Sent on behalf of the Griffis Family,

Mark your calendars, soon it will be our end of year Parish Meeting on the last Sunday of January, which is January 26th. As is our custom on these days we will have one liturgy, (at 9 AM), followed by “brunchy” refreshments and our meeting. (To discuss our budget and plans for the coming year) 

Solomon Raj Baptism of Jesus

The Collect

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Old Testament : The Breath of God

God’s breath, God’s Spirit , moves over the waters of creation, as it does the waters of Baptism

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The New Testament: The Holy Spirit and Baptism

When we were baptized, we expressed, through our parents and godparents, that we had become one with Jesus. Since that day we share with Jesus in his task of serving and saving people. If we do so, then God can tell us too: “you are my beloved son or daughter.”

Acts 19:1-7

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied— altogether there were about twelve of them.

Baptism Carol Manass

Fr. Plant's Commentary

Rev'd Up from St Mark's New Canaan CT

The Gospel: You Are My Beloved Son

     The prophet had announced a servant filled with God’s Spirit. When Jesus is baptized, the Father recognizes him as his servant and his beloved Son. The Holy Spirit comes down on him.

Mark 1:4-11

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

The Baptism Martinelli

Some Quotes for Reflection

Water) possessed of itself a cleansing property and for this further reason was regarded as holy: hence its use in ritual ablution, where its properties washed away all offenses and all stain of guilt. The waters of baptism alone wash away sin, and baptism is only conferred once because it opens the way to a new state, that of the new person. … The cleansing properties possessed by water gave it the additional force of the power of redemption. Immersion was regenerative, it effected a rebirth in the sense of its being simultaneously alive and dead. Water wipes out what has gone before, since it restores the individual to a fresh condition. Immersion is like Christ’s entombment. He came to life again after descending into the bowels of the Earth. Water is the symbol of regeneration and the waters of baptism lead explicitly to being ‘born again’ (John 3:3-7). They are the means of initiation. The Shepherd of Hermes speaks of those ‘who go down into the waters dead and come up again alive.’

- The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier & Gheerbrant p.1084

The holy day of lights, to which we have come and which we are celebrating today, has for its origin the baptism of my Christ, the true Light that lightens everyone coming into the world, and effects my purification…. It is a season of new birth: let us be born again! We duly celebrated at his birth – I, the one who presided at the feast, and you, and all that is in the world and above the world. With the star we ran, with the magi we worshiped, with the shepherds we were enlightened, with the angels we glorified him with Simeon we took him up in his arms, and with the chaste and aged Anna we made our responsive confession…. Now we come to another of Christ’s acts and another mystery…. The Spirit bears witness to his Godhead, for he descends upon one that is like him, as does the voice from heaven…. Let us venerate today the baptism of Christ.

- Gregory of Nazianzus c.329-389/390

(A Christmas Sourcebook, Liturgy Training Publications)

Leave the desert, that is to say, sin. Cross the Jordan. Hasten toward life according to Christ, toward the earth which bears the fruits of joy, where run, according to the promise, streams of milk and honey. Overthrow Jericho, the old dwelling-place, do not leave it fortified. All these things are a figure (typos) of ourselves. All are prefigurations of realities which now are made manifest.

- Gregory of Nyssa c.335- after 394

(quoted from The Liturgical Year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany. Adrian Nocent O.S.B.)

…or this is Christ's spiritual thirst, his longing in love, which persists and always will until we see him ... Therefore this is his thirst and his longing in love for us, to gather us all here into him, to our endless joy, as I see it. For we are not now so wholly in him as we then shall be. … We are his bliss, we are his reward, we are his honor, we are his crown. … For he still has that same thirst and longing which he had upon the Cross, which desire, longing and thirst, as I see it, were in him from without beginning; and he will have this until the time that the last soul which will be saved has come up into his bliss. … and this is the characteristic of spiritual thirst, which will persist in him so long as we are in need, and will draw us up into his bliss.

-Julian of Norwich c.1342-c.1416

Revelations of Divine Love

Love Is God In Me

Yes, love is God in me, and if I am in love I am in God, that is, in life, in grace: a sharer in God's being....

If charity is God in me, why look for God any further than myself?

And if God is in me as love, why do I change or disfigure God's face with acts or values which are not love?

-Carlo Carretto 1910-1988

Love Is for Living (quoted from Carlo Carretto: Essential Writings, Robert Ellsberg)

Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptized; let us also go down with him, and rise with him.

-Gregory of Nazianzus c.329-389/390

Baptism of Christ Oroslavsky