scharf :: Taufgang, ca. 1905. Photogravure. Editor: Atelier Georg Büxenstein & Co. In: Photografische Mitteilungen 1905. | src photogravure.com
I was manipulated into getting one because my little sister did as well and since I couldn’t find the original baptism certificate, I decided to get this and frame it in my house.
Of course no one needs a certificate to denounce a baptism but it might be comforting to have something physical in your hand.
Yo more people need to know about unbaptism.org I think that would give a lot of people great comfort
The fantastic creatures carved on this fragment of a medieval baptismal font in Glencairn’s collection may have been intended to ward off evil during the ceremony of baptism. According to Dr. Julia Perratore, “medieval baptismal fonts were frequently endowed with an extra layer of spiritual protection in the form of apotropaic imagery. Romanesque fonts in particular tend to display images of frightening monsters and violent confrontations between beasts (or humans and beasts) because physical struggle was seen as an appropriate metaphor for the vanquishing of evil through baptism.” Read more about this and other “monsters” in Glencairn in “Protective Images from Glencairn’s Medieval Sculpture Collection,” a 2017 article in Glencairn Museum News:https://bit.ly/3axZ0gj
Sweetboy Kewpie - Baptism NEW SONG I MADE AND LOVE <3 <3 LOVE YOU
we need a baptism need a rebirth we need a purge
i want to puke i want to fight myself all night who knows wholl win im a whole man holes punched in skin 3 pronged and thin professional wimp dont skimp on the shrimp dont lend out my hand choke on my brand cant say it twice flicker of light its here then its gone or its all for the wrong its all for the show fake arrogance knows real confidence weeps how am i not myself how am i not myself how am i not myself i need a baptism need a rebirth i need a purge i need a baptism need a rebirth i need a purge
see through the fake determine my fate grew mushrooms on bullshit spewed from the pulpit create my own world no diamonds and pearls no opponents summits, plateau it, sum it, plateau it
primitive bring im a primitive being savage dance savage dance watch my savage dance hymnal trance hymnal trance hymnal trance breathe again its that hymnal trance breathe again its that hymnal trance
dream a little dream, voice inside screams is it him or me, them or we if its we who am i, why they gotta die meanwhile ive lived thousand lives, feels so contrived would it be a lie, if i could do it all again still put you after i damn, that sounds like some fuckboy shit damn, i must be a fuckboy, shit tuck it away til i wanna to reminisce that shit cray, as i take another hit see life its opulence, human nature dont forget fuck if it kills us just enjoy this shit
we need a baptism need a rebirt we need a purge we need a baptism need a rebirt we need a purge
primitive bring im a primitive being savage dance savage dance watch my savage dance hymnal trance hymnal trance hymnal trance breathe again its that hymnal trance breathe again its that hymnal trance
primitive being primitive being primitive being permanent being permanent being primitive being permanent being permanent being primitive being permanent being
zombie on my leg is beggin to forgive my own rotten flesh is all i have to fix ciroc that chain, vvs lense frames catch me in the range, soaking up the fame til my head up cause im savoring the rain laughing while crying crazy and deranged damn is he insane matter of timing, and not much remains exploding clocks remind me of time ive never seen what do you mean? im just coasting, this my dream pass the scissors know start cutting at the seams right around the clouds and through the sun beams step into the darkness tell me what it means olsen twins thirty minute resolution fuck that shit theres cops out here shooting fuck that shit the tides coming in hails coming down people dying for their sins arbitry moral lines lies to feel fine no weapons formed against me shall prosper catch me walking on water
we need a baptism need a rebirth we need a purge we need a baptism need a rebirth we need a purge
primitive bring im a primitive being savage dance savage dance watch my savage dance hymnal trance hymnal trance hymnal trance breathe again its that hymnal trance breathe again its that hymnal trance
The Holy Spirit renews us in baptism through His godhead, which He shares with the Father and the Son. Finding us in a state of deformity, the Spirit restores our original beauty and fills us with His grace, leaving no room for anything unworthy of our love. The Spirit frees us from sin and death, and changes us from the earthly men we were, men of dust and ashes, into spiritual men, sharers in the Divine Glory, sons and heirs of God the Father– who bear a likeness to the Son and are His co-heirs and brothers, destined to reign with Him and to share His glory. In place of earth, the Spirit reopens heaven to us and gladly admits us into paradise, giving us even now greater honour than the angels, and by the holy waters of baptism extinguishing the unquenchable fires of hell.
We men are conceived twice: to the human body we owe our first conception, to the divine Spirit, our second. John says: “To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God. These were born not by human generation, not by the desire of the flesh, not by the will of man, but of God.” All who believed in Christ, he says, received power to become children of God– that is, of the Holy Spirit, and to gain kinship with God. To show that their parent was God the Holy Spirit, he adds these words of Christ: “I give you this solemn warning, that without being born of water and the Spirit, no one can enter the kingdom of God.” [But through that same Spirit, He has given us both the power and means to accomplish this.]
Visibly, through the ministry of priests, the [water of the baptismal] font gives symbolic birth to our visible bodies. Invisibly, through the ministry of angels, the Spirit of God, whom even the mind’s eye cannot see, baptizes into Himself both our souls and bodies, giving them a new birth. Speaking quite literally, and also in harmony with the words of water and the Spirit, John the Baptist says of Christ: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Since we are only vessels of clay, we must first be cleansed in water and then hardened by spiritual fire – for God is a consuming fire. We need the Holy Spirit to perfect and renew us, for spiritual fire can cleanse us, and spiritual water can recast us as in a furnace, and make us into new men.
This painting is based on an image from the 1300’s. A medieval manuscript, I think it was Bathsheba. Mine turned into a woman trying to wash away her troubles, her pain and clean her soul. —— Forgiveness 2018 oil on canvas 80cm x 60cm. —— #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #painting #pittura #dipinto #contemporarypainting #contemporaryart #modernart #artecontemporanea #artecontemporaneo #arteitaliana #arte #artcontemporain #kunst #canadianart #torontoart #hamont #landscape #landscapepainting #portrait #arthistory #bathers #baptism #swimming #river #forgiveness #bathsheba #cleansing
At evening prayer today, the Church sings this antiphon: “Three mysteries mark this holy day: today the star leads the Magi to the infant Christ; today water is changed into wine for the wedding feast; today Christ wills to be baptized by John in the river Jordan to bring us salvation.”
At first glance this seems puzzling and might even appear to be an odd conflation of three events in the life of Christ. But this only is problematic if we think about the celebration of Christmas and the feasts around it in a chronological way. Likewise with the Holy Rosary, when we think that this devotion is meant to present us with a chronological or sequential newsreel of the life of Christ. In fact, as I said on the 1st of January, the feasts of Christmas, like the Rosary (as I say in my book Mysteries Made Visible) need to be viewed theologically – they tell us about the person of Jesus Christ, about what God is doing for us in Christ, and about the life of grace now, and how we can thus receive from God, “grace upon grace” (Jn 1:14).
As such, today feast of the Epiphany is about the revelation to the nations that God has been born among us, that he is “true God and true Man”, truly God with us, Emmanuel. The cosmic-changing implication of the Incarnation is thus set out for us in the Second Reading today. St Paul says: “it was by a revelation that I was given the knowledge of the mystery. This mystery that has now been revealed through the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets was unknown to any men in past generations; it means that pagans now share the same inheritance, that they are parts of the same body, and that the same promise has been made to them, in Jesus Christ, through the gospel.”
Except that the reading doesn’t make explicit what is meant by “the inheritance” and the “same promise” that has been offered now to all peoples, all nations, both Jew and pagan alike. But if we pay attention to the Preface of the Epiphany, we will hear this: “today you have revealed the mystery of our salvation in Christ as a light for the nations, and when he appeared in our mortal nature, you made us new by the glory of his immortal nature.” We take it for granted, perhaps, that God should offer salvation to all peoples, and yet the fact is that until the coming of Christ, until the Incarnation of God as Man through which he took on our mortal human nature, it had been thought that salvation was only for a particular race, a chosen few.
The coming of God as a human being makes it clear that God has chosen humanity, even though we had fallen into sin and disobeyed him. God has chosen us for himself, and called us into his marvellous light, into intimate friendship with him through the person of Jesus Christ who is both God and Man. Why? So that we might be renewed by the grace of Christ, and so come to share in his immortal and divine nature as the Preface says. This is the theological heart of today’s celebration; this is the wondrous truth that is revealed as an Epiphany to the nations today.
The three mysteries that mark this day, therefore, express this theological truth and they invite us to think about it. Firstly, the Gentile Magi come to adore Christ and they offer their treasures before him. This tells us that salvation from God is now offered to all nations through the person of Jesus Christ. All peoples, therefore, are called to seek him, to journey towards him, and to offer to him, the God-Man, their treasures, their joys, their sorrows, their all. This is the principal sign of this feast that reveals the fact that salvation is now open to humanity, should one desire it, should we seek God out, and open our lives and desires to him.
All that Man can offer to Christ is like the water at Cana. All these, all that is of our human nature, God will transform by his grace and make like unto wine. Just as, in the Mass, Christ takes what we bring to the Altar and transforms it into his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, so Christ takes all that we offer to him, all that is of our mortal human natures, and he transforms us by his grace and divinises us. The water changed into wine at Cana is hence a sign that Christ comes to make us “new by the glory of his immortal nature” as the Preface says. The fact that this takes place at a wedding feast tells us that in the person of Christ, God and Man is forever united, made one in a love and a bond that is like marriage. This reveals the interior sign of this feast, of the saving effect of Christ’s grace on the human soul and person; it tells us howwe are saved interiorly, through the invisible action of grace.
And thirdly, the sign of Christ’s Baptism shows us the external sign, the Sacrament that causes and effects this grace. Baptism is thus called the “Sacrament of Salvation” because the Lord wills that it is through Baptism that we receive the grace of divine adoption, that we share in Christ’s life and divine nature, and that we are thus saved. The third mystery of this feast day, therefore, affirms that ordinarily we must be Baptised in order to be saved. Yes, salvation has been offered to all peoples, but God does not force himself onto us, so we express our acceptance of salvation by seeking Baptism. Christian parents can and should do this for their infant children, but the assumption of the Church, repeatedly expressed in the Rite of Baptism, is that baptised children must be brought up in the practice of the Faith so that they grow in knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. Hence the Collect today also prays: “Grant in your mercy, that we, who know you already by faith, may be brought to behold the beauty of your sublime glory.”
For our Faith in Christ, and our friendship with God involves a journey: This begins at Baptism, and, as in a Marriage, it is a love that must be deepened and that will need to endure “for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.” And at the end of the journey, if we are choose to persevere and walk by the light of Faith, a light which shines like a star in the night but which, like the stars, is not always so clearly visible, then we shall finally enter the home of Mary and Joseph, and there, in heaven, behold and adore Christ our God, face to face.
This is the journey of the wise men, the journey of faith that each of us, like them, are invited to make in our lifetime. So, at the start of a new year, let us press on in our journey; let us seek that elusive star in the darkness; and let us remember the words of the Lord: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Lk 11:9) Jesus, on this feast day, promises us not worldly or earthly things, not the luxuries and consolations of gold, or incense, or myrrh, but rather, understood theologically, Christ gives us his own self. Therefore, let us give him open our treasures, our whole self before him, and receive from his fullness of divine humanity, “grace upon grace”.
A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, “Who are you?” He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.” So they asked him, “What are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?” He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord,’” as Isaiah the prophet said.” Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings. So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.” John answered and said, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”
There’s a new-age type church in a neighboring suburb that a couple of my friends go to. New-age churches aren’t really my thing; besides my theological disagreements, I’m just personally not a fan of “modern” services — I will never choose acoustic guitars and fog machines over organs and stained glass windows. (No hate if you prefer the former! That’s just my preference.)
However, 2 of my friends who attend this church recently posted about being re-baptized. This church holds like monthly baptismal events where people can come and get re-baptized basically as a public re-commitment to Jesus and to their faith. On this church’s instagram page, they also posted their own infographic about “what baptism is and isn’t”, and stated in no uncertain terms that baptism doesn’t mean you’re saved — that it is simply a declaration of your belief in Jesus.
More than anything, I find this perplexing.
Growing up Lutheran (ELCA), we believe (like Catholics, as well as Episcopalians and other protestant denominations,) that baptism is a necessary sacrament. It’s not necessarily a guarantee that you’ll be “saved”/get into Heaven, but it is nonetheless essentially a prerequisite for doing so, so to speak. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a church, even a modern, new-age one, proclaim that baptism is just a public declaration of a person’s faith, and not a necessary step towards salvation.
My question is: Why? I disagree with the belief that baptism isn’t necessary — I think it is. But what is the reasoning behind this line of though? Good faith answers only pls, no snarky “bEcAuSe ThEy’Re SiNnErS” type comments, I am genuinely curious and want, like, sources or an explanation for why some people would believe this. Is this common to newer “non-denominational” protestant movements, and I’m just late to hearing about it? Pls help
The exact significance of the sacrament of baptism is a long-running debate in the Church. There’s long been a general agreement that if someone is martyred on their way to be baptized, that counts as baptism (I think the official term is baptism by/in blood) and even baptism as a necessary but not sufficient condition has been a subject of debate. With almost all modern Christians rejecting infant damnation, the notion that you must get the newborn baby dunked as quickly as possible in case it dies before baptism (and goes to Hell) is pretty much nonexistent (that was the original purpose of godparents; they brought the newborn to the font while the mother was still recovering).
So the idea that baptism might not be strictly necessary for salvation in all cases has a fairly long pedigree and is the de facto (if not de jure) stance of most Christian denominations in the 21st Century. Once you’ve accepted that idea, it’s pretty easy to see baptism as more of a symbol of faith than a literal washing away of prior sins. Concern that baptism itself might become an idol led the Quakers to reject it entirely.
Evangelical Protestantism tends to see baptism as a public affirmation of faith, but think that salvation itself occurs when a person confesses their sins to God and asks him to redeem them. The public affirmation is important, but it falls in the same category as good works: someone who is a Christian will do them out of gratitude for their salvation, but they aren’t actually part of salvation as such.
(This photo was taken long before my baptism, but it’s one of the few photos I have of myself as an infant. I love it because I’m with my dear grandmother, Mimi, who was an invaluable model of faith throughout my life.)
On January 26, 1985, my parents gave me the most precious gift I have ever or will ever receive: the gift of faith. They took me, clothed in a frilly white dress, to St. Thomas More in Houston, TX and there I was baptized. There, I was received into the Church, the Body of Christ, a family that has never and will never abandon me–in life or death. There, I was washed clean of the stain of Original Sin and set on a path of lifelong conversion. There, I was given a taste of Eternal Life. There, I was made a Christian. I was made a Christian through the love and obedience of my parents and the authority of the priest who mediated the grace given to me by the Triune God who was invoked as I (no doubt) shuddered at the holy water’s coldness against my warm skin.
I cannot express adequately in words how thankful I am for this gift. I’m getting choked up as I write this, because where would I be, who would I be, without this baptism? I don’t even want to think about my life without Christ or his Church. No matter where I’ve gone, no matter what I’ve done, no matter how difficult my life has been at various points along the way, Christ and the Church have been constant. There, in His heart, which is the heart of the Church, I am always home. I am always loved. I am always challenged to become the woman I was created to be. There, most particularly in the Eucharist, I find the Truth, the Beauty, and the Goodness for which my heart longs ever single moment of every single day. Everything else in this life is so unstable, so prone to change and to loss, but in being given the gift of membership in this Body, I have been given a rock on which to stand that nothing, not even the gates of Hell, can destroy.
Throughout my life of faith, there have been doubts. There have been times when I’ve felt quite distant from the Lord. There have been times when I've made myself distant from Him. But no matter what, I know that if I go into a church or chapel with a tabernacle, He is there. I know that if I go to Mass, I am home. I know that no matter what storms are raging in my mind and heart, His home is my place of delight and rest. When I come to Him, even with my doubt and sin, He saves me from myself. In knowing and experiencing that Christ has the final word on my life–not my doubts, not my sins–I experience a taste of salvation. That is what it means to be given the gift of faith through baptism.
I share this with you, dear reader, because I cannot help but share it. When something wonderful happens to you, and you’re an extrovert, you want to shout it from the rooftops. And something more wonderful than anything we humans could ever dream up has happened to me: I have been made a Christian.
“If God is for us, who is against us?He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?…Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:31, 35,37-39)
And really…as many dreams and desires as I have for my present and my future, what more could I ask for but this? What more is there but this?
I will leave you with words of exhortation from my dear Father, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (from his farewell address last February), which perfectly encapsulate what I’d like to say to everyone on this anniversary of my baptism:
“I would like to invite everyone to renew firm trust in the Lord. I would like that we all, entrust ourselves as children to the arms of God, and rest assured that those arms support us and us to walk every day, even in times of struggle. I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who gave His Son for us and showed us His boundless love. I want everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer to be recited daily in the morning says, “I adore you, my God, I love you with all my heart. I thank You for having created me, for having made me a Christian.” Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith: it is the most precious good, that no one can take from us! Let us thank God for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but He also expects that we love Him!”
PS I would be remiss if I didn’t give my parents a major shout-out today. THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD, for standing in for me as you made my baptismal promises, and for guiding me and teaching me and raising me in this beautiful faith. You’ve made me such a happy woman, and I love you dearly!
#repost @700yvette My grandson, Justin, will be baptized today! Today his destiny becomes united with Christ’s destiny. His life becomes united with Christ’s life. I am his grandmother, but in Christ, through his baptism, I am his sister. I am one with him. Please pray for Justin, for his parents, and for his God parents that the journey they begin today in Christ may find it’s completion in eternity in heaven! @cfr_franciscans #franciscanfriarsoftherenewal #baptism #bronx (at Bronx, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsUevyoHvIe/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=x66x9rv9h849
She couldn’t tell whether the salt was on his hand or her lips, but she kissed him anyway, her mouth lingering against the back of his palm while her eyes drifted ever higher, to meet him. She was exhausted, and cold, and barely conscious, but she was his.
They’d driven out before it was light, and she was too groggy to notice anything but the street lamps drifting lazily by the window. She dozed while they travelled, and the only thing she really felt was his hand against the side of her face. Reassuring, and constant. It made her smile.
The sun was cresting the horizon when they stopped, her view jewelled by the light on the water, too much to take in, the glare almost painful. She shaded her eyes, and they got out. He took her hand, and they headed across the beach, sand between their toes.
“Why are we here?” Her voice was halfway between sleepy and petulant, confusion featuring heavily.
“A surprise.” He murmured, squeezing her hand as their toes reached the edge of the tide, the waves lapping at their feet.
His hands were at her clothes, stripping her with a care that she hadn’t seen before in him, a far reach from the eager pulling and passionate stripping that she was used to. This was something considered, deliberate, and she just stood there letting it happen. There was no one around, not at this time of day, not this far out.
Regardless, she felt exposed, bared to the ocean like that. As each piece of clothing came off, he threw them onto the shore, more detritus to go along with the driftwood and shells, but safe and dry, for the moment. But her? She was naked, with wet feet, and soon to be wet ankles, as the tide slowly started to rise.
He started to wade out into the water, taking her hand again. His trousers darkened where the water touched, dropping the shade a few notches. It seemed like a precursor, a warning she should heed, but she ignored it. Her groggy mind was shocked into function as the cold gripped her legs, then her waist, a gasp forced from her lips. He smiled as she shivered.
“Calm.” The single word was uttered, and for a moment the shivering stopped, the force of it enough to allay the physical reaction, even if only temporarily. Her mind was what he had been talking to, though, and that was where the effect was strongest. She emptied it, casting the thoughts into the sea along with the rest. She calmed.
They were waist deep now. He stood there in a shirt, and she stood there in nothing. He let go of her hand, and his moved up behind her back, steadying her. Reassuring her. Preparing her.
“Take a breath.” His voice was softer than she was used to, but she did as he asked. His free hand took hers, brought it up to her face, and had her hold her nose. He smiled, but there was something else in that expression.
And then he put her under. The salt stung her eyes, but she kept them open, staring up at him, seeing his figure dance and warp through the lens of the sea. She didn’t struggle, and for a few seconds, she didn’t even have to fight the urge. Slowly, her lungs started to insist on more air, more and more pertinently, until they started to burn.
He watched her, watched her face slip from serenity to urgency, and as she started to struggle he started to count, and as he reached three he brought her up, surging out of the water, all splutters and blinking, before bringing her to him, her mouth against his. His air in her lungs. Him giving her the life she so desperately sought.
The kiss lingered, went from hard to soft, and then he pulled away. She was still blinking.
“And there we go.” He murmured, smiling again. Whatever was there before was gone.
Her mind was enough in shock that she had no idea how hard she smiled back.
I love the latest controversy in the Catholic church! Some priests haven’t been doing baptism right and because they decided those are all void they gotta deal with the implication they sent people to hell as a bit of a whoopsie.
My understanding is that the priest was criticized for saying “we” instead of “I” during the baptism, which took him by surprise because he had been doing that the entire time he’s been a priest, and that led to every baptism he’s ever performed being declared invalid.
Then other priests started to come forward saying that they also had been saying “we” instead of “I”, and therefore all their baptisms don’t count.
Then people started to look back at videos of their own baptisms, and now multiple priests have discovered that their own baptism was never valid in the first place, therefore they have never been *really* Christian, and therefore have never been priests, and everything they’ve done in their entire career was meaningless.
And the reason they have to say “I” and not “we” is because the baptism is really being performed by Actual Jesus Christ, not by a “we” of any sort, literal or figurative. And you know what that means?
This whole thing is happening because people weren’t using Jesus’s preferred pronouns.
I’m still not getting it. The whole sentence is “I baptize you in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit.” So we’re already accepting that the person doing the baptizing is not god, but invoking his authority.
It’s because you’re channeling Jesus when you baptize. So the priest is actually Jesus in that moment.
Also, you don’t go to hell if you aren’t baptized. They changed the rules.
ALT
