the priesthood of Christ dwelling within them. He blesses it then with a triple blessing, so that the benediction of the Living, The True and the Holy God may descend upon it. Next he alludes to the four rivers watering the earthly paradise, and again dividing the water he sprinkles it towards the North, South, East and West, since the whole world receives the preaching of the baptism of Christ. Then he invokes the life-giving action of the Holy Spirit to express which the celebrant thrice breathes in the form of a cross over the water. Taking the Paschal Candle he dips the lower end of it into the font, thereby signifying the mystery of Christ's baptism in the Jordan, which sanctified the element of water. Then he breathes again upon the water in the form of the Greek letter upsilon, the initial of the Greek word for spirit. The people are then sprinkled with the blessed water, after which to signify the superabundant grace of baptism, he pours in first the oil of catechumens; then the oil of chrism, and finally both together, mixing the holy oils with the water that thus every portion of it may come into contact with this additional source of sanctification.
V.—The Litanies.
The procession again repairs to the Sanctuary, where the ministers having laid aside their outer vestments, lie prostrate at the foot of the Altar while the choir chants the Litanies praying for the neophytes who are this day added to the Church throughout the world. As the solemn Litany is drawing to a close, the ministers rise, proceed to the Sacristy, there put on the richest vestments symbolic of joy. As the choir has begun the closing invocation Kyrie Eleison, the procession comes from the Sacristy with all possible pomp and begins
