Library › St Sarapion of Thmuis › Prayer-Book (Euchologion)
Prayer-Book (Euchologion)
St Sarapion of Thmuis, tr. Wordsworth, 1899
Chapter 7
II. (7—11) Baptismal Prayers.
7. Sanctification (ἁγιασμός) of Waters.
King and Lord of all things and Artificer of the world, who gavest salvation freely to all created nature by the descent of thy only-begotten Jesus Christ, thou who didst redeem the creation (πλάσμα) that thou didst create by the coming (ἐπιδημίας) of thy ineffable Word: see now from heaven and look upon these waters and fill them with holy Spirit. Let thine ineffable Word come to be in them and transform (μεταποιησάτω) their energy and cause (κατασκευασάτω) them to be generative (as) being filled with thy grace, in order that the mystery which is now being celebrated (ἐπιτελούμενον) may not be found in vain in those that are being regenerated, but may fill all those that descend (into them) and are baptized (herein) with the divine grace. O loving benefactor spare thy own handiwork (τοῦ σοῦ ποιήματος), save the creature that has been the toil of thy right hand. Form all that are being regenerated (after) thy divine and ineffable form, in order that having been formed and regenerated they may be able to be saved and counted worthy of thy kingdom. And as thy only-begotten Word coming down upon the waters of the Jordan1 rendered (ἀπέδειξεν) them holy, so now also may he descend on these and make them holy and spiritual, to the end that those who are being baptized may be no longer flesh and blood, but spiritual and able to worship thee the uncreated father through Jesus Christ in holy Spirit, through whom to thee (is) the glory and the strength both now and to all the ages of the ages. Amen.
Notes
- Note that there is no mention of the Ark or of the Red Sea or of the Pauline thought of death and burial with Christ in Baptism. The latter is emphasized in the short parallel prayer Apost. Const. vi. 43. Baptism into Christ’s death is a note of the theology of that writer (see Brightman, p. xxvi. 43, and xxviii. 6). (Cp., however, no. 15.)