October 12, 2010
The Grace of Baptism and the Jordan River
On our pilgrimage last summer, we went to the Jordan River, a spot north of where John baptized Jesus. While we renewed our baptismal promises, other Christian groups from around the world came for baptisms. It was so beautiful. Christian prayer leads to and flows out of the grace baptism bestows. This is why for Catholics our prayer begins and ends with the sign of the Cross we recieved at baptism. This sign of our faith, this sign of our baptism, reminds us of our promises by which we are bound to the Lord and at the same time, it reminds us of God's promise, the Gift of the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of God dwelling in us as in a temple. This means through our faith and by the action of the Church at baptism, each of us becomes a place where God is known and loved in such a way that he can be given true spiritual worship through our very bodies when we offer them - and everything we do with them - as a sacrifice to God. This gift animates Christian prayer to make it effective and it transforms Christian life to make it acceptable.
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Looks like you guys had a divine time.
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Looks like you were in Israel, where the Jordan River actually has water. I lived in Jordan, not far from the actual baptismal site (as close as people can seem to define it), where the water in the Jordan River is dirty and of low volume. Sometimes the baptismal site is dry although whenever we need water from the site for our priest I have been lucky enough to find some there. I enjoyed seeing the northern reach of the river; I imagine that in Syria and Lebanon, it is even fuller and more majestic, as opposed to our small stream in Jordan. (The water gets siphoned off by those three countries before reaching Jordan, and now the Dead Sea is drying up, too. Sad.)
ReplyDeletenice picture of Baptism .it looks very beautifull.i like it very much.
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