granted through the mystery of baptism and
chrismation and is constantly
Furthermore, in response to the emphatic assertion by some Orthodox churches of the spiritual and temporal unity of the initiatory sacraments--baptism,
chrismation, and anointing Catholics affirm, in their dialogue with the Orthodox, that
Johnson, "From Three Weeks to Forty Days: Baptismal Preparation and the Origins of Lent," Studia liturgica 20 (1990) 185-200; and Dominic Serra, "Syrian Prebaptismal Anointing and Western Postbaptismal
Chrismation," Worship 79 (2005) 328-41.
In the Byzantine Tradition, and in the Christian East in general, Baptism forms one integrated rite of initiation that is celebrated together with
Chrismation (what the west calls Confirmation) and Eucharist.
As in the West, baptism was delegated to presbyters, but so, too, was the
chrismation rite.
This life is conceived (in baptism), receives the principle of right organization, increase and consolidation (in
chrismation), is healed from attendant harm (in confession), is nourished for eternity (in the Eucharist), complements or integrates the solitary essence of the human being (in marriage), creates a spiritual fatherhood as a basis of true social order (in priesthood, or laying on of hands), and, finally, consecrates the suffering and dying corporeality for complete wholeness of resurrection to come (in extreme unction).
A first step in establishing a theological space for a discourse of encouragement, then, is to recognize the church's complex of initiatory rites: the revived catechumenate for baptismal preparation, baptism proper where the agent is the Holy Spirit,
chrismation (anointing with oil that symbolizes the giving of the Holy Spirit in Origen's sense) and receiving the Eucharist, the beginning of on-going nourishment of baptismal identity.
Then, in due course, they are baptized and undergo
chrismation, a sacrament similar to confirmation.
These five lectures, known as the Mystagogical Catecheses, explained the significance of sacraments such as baptism,
chrismation and Eucharist.
Clearly the compiler of the Constitutions understood the Didache prayer and Ignatius to be alluding to a post-baptismal
chrismation with perfumed ointment ([GREEK TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), thus giving `apostolic' support for his commending of a practice which the range and ambiguity of his varying explanations might suggest was a recent innovation, 14 but one which, as we shall see, he seems to consider vital.
Forms of confirmation he author treats are, among others: the sacrament which, along with baptism and Eucharist, marks the Christian initiation of adults;
chrismation, the Eastern rite's form of confirmation that always accompanies baptism; confirmation as a nonsacramental maturity rite practiced in some Protestant and Anglican traditions; adolescent confirmation and the full or abbreviated confirmation of persons in danger of death.
Communities aspiring to be Orthodox were officially received into Orthodoxy through baptism and
chrismation. For example, in Ghana, an independent non-canonical Orthodox Church in the town of Larteh was officially received into canonical Orthodoxy through baptism by Archbishop Irenaeus.