The night of transformation
Catechumens today in
Malawi
Presbyterian Mission
The ritual of baptism usually took place on Saturday of Holy Week. In the dead of night, the candidates – children, men, and women – climbed the winding streets to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. … They gathered around the baptismal font. In Jerusalem, a spring-fed pool in the courtyard, surrounded by open porticoes, looked out over the city’s mountains. Godparents supported the candidates through the ritual.
Cyril, dressed in a white linen robe, invited the candidates to complete their journey to paradise. … At the conclusion of the (Eucharistic) feast, the golden light of dawn awaited the newly baptized. They had reached Easter. As they walked into the light of paradise, they received the benedictory blessing and made their response (Saving Paradise - p. 136-140):
Everything belongs to
the God of goodness,
Everything belongs to
the God of beauty,
Everything belongs to
the God of wisdom,
Everything belongs to
the God of justice.
To God, glory now and
forever!
Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus
On the road to Emmaus
The Easter Vigil at Abu Ghosh, in today's Israel
In the
twenty-first century, the newly baptized still come before the altar of the Crusader
Church in the village of Abu Ghosh. A double
community of nuns and priests continues to worship in the church and offers
hospitality reflecting the ancient story of the couple on the road to Emmaus. (Excavations
carried out in 1944 confirm that the Crusaders identified the site as the
biblical Emmaus.)
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