Baptistry of the Duomo, Pisa
Recently my parish priest, Msgr Charles Pope, wrote about the exorcism prayers in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite and their possible restoration in the ordinary form rite of baptism. On Monday I concelebrated at the Byzantine liturgy for the feast of the theophany, at which water was blessed using this prayer, attributed to Saint Sophronios, patriarch of Jerusalem in the seventh century. It is a prayer full of rich baptismal theology, and a good meditation as we approach the Latin rite feast of the baptism of the Lord this Sunday:
O Trinity, transcendent in essence, in goodness, and in divinity, almighty, invisible, and incomprehensible, who watch over all; O Creator of intelligent beings, of natures endowed with speech; O Goodness of utter and unapproachable brilliance, who enlighten everyone who comes into the world: enlighten me also, your unworthy servant! Illumine the eyes of my mind, that I may venture to praise your immeasurable goodness and your might; let my supplication on behalf of these people be wholly acceptable, so that my sins may not prevent the descent of the Holy Spirit upon this place; that without condemnation, I may be permitted to cry out to you and say: “We glorify you, O Master and Lover of us all, almighty and eternal King! We glorify you, O only-begotten Son, born of a mother without a father and of a father without a mother; for in the preceding feast we have seen you as a babe, and in this present feast as perfect man appearing as our perfect God.
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