This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God," 123 that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort "to proclaim the good news to the poor." There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for Water, but of hearing the words of the LORD." 124 For this reaSon the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist. 125

The miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, breaks and distributes the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his Eucharist. 156 The sign of Water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour of Jesus' glorification. It makes manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father's kingdom, where the faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of Christ. 157

The different effects of Baptism are signified by the perceptible elements of the Sacramental rite. Immersion in Water symbolizes not only death and purification, but also regeneration and renewal. Thus the two principal effects are purification from sins and new Birth in the Holy Spirit. 64

The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for Salvation. 59 He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. 60 Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this Sacrament. 61 The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be Baptized are "reborn of Water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.

In the Latin Church this triple infusion is accompanied by the minister's words: "N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." In the Eastern liturgies the catechumen turns toward the East and the priest says: "The servant of God, N., is Baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." At the invocation of each person of the Most Holy Trinity, the priest immerses the candidate in the Water and raises him up again.

The essential rite of the Sacrament follows: Baptism properly speaking. It signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the Paschal mystery of Christ. Baptism is performed in the most expressive way by triple immersion in the baptismal Water. However, from ancient times it has also been able to be conferred by pouring the water three times over the candidate's head.

The Baptismal Water is consecrated by a Prayer of epiclesis (either at this moment or at the Easter Vigil). the Church asks God that through his Son the power of the Holy Spirit may be sent upon the water, so that those who will be Baptized in it may be "born of water and the Spirit." 40

Hence Baptism is a bath of Water in which the "imperishable seed" of the Word of God produces its life-giving effect. 32 St. Augustine says of Baptism: "The word is brought to the material element, and it becomes a Sacrament." 33

Seeing God's covenant with Israel in the image of exclusive and faithful married love, the prophets prepared the Chosen People's conscience for a deepened understanding of the unity and indissolubility of marriage. 102 The books of Ruth and Tobit bear moving witness to an elevated sense of marriage and to the fidelity and tenderness of spouses. Tradition has always seen in the Song of Solomon a unique expression of human love, a pure reflection of God's love - a love "strong as death" that "many Waters cannot quench." 103

Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man. In accordance with bishops' pastoral decisions, they can also respond to the needs, culture, and special history of the Christian people of a particular region or time. They always include a Prayer, often accompanied by a specific sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling of holy Water (which recalls Baptism).

In the Waters of Baptism, we have been "washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." 79 Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life, and since "he is the source of (our) life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and . . .sanctification," 80 both his glory and our life depend on the hallowing of his name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition.

Grammatically, "our" qualifies a reality common to more than one perSon. There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of him by Water and the Spirit. 47 The Church is this new communion of God and men. United with the only Son, who has become "the firstborn among many brethren," she is in communion with one and the same Father in one and the same Holy Spirit. 48 In praying "our" Father, each of the Baptized is praying in this communion: "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul." 49

The Church, the house of God, is the proper place for the liturgical Prayer of the parish community. It is also the privileged place for adoration of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. the choice of a favorable place is not a matter of indifference for true prayer. - For perSonal prayer, this can be a "prayer corner" with the Sacred Scriptures and icons, in order to be there, in secret, before our Father. 48 In a Christian family, this kind of little oratory fosters prayer in common. - In regions where monasteries exist, the vocation of these communities is to further the participation of the faithful in the Liturgy of the Hours and to provide necessary solitude for more intense personal prayer. 49 - Pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer. For pilgrims seeking living Water, shrines are special places for living the forms of Christian prayer "in Church."

Ordained ministers are also responsible for the formation in Prayer of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Servants of the Good Shepherd, they are ordained to lead the People of God to the living Waters of prayer: the Word of God, the liturgy, the theological life (the life of faith, hope, and charity), and the Today of God in concrete situations. 45

The Holy Spirit is the living Water "welling up to eternal life" 3 in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ. Indeed in the Christian life there are several wellsprings where Christ awaits us to enable us to drink of the Holy Spirit.

"You would have asked him, and he would have given you living Water." 9 Paradoxically our Prayer of petition is a response to the plea of the living God: "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water!" 10 Prayer is the response of faith to the free promise of Salvation and also a response of love to the thirst of the only Son of God. 11

"If you knew the gift of God!" 7 The wonder of Prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking Water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him. 8

Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. 131 The Holy Spirit enables one whom the Water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ. 132

In his Passover Christ opened to all men the fountain of Baptism. He had already spoken of his Passion, which he was about to suffer in Jerusalem, as a "Baptism" with which he had to be Baptized. 22 The blood and Water that flowed from the pierced side of the crucified Jesus are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the Sacraments of new life. 23 From then on, it is possible "to be born of water and the Spirit" 24 in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

Our Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the Baptism of St. John, intended for sinners, in order to "fulfill all righteousness." 19 Jesus' gesture is a manifestation of his self-emptying. 20 The Spirit who had hovered over the Waters of the first creation descended then on the Christ as a prelude of the new creation, and the Father revealed Jesus as his "beloved Son." 21

If Water springing up from the earth symbolizes life, the water of the sea is a symbol of death and so can represent the mystery of the cross. By this symbolism Baptism signifies communion with Christ's death.

It is on this harmony of the two Testaments that the Paschal catechesis of the Lord is built, 15 and then, that of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church. This catechesis unveils what lay hidden under the letter of the Old Testament: the mystery of Christ. It is called "typological" because it reveals the newness of Christ on the basis of the "figures" (types) which announce him in the deeds, words, and symbols of the first covenant. By this re-reading in the Spirit of Truth, starting from Christ, the figures are unveiled. 16 Thus the flood and Noah's ark prefigured Salvation by Baptism, 17 as did the cloud and the crossing of the Red Sea. Water from the rock was the figure of the spiritual gifts of Christ, and manna in the desert prefigured the Eucharist, "the true bread from heaven." 18

The People of God is marked by characteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in history: - It is the People of God: God is not the property of any one people. But he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a people: "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." 202 - One becomes a member of this people not by a physical Birth, but by being "born anew," a birth "of Water and the Spirit," 203 that is, by faith in Christ, and Baptism. - This People has for its Head Jesus the Christ (the anointed, the Messiah). Because the same anointing, the Holy Spirit, flows from the head into the body, this is "the messianic people." - "The status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the Sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple." - "Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us." 204 This is the "new" law of the Holy Spirit. 205 - Its mission is to be salt of the earth and light of the world. 206 This people is "a most sure seed of unity, hope, and Salvation for the whole human race." -Its destiny, finally, "is the Kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on earth and which must be further extended until it has been brought to perfection by him at the end of time." 207

The Church is born primarily of Christ's total self-giving for our Salvation, anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross. "The origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and Water which flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus." 171 "For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth the 'wondrous Sacrament of the whole Church.'" 172 As Eve was formed from the sleeping Adam's side, so the Church was born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross. 173

Finally, with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of "the divine likeness," prefiguring what he would achieve with and in Christ. John's Baptism was for repentance; baptism in Water and the Spirit will be a new Birth. 100

The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable. 58 When Christ comes up from the Water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. 59 The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the Baptized. In certain Churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit.

Fire. While Water signifies Birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions. the Prayer of the prophet Elijah, who "arose like fire" and whose "word burned like a torch," brought down fire from heaven on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. 37 This event was a "figure" of the fire of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he touches. John the Baptist, who goes "before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah," proclaims Christ as the one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." 38 Jesus will say of the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" 39 In the form of tongues "as of fire," the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself 40 The spiritual tradition has retained this symbolism of fire as one of the most expressive images of the Holy Spirit's actions. 41 "Do not quench the Spirit." 42

Water. the symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious Sacramental sign of new Birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As "by one Spirit we were all Baptized," so we are also "made to drink of one Spirit." 27 Thus the Spirit is also perSonally the living water welling up from Christ crucified 28 as its source and welling up in us to eternal life. 29

Through Baptism the Christian is Sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. the Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the Water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved Son in the Son and "walk in newness of life": 238

The Baptism of Jesus is on his part the acceptance and inauguration of his mission as God's suffering Servant. He allows himself to be numbered among sinners; he is already "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". 232 Already he is anticipating the "baptism" of his bloody death. 233 Already he is coming to "fulfil all righteousness", that is, he is submitting himself entirely to his Father's will: out of love he consents to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins. 234 The Father's voice responds to the Son's acceptance, proclaiming his entire delight in his Son. 235 The Spirit whom Jesus possessed in fullness from his conception comes to "rest on him". 236 Jesus will be the source of the Spirit for all mankind. At his baptism "the heavens were opened" 237 - the heavens that Adam's sin had closed - and the Waters were sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the new creation.

The book of Revelation of St. John, read in the Church's liturgy, first reveals to us, "A throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne": "the Lord God." 1 It then shows the Lamb, "standing, as though it had been slain": Christ crucified and risen, the one high priest of the true sanctuary, the same one "who offers and is offered, who gives and is given." 2 Finally it presents "the river of the Water of life . . . flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb," one of most beautiful symbols of the Holy Spirit. 3

God speaks to man through the visible creation. the material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator. 16 Light and darkness, wind and fire, Water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness.

The Church has seen in Noah's ark a prefiguring of Salvation by Baptism, for by it "a few, that is, eight perSons, were saved through Water": 14

Since the beginning of the world, Water, so humble and wonderful a creature, has been the source of life and fruitfulness. Sacred Scripture sees it as "oveshadowed" by the Spirit of God: 12

In the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, during the blessing of the Baptismal Water, the Church solemnly commemorates the great events in Salvation history that already prefigured the mystery of Baptism:

This Sacrament is also called "the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit," for it signifies and actually brings about the Birth of Water and the Spirit without which no one "can enter the kingdom of God." 7

This Sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out: to baptize (Greek baptizein) means to "plunge" or "immerse"; the "plunge" into the Water symbolizes the catechumen's burial into Christ's death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as "a new creature." 6

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), 4 and the door which gives access to the other Sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as Sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through Water in the word." 5

The gathering of the People of God begins with Baptism; a Church must have a place for the celebration of Baptism (baptistry) and for fostering remembrance of the baptismal promises (holy Water font). The renewal of the baptismal life requires penance. A church, then, must lend itself to the expression of repentance and the reception of forgiveness, which requires an appropriate place to receive penitents. A church must also be a space that invites us to the recollection and silent Prayer that extend and internalize the great prayer of the Eucharist.

The worship "in Spirit and in truth" 53 of the New Covenant is not tied exclusively to any one place. the whole earth is sacred and entrusted to the children of men. What matters above all is that, when the faithful assemble in the same place, they are the "living stones," gathered to be "built into a spiritual house." 54 For the Body of the risen Christ is the spiritual temple from which the source of living Water springs forth: incorporated into Christ by the Holy Spirit, "we are the temple of the living God." 55

St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the Theologian", entrusts this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of Constantinople: Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into Water and raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendour. I have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me. . 92