The Science of the Sacraments Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. HOLY BAPTISM AND CONFIRMATION To quote from our Liturgy: "Baptism is a Sacrament by which the recipient is solemnly admitted to membership of Christ's holy Church and grafted into His mystical body." It opens with the usual invocation, as do all our services, to show that all our work is done in the Name and by the power of the ever-blessed and most holy Trinity. Then the sponsor presents the child to the priest, asking that he may be admitted into the fellowship of the Church; and the priest, iu acceding, addresses the congregation thus: Brethren, our fair Father Christ, in His great loving- kindness, hath ordained that His mystic Bride, our holy Mother the Church, shall guide and protect her children at every stage from the cradle to the grave. To this end is the Sacrament at holy Baptism ordained, that in His Name the Church may give welcome and blessing to Mm who is newly come into this world of pilgrimage, and that the soul may dwell in a body purified from the taint of evil, sanctified and set apart for the service of Almighty God. Therefore, brethren of Christ's catholic Church, I pray you to join with me in this our holy rite, whereby this child shall be made partaker of these heavenly gifts and a member of His mystical body. We see from this that the Church meets the soul as soon as he comes into his new set of vehicles, and offers him welcome and assistance. What help canbe given to a soul when he first comes into a new physical body? Remember, we cannot get at the soul himself; we are dealing with vehicles on the physical plane. What the soul most needs is to get that new set of vehicles into order, so that he can work through them. He comes laden with the result of his past lives, which means that he has within him seeds of good qualities and ...Read More