Baptism ( 22.05.2005 )
This evening in Novo Selo, the child Mihail, a son of the priest Fr. Zoran Brndevski, received Holy Baptism. The Holy Mystery was performed by Metropolitan Nahum of Strumica.
“Grace descends on the child’s soul and acts within it in all itself, as if in this participated freedom as well This is based on the presupposition that the child—for the time being not aware of itself—later on, when it becomes aware, personally will willingly dedicated itself to God; that it will voluntarily accept the grace, after it traces and feels within itself the latter’s action; that it will rejoice because this grace exists; that it will thank the Lord He found it worthy of this and will confess that at the moment of baptism it was given reason and freedom; that it would not have acted in any other way nor would it have desired anything else.”
“Due to this free hanging on to God and union of freedom with grace later on, Divine grace is granted in its fullness to the small child, so that even without the child’s will, it does all characteristic of it, and this only on the basis of the conviction that this desire and giving oneself over to God will inevitably fulfill—a conviction expressed by the Godparents, bearing witness to and promising before God and before the Church that the child, when it becomes (self)aware, exactly in this way, necessary for grace, will use its freedom, taking upon themselves the obligation that they will indeed lead the newly baptised child toward this.”
