Holy Mysteries
Why does the Church baptize infants?
The Church baptizes infants 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.
The child is therefore received into a covenant life, not treated as a religious consumer waiting to decide whether grace is useful. The parents and godparents become responsible to teach prayer, fasting, repentance, Scripture, the sign of the Cross, and love for the Church as the child matures.
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.
This order matters. Baptism gives new birth, Myron seals the baptized with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and Communion nourishes the child with Christ's Body and Blood. The Church does not separate children from the sacramental life while waiting for adult explanation.
Grace Comes Before Explanation
Infant Baptism teaches 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, confess Christ, and live as a member of His Body.
- 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.
Sign of the Cross: The Christian gesture of tracing the Cross on the body while confessing the Holy Trinity and Christ's saving Cross.
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.
Myron: The holy chrism oil used in Chrismation and other consecrations, associated with the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Church's sacramental life.
Holy Communion: The faithful receiving the true Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, after baptismal life, repentance, confession, fasting, reconciliation, and pastoral preparation.