Water plays an important role in the Easter Vigil. The solemn rite of its blessing takes place by lowering the Paschal candle once or three times into the font—the womb of Mother Church, given life by Christ so that new children may be born within her through Baptism.
Yet this water and its grace are not only for those baptised on that most holy night of the Church’s year. The water is sprinkled over the whole assembly after, with one voice, it renounces Satan and sin and renews its profession of faith in Christ. And, even for those who did not take part in the Vigil, or who may not even remember where the church door is … even for them there is water enough during these fifty days, as priests and deacons visit the homes and families of our parishes so that, through the sprinkling of water wherever they are welcomed, the peace of the Risen Christ and the freedom he brings may be shared.