Leo the Great teaches that he sign of the cross with the oil called chrism, conferred on all Christians in baptism and confirmation, makes all sharers in the priesthood and kingship of Christ, the anointed one....
St. Peter Chrysologus contrasts the first, earthly Adam with our Lord Jesus Christ, viewed as the second, last Adam, the man from heaven....
Commenting on 1 Peter 2, Bede tells the newly baptized that they are a chosen race, a royal priesthood & a consecrated nation through their baptism into Christ and anointing with the sacred oil of confirmation. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']Y[/dropcaps] ou are a chosen...
Augustine here explains the connection between the eighth day, baptism, circumcision, the resurrection as new creation & Sunday as the Christian day of Easter worship instead of Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath....
This Holy week reading on imitating Christ's death by being buried with him through baptism amplifies St. Paul's words in Romans 6:11 that in the sacrament of baptism we are baptized into Christ's death, being buried as it were with him under the saving waters...
Hilary of Poitiers, describes how new Christians in 4th Century France typically felt innundated by the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon their baptism, Confirmation, & first Eucharist: a sense of joy and the release of the 7 gifts and charisms....
Addressed to those who have just received the sacrament of baptism, this sermon by St. Ambrose of Milan explains to them that that they've not simply been baptized in ordinary water, but in the sacred waters that transmit the invisible fire of the Holy Spirit....
Jerome shows that the living waters & springs for which the deer longs in Psalm 42, is in fact the Trinity. In so doing, he also provides an explanation of what Jesus meant by calling the apostles "fishers of men." ...
Ambrose here addresses those who have just received the sacrament of baptism, showing them the many types or prefigurations of the waters of baptism to be found in the Old Testament Scriptures. This a wonderful meditation for those participating in RCIA....
Origen, commenting on the book of Joshua, shows that the early Church saw the sacrament of baptism not only as the crossing of the Red Sea, but also as the crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land....