Dear brothers and sisters from now on we will post  Sacrament of the church () prepared by His grace Bishop Mousa Coptic Orthodox Church.

We owe these series of inspiring articles for Ethiopian Orthodox Church Sunday School in Trondehim, Norway.

I. New Birth

When we were infants, our mothers carried us in joyful celebration and went with us to Church to be baptized.

The priest carries us as the child on his left arm and look to the west, which symbolizes the darkness of Satan, and to repeat the following words: " I renounce you Satan, and all your impure works, all your evil soldiers, all your evil devils, all your power, all your evil worship, all your evil misguiding and evil plans, all your army, all your authority, and all your hypocrisy. I renounce you, I renounce you, I renounce you."

This was a declaration made on our behalf that we reject Satan, his ways and methods.

Then the priest transfers the child onto his right arm and to face the east, the symbol of the sun of righteousness, and to repeat the words: "I confess You, Christ my God and all your faithful laws, all you loving ministry, and all your life-giving works.

I believe in one God, God the Father, who controls everything, and in His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the life-giving Holy Spirit, in His glorious resurrection, and in the one and only Holy Evangelical and Apostolic Church. I believe, I believe, I believe."
 
 

This was a declaration of the acceptance of Christ as Savior and Redeemer! This took place when we were infants and the Church appointed for each of us a "godfather or godmother", that is a person who would bring us up in the faith, teaching us while we were children the bases of the Christian faith and of the life of the Holy Church.

What is required of us now that we have grown up and matured is that we repeat, with complete awareness and sincere faith, those very words many times. (I urge you to look at them again now in order to perceive the meanings inherent in them) and to ask yourself when you say:

 I renounce Satan...

 Is this truly my stand?

 Is there a sin that is hidden in the depths of my heart?

 Do I act in accordance with the thinking of Satan in different situations?

 What is my attitude to life? Is it pleasing to God and does it build me up?

 What are my relations with others like?

 Are they truly loving?

 Do I present a pleasing image of the children of Christ, or am I a stumbling block to others?

 I Believe in Christ....

 Has Christ begun to own my life?

 Does Christ now occupy my heart and thoughts?

 Have I entered into a real fellowship with Him night and day, and do I pray regularly?

 Do I always read His personal message to me in the Bible?

 Do I partake of His Holy Body and Blood so that I am united to Him and abide in Him?

Dear Reader, Baptism is a free gift; in it we die with Christ to rise with Him in a new life. It is a holy anointing that makes of us a new kind of human being, through the Spirit of God which lives within us.

We go into the baptismal font as children of Adam and we emerge as children of Christ by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6:4).

Baptism is a new birth that is renewed daily through the tears of repentance!

Would that you would sit quietly with the Lord and wash your sins away with your tears. Would that you would enter into a new and eternal covenant of love, into the side of Christ which was pierced for you.

"For what advantage is to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?" (Lk. 9: 25).

Will you start?