BAPTISM, From the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich

                             BAPTISM

           From the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich

Vol. I, pg 349

     At Bethsaida, Jesus taught very forcibly in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  He told His hearers that they should now enter into themselves, repair to the baptism of John, and purify themselves by penance; otherwise a time would come when they would cry woe! woe!  There were many people in the synagogue, but none of the future Apostles, excepting, I think, Philip.  Others, belonging to Bethsaida and the country around, were celebrating the Sabbath elsewhere.  They were in a house near the fishery in the neighborhood of Capharnaum.  During this preaching of Jesus, I prayed that the people would go to the baptism of John and be truly converted.  Thereupon I had a vision in which I saw that John was the preparer, who washed from the people their rawness, their coarseness.

Vol. I, pg 357

     Next day Jesus was present at a repast given Him by the Nazarites, at which circumcision was spoken of in connection with baptism.  For the first time I heard Jesus speaking of circumcision, but I cannot exactly recall His words.  He said something to this effect, that the law of circumcision had a reason for its existence which would soon be taken away, when the people of God would come forth no longer according to the flesh from the family of Abraham, but spiritually from the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Vol. I, pg 441

     I do not now clearly remember John's words when baptizing Jesus, but they were something like the following: "May Jehovah through the ministry of the cherubim and seraphim, pour out His blessing over Thee with wisdom, understanding, and strength!"  I cannot say for certain whether these last three words were really those that I heard; but I know that they were expressive of three gifts, for the mind, the soul, and the body respectively.  In them was contained all that was needed to convert every creature, renewed in mind, in soul, and in body, to the Lord.

    
While Jesus ascended from the depths of the baptismal well, Andrew and Saturnin, who were standing to the right of the Baptist around the triangular stone, threw about Him a large linen cloth with which He dried His person.  They then put on Him a long, white baptismal robe.  After this Jesus stepped on the red triangular stone which lay to the right of the descent into the well, Andrew and Saturnin each laid one hand upon His shoulder, while John rested his upon His head.

     This part of the ceremony over, they were just about mounting the steps when the Voice of God came over Jesus who was still standing alone and in prayer upon the stone.  There came from heaven a great, rushing wind like thunder.  All trembled and looked up.  A cloud of white light descended, and I saw over Jesus a winged figure of light as if flowing over Him like a stream.  The heavens opened.  I beheld an apparition of the Heavenly Father in the figure in which He is usually depicted and, in a voice of thunder, I heard the words; "This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased."

     Jesus was perfectly transparent, entirely penetrated by light, one could scarcely look at Him.  I saw angels around Him.

Vol. I, pg 460

     Saturnin baptized several aged men who were unable to go to the baptism of John.  Into the water which they had brought from the fountain of the cave near the Crib, they poured some of Christ's baptismal water from the pool on the island in the Jordan.  At John's baptism all confessed their sins publicly; but at that of Jesus each acknowledged his sins privately, gave proofs of contrition, and received pardon.  The old men whom Saturnin baptized knelt, their shoulders bared to the breast, their head bowed over a large basin.  In this manner they were baptized.  The form made use of at this baptism was similar to that employed by John at the baptism of Jesus.  But to the word Jehovah and the invocation of the three gifts were added "and in the name of the One that has been sent."

Vol. I, pg 480

     Jesus taught here of John's baptism, which He called a baptism of penance, and which would soon be discontinued.  In its stead would be received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the remission of sin.  He received from them a kind of general confession of their sins, and then some separately disclosed their predominant passions and transgressions.  Many trembled at hearing Jesus accusing them of sins that they thought were secret.  After the confession Jesus had His hands upon them as if giving absolution.  They were not immersed when receiving baptism.  A large basin of water was placed on Abraham's memorial stone, and over it the neophytes bowed with bared shoulders.  The baptizers poured the water thrice from the hollow of their hand over the heads of the baptized, who were very numerous at this place.

Vol. I, pg 482

     Jesus went to the synagogue and taught of John's Baptism, which was a baptism of penance, a preliminary purification, a preparatory action such as was prescribed in the law.  It was different from the baptism of Him who John heralded.  They that were baptized by John I did not again baptized, until after the death of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Ghost when, for the most part, the ceremony was performed at the pool of Bethsaida.

Vol. I, pg 483

     As usual, Jesus taught of the baptism of John, setting it forth as a preparatory baptism of penance, also of the near coming of the Kingdom of God.

Vol. I, pg 486

     After this Jesus again instructed the men on the baptism of John and that of the Holy Ghost.  I do not remember any very great difference between the first named and the bestowed by the disciples of Jesus.  The latter however was a little more like that which at a later period was to take away sin.  Nor did I ever see any of those that had been baptized by John rebaptized before the descent of the Holy Ghost.

Vol. II, pg 20

     Since Jesus' baptism, John taught that through that baptism and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him, water had been sanctified and out of it much evil had been cast.  Jesus' baptism had been like an exorcism of the water.  Jesus had suffered Himself to be baptized in order to sanctify water.  John's baptism had in consequence become purer and holier.  It was for this end that Jesus was baptized in a separate basin.  The water sanctified by contact with His Divine Person, and then been conducted to the Jordan and into the public pool of baptism, and of it also Jesus and His disciples had taken some for baptism in distant towns and villages.

Vol. II, pg 66

     That the spot upon which Jesus had been baptized, was the same as that upon which the Ark of the Covenant had stood, that the stones in the baptism pool were those upon which it had rested in the bed of the Jordan, were facts known only to Jesus and John, and of which neither had spoken.  So too the Lord was the only one that knew that these stones now formed the foundation of the baptismal basin.  The Jews had long forgotten the resting place of these stones, and it was not made known to the disciples.