The Welcoming: A Christening Baptism for Infants- 10th June 1995

Through the perils of Hell
You did recover my soul -
Kept safe, this spirit-self on tour,
Into each of Your Houses,
Through the starry gates beyond,
Untethered, unfettered,
My soul's steed roamed,
Into fields where only the Divine imagination could have gone,
And then back into innocence,
My beloved here have called to me
For my return,
With the patronage of Christ
And synthesis of parent,
- I am born.

It can be said that it is largely due to the attendants today,
Who are here within this common space,
Sharing this greeting and celebration,
That the child before us
Is now here within this World.

When the World calls to the infant soul
It does so through the vehicular resonances
Of those for which there are strong and lasting affinities -
The way back into this World is furbished by our very loved ones,
And we may offer gratitude that this party sufficed,
Verily plotting the way for this child to come into incarnation.

Dear Guardians you are:
To those unseen and unrecognized,
Our Angelic attendants and those souls who are awaiting rebirth,
Or have recently passed,
Who share a mutual love with this child:
Be it known that your blessings are received with gratitude,
For there are passages which only you can negotiate
As custodians within the Spiritual Worlds,
As soul-communities,
You shall guide this child,
Protecting that which is of his/her highermost self;
For you know his/her true and most glorious reality,
The nobility of soul, this his/her higher nature born of God.

Continue your charge with faithful and earnest enterprise.
The gathering today, on behalf of our child to be baptized,
Greets you with thanksgiving.

Prayer for the Soul's Guardians:

Dear Christ,
We are proven well by that which we nurture.
The becoming of another thus becomes as our life;
To this we pray for those who have so mingled
Their cares and concerns with the wellbeing of this infant.

Be they ever supported
And endowed with good judgment;
May they come to satisfaction
Realized by this cherished life.
Amen

You have been asked to bring a single flower,
As a token of expression
For a characteristic wish for this individual.

We may look upon these flowers now
And take time to contemplate that which we
Would empower this infant with,
In quality of Christ,
In aspect of Virtue,
With the tenacity of success.

There is a remarkable importance
Which brings together the consecutive lives here today.
Implied now and further on,
There is also a gravity of talent,
Whereupon we may affect this child,
With gifts of desire for those very talents.

If we reach deeply,
To find a spirit-gift we pray him/her be blessed with,
Then the Desire for such is imparted to this child,
That he/she may know to desire it for her/himself,
That she/he may receive it.

As a man or woman of God he/she and we are guaranteed
Such virtues as we do desire,
But it must come about within the yearnings that these be so,
And as gifts accepted and cherished thereafter.

If we look upon the flowers brought today,
We may know that they are expressions of love -
Multifaried and boldly expressive,
The flower has found its value in the World realized by virtue;
It is a living example of virtue,
By which we may concentrate our wishes for this child,
Presenting them before his/her soul.

Here we may take opportunity to openly name
That which we should impart to this child,
That by right desire he/she shall profit by.

(Each to speak in turn and out loud of their spirit-gift.
This may be a solitary word, or if moved to deliver,
it may be an oratory or example in poem of that quality, talent or aspect of Christ to be known as desirable within the child.)

A Prayer for the Talents and the Virtues:

Enhanced we are;
Dear Christ we pray
For this child here,
And for all men alike,
Gathering into our beings
Your Harmonies.

May this individual before us
Bring inspiration to the World
Charged with a Love
Both courageous and tender
To Your Affinities.

May he/she see the worth,
In becoming more of a godlike man/woman,
Ever moved to be closer
In likeness to You dear Lord,
And imbue him/her richly
Without reservation;
And with merit justified
May he/she come to know You also.
Amen

And so to the Christening:

We may ponder the name.
What is the name that we shall call this child by?
(No answer necessary here.)
That he shall subscribe to lifelong in mortal signature,
That tone for which other men will know him/her by ...

Our names are especial to us,
And there is no accident in the choosing,
We are allotted our names as best suit our being's needs.
And it is the personage of this child which has made such a choice,
Even though it may seem that decisions and opinions have prevailed.

A name is alike to the first piece of cloth,
That shall cover this child for the duration of his/her life.
Every time it is spoken in his/her presence it becomes substantiated,
And as a new thread is woven into that fabric,
Which protects and also identifies his/her being,
So it happens that after the course of not some years,
There is a garment within the ethers that resonates his/her very name.

And when he/she, in connection with this name,
Is called upon in thought by one who has spoken it before him/her,
His/Her garment shines with a luminous vitality
Given to that piece added to by the one who thinks of him/her.

We hear our names often,
Yet we do not 'hear' them as we would in the context of ordinary dialogue.
These 'our' names, are repeated with intention
And delivered with etheric force -
And this we do draw upon;
As a tonic and a strength it reinforces our own presence,
Within the earthly sphere it calls us into the present,
And it reminds us of its very first utterings.

As the soul understands the patterns laid down in the deep past,
That of its beginnings with Father God,
Thus named and thus created -
So too it shall hearken to the especial name given
In the beginning of this dear life,
And it will impress upon the memory
With great emphasis to this being,
Also signaling all Creation.

Go to the child, each of you,
And pronounce his name that he may hear it.

Know that you begin this cloth now for him,
Which he shall have built upon ever after for this life.
Know that he will become substantiated and known thereby,
And that Christ has blessed this name every time it is spoken with love.

Dear Child,
Hearken to this name so told,
May it bless you well every time it's heard.
From your spiritual beginnings,
To entrance in this World,
You have gone by one name
Which is precious to the Law,
Embossed with meaning,
Bringing you into this World,
Reaffirming your existence,
Is this word ... (speak name here).

And now to the Baptism:

This child has chosen to be a Christian knowingly.
(Say name) has decided this by his/her choice of parent
And circumstance to which he/she has now come to.
Spiritually we are deliberate beings,
And before our birth we are precise as to our needs.
Given that this child is here amongst us to be baptized,
Know that it is because it should be so,
And that his allegiance is with Christ.

On his behalf we are accredited to implore the holy virtues,
And now to Christ Himself.

As a man/woman he/she shall have the lineage of God the Father
And have God in veracious Life;
He/She shall be encouraged by Christ into egohood
And loved without qualification.
Further to this he/she shall be entitled to ask what he/she wills -
For each man/woman is as a young prince/princess in this principality,
Indulged in with his/her angelic pages who obligingly submit to his/her care,
Even though he/she be awkward and unprepared for this,
In his/her grand inheritance.

Today baby shall have his/her first Communion-
A droplet of the water in the mouth, before all others here today,
Though not the wafer -
In replacement to this baby may have some milk,
And by so combining with the water now blessed,
And imbued with the heavenly action,
The soul's food of the milk will ever after be of greater nourishment,
To this child.

(Communion proceeds - there shall be a basin of water alongside the Cup, which shall be considered by the host during the invocative prayer. When the child is to be fed it may retire out from the gathering with mother to do so, and then be brought back for the final blessing. Songs and prayers may be introduced until the child returns.)
[See: The Sacrament of the Eucharist, 30th November 1993]

Resuming:

Dear Child,
Today you are to be born into the World,
Just as our Savior and our Lord,
Became the flesh, embodied the Word.

Christ has forsworn thy sin,
That you begin anew,
Dear child you are with purity
You are, in truth, Virtue.

(Mother gives child to the host and the child is unwrapped –
placing each foot in the bath of water it is said:)

When these feet tread the earth and connect with this realm,
Be they sealed from those forces which can drag a man beneath himself,
And far from heavenly aspiration.
May he/she meet with the earth now with an invisible slipper,
Protecting him/her from the coarse and cragged road of earthly influence.

(Host dries the infant's feet and kisses each one in turn.
Then, taking each hand and dipping these into the bath of water does say:)

When these hands reach to touch or to give,
Let them be gifted with a greater sensibility,
That they will exact their task determined always with goodness.

May this child receive the World with a coherent harmony,
And give to this World with a deft and certain surety,
As of that with Christ.

(The infant's hands are to be dried,
And then the host may kiss each one at the top of the fingers.
Removing the bonnet, and gently drawing some water over the top of the head, it is said:)

When it comes to be that your heart shall leave its place,
Here in your head -
For in the infant the heart dwells here -
And is moved down into the cavity of the chest,
As the ego's will drives into the thinking -
Let it be that this awakening mind,
Shall not forego its soul's wisdom or its heart's divine.
May the heart and mind,
Be with a constant dialogue and happy accord.
Bring Christ into this being,
Now and forevermore.
Amen

(Host now dries the top of head and kisses forehead.)

Lord's Prayer for summary:

Our Father, our dear Creator, of us, of all of us,
All hallowed be Thy Name, we hold it most sacred to us,
And do know this Name to be
That which is our very substance.
Thy Kingdom come,
As no other does fix the Eternal Law,
From which all laws are born.
Thy Will be done,
For this Will does cognise all manifestation and command all form,
On Earth as it is now in Your Heaven.
Give us this day, as we embrace Your Eternity,
Our daily bread, as we ask You to sustain us eternally;
And forgive us of our errors,
As You did make us with fault and flaw,
As we forgive all others and release them from our fixed ledger of debt,
And commit them to Perfection rather than Sin.
Lead us not into temptation,
And if put to the challenge, may we walk in the shadow of Your example,
To find the light home;
And deliver us from Evil,
That by Your Power and Presence all evil may be transformed;
For Thine is the Kingdom,
None other may presume,
The Power, everlasting,
Holy, Pure and Inextinguishable,
The Glory, we do rejoice, and shall make You proud,
For ever, and ever,
In the Eternal, in You, as of now.
Amen