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.

Like the impulse of rage against the enemy,
like the impulse of love towards the beloved,
so is my impulse towards you,
you, the Immortal One, fullness of the world!
You are the way! How marvellous it is!
You are the way! You are love!
You are the way! You are the path!
You are the way! You are the life!
You are the way! You are the truth!
You are the life!
You gave yourself to me without reservation,
and full of mildness, you diminished your greatness
that I might not tremble at your sight –
you, the Immortal One, fullness of the world!
You are the way…
You became like me, that I might learn to know you:
you took a form like mine, that I might receive you.
You became sin for me,
full of mercy,
that my sins
might not turn me away from you.
You are the way...
God, who created me when I was not,
knew everything that I would do;
So he took pity on me,
and in his mercy
he ordained that I beg him
for his nature.
You are the way…