Easter Vigil turned theatrical?

[tee_eff_em]

I stand corrected. I did some further checking and found that the Easter candle is dipped into the holy water ONLY when there are going to be baptisms at the Easter Vigil. Converts who were already Baptised, even in protestant churches, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit don’t need to be re-baptised so the occasion for this is extremely rare in the US…

I would not say *extremely rare *-- I have certainly witnessed a number of Easter Vigil baptisms over the years.

You are correct that there is a shorter form for blessing the water when there are no catechumens and the font is not being blessed, but I believe the longer (candle immersing) form can/should be used when the font is blessed even in the absence of catechumens.

tee

 

[Michael1978]

I stand corrected. I did some further checking and found that the Easter candle is dipped into the holy water ONLY when there are going to be baptisms at the Easter Vigil. Converts who were already Baptised, even in protestant churches, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit don’t need to be re-baptised so the occasion for this is extremely rare in the US…

Thank you for giving me reason for additional research. Learning something new is NEVER a bad thing.

Extremely rare? We had four baptisms at my parish this Easter vigil. We had two last year. I would think the annual number in the U.S. is in the thousands or tens of thousand annually.

 

[figs]

Also there are many Protestant baptisms that are not cionsidered valid because they were not done in the name of the Trinity.
One has to produce evidence of baptism, either a certificate or a witness otherwise there is a “conditional baptism”
So there are plenty of chances for baptisms to occur even for converts.

 

[agapewolf]

I stand corrected. I did some further checking and found that the Easter candle is dipped into the holy water ONLY when there are going to be baptisms at the Easter Vigil. Converts who were already Baptised, even in protestant churches, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit don’t need to be re-baptised so the occasion for this is extremely rare in the US…

Thank you for giving me reason for additional research. Learning something new is NEVER a bad thing.

Not extremely rare. We baptize several people every year at my parish.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Also, I should note: Even in the longer form of the blessing, my misallette includes the rubric (with

emphasis

added):

If appropriate

, the priest lowers the Paschal candle into the water once or three times…

It is unclear to me whether the conditional applies to the choice of *one *or *three times *or to the lowering itself? Nor do I know if that precise rubric appears in the Roman Missal?

I can imagine a circumstance to make such lowering difficult, perhaps to the point of inappropriation.

A neighboring parish utilizes a true pillar of a candle – 6-ish inches in diameter and 8 or 10 feet tall, burning it continuously until Ascension. I have never attended their vigil, so do not know the mechanics of their procession, nor if the candle is in fact lowered into the baptismal water.

tee

 

[maryjk]

I stand corrected. I did some further checking and found that the Easter candle is dipped into the holy water ONLY when there are going to be baptisms at the Easter Vigil. Converts who were already Baptised, even in protestant churches, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit don’t need to be re-baptised so the occasion for this is extremely rare in the US..

Thank you for giving me reason for additional research. Learning something new is NEVER a bad thing.

Let me add another, it isn’t rare here. We had 5 - 7 baptized at Easter.

 

[Cathryn]

In the latest third edition of the Roman Missal the rubric regarding the dipping of the candle is #44 and # #45. It is lowered into the eater once or three times.

 

[maryjk]

Let me add another, it isn’t rare here. We had 5 - 7 baptized at Easter.

And we had another 5 - 7 come into the Church from other Christian religions. And another 5 - 7 that were already Baptized Catholic, that were simply Confirmed. For a total of 25…wait that doesn’t add up.

There must have been more in some of the groups.

 

[Rainaldo]

A neighboring parish utilizes a true pillar of a candle – 6-ish inches in diameter and 8 or 10 feet tall, burning it continuously until Ascension. I have never attended their vigil, so do not know the mechanics of their procession, nor if the candle is in fact lowered into the baptismal water.

A carbon footprint that size has got to be a sin.

 

[Rainaldo]

And we had another 5 - 7 come into the Church from other Christian religions. And another 5 - 7 that were already Baptized Catholic, that were simply Confirmed. For a total of 25…wait that doesn’t add up.

Well Jesus did say we would do greater miracles than he … multiplication of converts.

 

[Leon_Bloy]

Um, how do I put this kindly and gently… there is a ton of misinformation in this thread, so much so that I don’t know where to begin, and am not going to try.

There are two forms of the mass - EF and OF - and in each, you just do what it says in the book! It’s pretty clear.

If a parish does not follow the book, just go someplace else.

And OP, that’s great you’re entering the Church! God bless you!