O God, who by invisible power
accomplish a wondrous effect through sacramental signs
and who in many ways have prepared water, your creation,
to show forth the grace of Baptism;
O God, whose Spirit, in the first moments of the world’s creation,
hovered over the waters,
so that the very substance of water
would even then take to itself the power to sanctify;
O God, who by the outpouring of the flood
foreshadowed regeneration,
so that from the mystery of one and the same element of water
would come an end to vice and a beginning of virtue;
O God, who caused the children of Abraham
to pass dry shod through the Red Sea,
so that the chosen people, set free from slavery to Pharaoh,
would prefigure the people of the baptized;
O God,
whose Son, baptised by John in the waters of the Jordan,
was anointed with the Holy Spirit,
and as he hung | upon the Cross,
gave forth from his side | blood and water,
and, after his Resurrection, commanded his disciples:
“Go forth, teach all nations, teach all nations,
look now, we pray, upon the face of your Church
and graciously unseal for her the fountain of Baptism.
May this water receive by the Holy Spirit
the grace of your Only Begotten Son,
so that human nature, created in your image,
and washed clean through the sacrament of Baptism
from all the squalor of the life of old,
may be found worthy to rise to the life of newborn children
through water and the Holy Spirit.
May the power of the Holy Spirit,
O Lord, we pray,
come down through your Son
into the fullness of this font,
so that, all who have been buried with Christ
by Baptism into his death
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Just in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
when the last trumpet sounds,
for the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised imperishable
and we shall be changed as well.
That is why we sing:
Death is swallowed up in victory!
Alleluia, alleluia!
O death, where is your victory?
Alleluia, alleluia!
O death, where is your sting?
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sting of death is sin,
and sin gets power from the law,
but we overcome all this through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is why we sing:
Death is swallowed up in victory!
Alleluia, alleluia!
O death, where is your victory?
Alleluia, alleluia!
O death, where is your sting?
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Brothers, I remind you
of the Good News
that I preached to you,
the same that I received;
that Christ died for our sins,
according to the Scriptures,
that he was raised to life,
according to the Scriptures,
that he appeared to Peter,
then to the Twelve,
then, to more than five hundred brothers at once,
and last of all, he appeared to me.
That is why we sing…

There is a time for everything,
every action has its moment under heaven.
A time for being born, a time for dying,
a time for sowing, a time for reaping;
a time for killing, a time for healing,
a time for destruction, a time for rebuilding.
A time to throw stones away, a time to gather them,
a time to embrace, a time to refuse.
A time for searching, a time for losing,
a time for keeping, a time for giving:
a time for tearing, a time for mending,
a time for speaking, a time for silence.
A time for loving, a time for hating,
a time for war, a time for peace.
What does a man gain from all his efforts?
What does he profit from all his labour?
What God has done to the son of man
is truly beautiful and comes at the right time.
He has placed in man's heart the sense of eternity,
but man cannot see the whole of God’s plan.
I know there is no happiness for man,
but to enjoy the fruits of his labour;
what he eats and drinks in his life,
is nothing but a gift from the Lord.
Nothing can be added, nothing taken away,
from what the Father had already ordained
at the beginning of time.