The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ - 13th January 2026
Icon of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ written by Christine Hales, artist/Iconographer
When I was reading about the origins of the celebration of Christ’s birth I discovered that the celebration of his baptism in the Jordan was already established as a feast of importance second only to Easter before Christmas ever came on the horizon. In the Eastern churches it retains that importance, celebrated as the Epiphany on 6th January. Christmas is a much lesser feast.
As a child growing up in the Church of England I was completely ignorant of the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Christmas crib and the Easter garden captured my imagination but there was nothing with this power in the celebration of Jesus’ baptism. It has come more to my awareness since coming here but it still feels like a bit of an afterthought as the Octave Day of an Epiphany that focusses on the coming of the Magi and the revelation of God’s salvation to all nations. It isn’t the main event of this season.
In the Eastern Churches it is different, the Epiphany is the feast of the Baptism – there is a rite for the blessing of the waters and the whole congregation goes out in procession to bless whatever water is nearby, be it the ocean or a tiny stream. One of my sisters told me how the local Orthodox congregation would come with great ceremony each year to bless the rather unremarkable little stream at the bottom of her road. It’s probably too cold at this time of year for any splashing around in the water but I’m sure it would make this feast something that the children would remember. Maybe we should head out and bless our stream?
This feast is of such great importance because it is the first manifestation of God as Trinity. The event is attested in all four gospels as the starting point of Jesus’ ministry and all three persons of the Trinity play a part. Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, stripping himself of his clothes and going down into the water in an act of penitence shows us what kind of a God we are dealing with, a God who comes in humility to identify himself with our sinful nature. God the Father speaks from heaven to affirm Jesus as the beloved Son of God, the chosen one, whilst the Spirit is seen coming down to rest upon Jesus in an echo of the Spirit hovering over the waters of chaos in the story of the creation. The material world is hallowed as Jesus descends into the waters, overcoming the monsters that lurk in the depths. The waters of chaos become the springs of living water that bring us new life.
Jesus is one with all humanity in his baptism and we are one with him and with one another through ours. As Christians we are called to live into our baptism, to enter into the same experience of intimacy with God that Jesus enjoyed. We too are beloved children of God and it is only as we come to know ourselves as deeply loved by God that we can follow the path of self-gift to which Jesus calls us.
Our intimacy with God is initiated through baptism but needs to be made real through the practices of Christian living. Our monastic life is a particularly focused way of living out our baptismal vows, calling us to constant recollection of God’s presence and simple practical expressions of care for one another.
We are all one in Christ but it is hard to feel that it is so, to see Christ in other people or indeed in ourselves. But in our times of corporate and personal prayer we open our hearts to the work of the Spirit and our inner being is shaped by our encounter with God’s loving presence in the scriptures and in the silence. This secret work of the Spirit then flows out into our encounters with each person we meet, enabling us to treat them as Christ, as we are bidden by St Benedict’s Rule. We gradually come to see Christ in them, and thus Christ comes to birth in us too.
Our baptism opens the way into a Trinitarian life – in the power of the Spirit we are drawn into union with Christ the son of God to live as much loved children of the Father. Let us celebrate this great feast of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ and give praise for God’s invitation into the heart of the Trinity.
Mother Anne - 13th January 2026