On 6 January 2014, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord. The feast reminds the Baptism of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the River Jordan and His recognition as Messiah by Saint John the Baptist. The feast is called “Epiphany” or “Teophany”, namely the appearance of the Lord. The Evangelical pericope of Saint Matthew 3:13-17 was read at the Divine Liturgy on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
The Patriarch of Romania celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral
On this feast day His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral together with His Grace Timotei Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of servant priests and deacons of the Patriarchal Cathedral.
After reading the Evangelical Pericope, His Beatitude delivered a sermon in which he explained the teaching of the Holy Gospel read at the Divine Liturgy.
God in Trinity appeared at the Baptism time: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so that we should become children of God
“The great mystery of the Baptism of the Lord is the greatest blessing for the Church because it is through the Baptism that the Church is enlarged, extended in space to all people and throughout the generations in the course of time. Not only the forgiveness of the sins is granted through Baptism, but also the adoption of man in God-the-Son through the work of the Holy Spirit when God-the-Father said “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” The Father included the humanity of the Son too, not only His divinity and so He included us too, all those baptised in the name of the Most Holy Trinity”, the Patriarch of Romania said.
Today’s feast is a call to the deification of our souls and bodies
“This feast is a feast of blessing and joy. We are glad because God loves us, and deifies us. We are glad because God blesses us and wants to bless not only our souls, but also our bodies by the tasting of the holy water, and our houses by sprinkling them with holy water, and our activity too, and gardens, and everything we have, our ploughed field too, so that everything is blessed through the deifying work of the Most Holy Trinity, through the work of the grace of the Most Holy Trinity given to us by Christ and shared to us through the Holy Spirit. It is a great joy to remember that we, all those who were baptised in Christ, were also dressed in Christ”, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church also underlined.
Great blessing of waters
After the pulpit prayer the group of serving priests got out of the Patriarchal Cathedral, and the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Daniel celebrated the Great Blessing of Waters (Great Holy Water), in front of the Patriarchal Cathedral.
After singing the troparions which remember the Baptism of the Lord: The Voice of the Lord cries over the waters..., Today the nature of the waters is blessed..., You came to the river as a human.., To the voice of the one who cries in the desert..., three Readings were said, all of them from Isaiah’ prophecies (35:1-10; 55:1-13; and 12:3-6). The Apostle was also read (1 Corinthians 10:1-4) and (Mark 1:9-11) which make a brief presentation of event of the Baptism of the Lord. There followed the Great Litany which included special requests for the blessing of the water, while the prayer: Lord, Jesus Christ, One Begotten Son was read in a low voice. Then, the prayer drafted by Saint Sofronie of Jerusalem to the Holy Trinity was read: Trinity higher than nature... the Words: How Great You Are, God, and wonderful Your things are... were said three times in the run, louder than usual. When the words for invoking the Holy Spirit for blessing the water were said three times in the run: You Yourself Emperor, lover of humans, come now and bless this water through the descend of the Your Holy Spirit, the water was blessed three times, dipping the hand in the water in the form of the cross, in each of the vessels. When the words: You Yourself, Master, bless this water, with Your Holy Spirit were said three times in the run the water was also blessed every time dipping the hand in the water in the form of a cross.
There followed the prayer God Listen to us, and hear us was said in a low voice. Then, the Holy Cross and basil were dipped in the water making the sign of the cross three times. Afterwards, the Patriarch of Romania sprinkled all those present at the Joy Hill with holy water, while the troparion “In Jordan You were baptised, Lord” was being sung.
To end with the celebration, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church delivered a sermon for those present at the church, speaking about the Great Holy Water and about the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
The Patriarch of Romania spoke about the qualities and blessings of the Great Holy Water
“The water blessed today has a special blessing, healing and deifying power. It is called the Great Holy Water because it was received as a blessing from God through a great blessing. It is a rich service with the invocation of the Holy Spirit three times to bless this water in the first part of the celebration and three more times in the last part of the blessing prayer. The Great Holy Water or the Water of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, as the litanies read say, has a blessing power for the soul and body, for the people’s houses and fountains, and for the nature surrounding us too. This is why the people from the country use this holy water to splash not only their own places, but also the houses around, their plough fields and gardens. It heals the spiritual and physical diseases, as well as the passions, as the prayers of this great holy blessing of waters say. It heals the diseases of the soul and of the body too, and it also chases away the bad devilish spirits. When using this holy water we remove the wickedness of our soul, as well as the evil devilish work which tries to move man away from God and from his fellow beings. This water is drunk in the morning, before eating, for eight days because eight is the number of eternity, of the everlasting life. As today’s prayers also show us, this holy water remind us our Baptism, as well as the fact that we are called to enter the eternal Kingdom of the love of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is a deifying water that takes us to the Kingdom of the never ending love of God and to the eternal life”, His Beatitude said.
“At this special feast we also remember our baptism as a people. Some of the peoples around us can celebrate the year when they were baptised. Certainly, it was at order. The cneas was baptised first, and then commanded the people to be baptised too. That was the case of the baptism of the Bulgarians, Russians, etc. We have not been baptised at a certain year, because our baptism was a slow deep process, in full freedom, and very often done with great sacrifices. Our Baptism or Christianisation as people began with Saint Andrew the Apostle who is the Apostle of all Romanians and protector of Romania”, the Patriarch of Romania also underlined.
The faithful present could get holy water from 24 vessels amounting to 12,000 l. An ice cross adorned with fir branches, flowers and basil was raised in the yard of the Cathedral.
The word “agheasma” means “holy water” in Greek. The Great Holy Water is used at the Epiphany feast, in the memory of the baptizing of the Lord by John in the River Jordan. The Great holy water is drunk in the morning, before eating, before holy bread when the faithful is communicated, and afterwards too. The time it should be drunk is from the Eve of the Epiphany till the Leave of the feast. The origin and the old age of this religious service, namely the blessing of the water at the Epiphany time was related to the baptism of the catechumen celebrated on the eve of the feast till late in the night, when the water needed at baptism was blessed. Later on, when the catechumen’s service was dissolved and the children’s baptism was generalised, the blessing of the water was preserved, related to the feast, but getting a different significance. As Archbishop Simeon of Thessaloniki emphasises, on the Epiphany day not only the renewal of the Baptism of the Lord is done, but also the grace of the baptism every one of us receives is renewed. Yet, the origins of the Great holy water is Jerusalem, where the strong memory of the baptism of the Saviour by the Forerunner in the Jordan’s water was preserved; hence it was spread to Antioch, then to Constantinople and to Asia Minor. This is why, today’s celebration of the Great holy water is entirely ascribed, by tradition, to Saint Sofronie, patriarch of Jerusalem (+ 638), to which the January Minologhion ascribes the troparions sung at the beginning of the service, while the Molitvelnic ascribes him the beautiful prayer for blessing the water.
