Holy Mysteries
Why are babies baptized?
Because Baptism Is New Birth
Babies are baptized because Baptism is God's gift of new birth, not a graduation after intellectual mastery. The child is brought into Christ, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and raised inside the life of the Church. Understanding grows as the child grows.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
The Family Carries The Child
Parents and godparents speak on behalf of the child and promise to raise the child in the faith. Ordinary life already works this way: children receive family, language, citizenship, love, and discipline before they can explain them. The Church gives life first, then teaches the child to live it.
Baptism Is Followed By Myron And Communion
In Coptic practice, the newly baptized child is also anointed with the Holy Myron and brought into Eucharistic life. The sacraments are not treated as ideas to study from a distance. They are the life in which the child is formed.
What A Visitor Should Notice
Infant Baptism shows that salvation is grace. The child is welcomed because Christ welcomes children, and the parish then takes seriously the responsibility to teach that child to pray, repent, and love God.
- The Sacrament of Baptism, CopticChurch.net. Ritual-theology explanation of Baptism, Myron after Baptism, infant Baptism, and the baptized person's entrance into sacramental life.
- The Sacrament of Baptism, Part One, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Doctrine and theology article on baptism as new birth, washing, and union with Christ.
- Rituals of the Sacraments, Servants Preparation Program, SUSCopts. Servants-prep lesson on the rites of Baptism, Chrismation, Eucharist, Repentance and Confession, Unction, Matrimony, and Priesthood.
- The Seven Sacraments, Servants Preparation Program, SUSCopts. Doctrine lesson explaining the sacraments as visible mysteries through which the faithful receive grace.
- The Holy Spirit in the Mysteries of the Church, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles. Diocesan article on the Holy Spirit in Baptism, Chrismation, Eucharist, Matrimony, and the sacramental life of the Church.
Baptism: The sacrament of new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, joining a person to Christ's death and resurrection and to the life of the Church.
Chrismation: The anointing with holy Myron after Baptism, sealing the newly baptized with the gift and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Sacrament: A visible mystery through which God gives grace to His people. In Coptic usage the sacraments belong to the whole healing life of the Church.