The angels assist in the offering of prayers;
even when one is praying alone,
his prayer is joined to the choirs of angels.

 
St. Clement of Alexandria, 2nd century

The Father of immortality
sent his immortal Son and Word into the world
to come to us and cleanse us
with water and the Spirit.

 
Hippolytus, 3rd century

Whoever goes down into these waters of rebirth with faith
renounces the devil and pledges himself to Christ.
He repudiates the enemy and confesses that Christ is God,
throws off his servitude and becomes an adopted son.

 
St. Hippolytus, 3rd century

The Lord was baptized,
not to be cleansed himself, but to cleanse the waters,
so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ which knew no sin,
might have the power of Baptism.

 
St. Ambrose, 4th century

We who have been baptized into Christ we must ourselves
be the garments that we spread before him.
Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away
in the saving waters of Baptism
and we have become white as pure wool,
let us present the conqueror of death...
with the real rewards of his victory.

 
St. Andrew of Crete, 8th century

You have believed, you have been baptized;
the old life is dead, it was killed on the Cross, buried in Baptism.
The old life is buried, in which you lived ill at ease:
may the new life arise.

 
St. Augustine, 5th century

Happy is our Sacrament of water, in that,
by washing away the sins of our early blindness,
we are set free and admitted into eternal life!

 
Tertullian, 2nd century

Baptism continually renews us in the image of the new man,
in holiness of thoughts and deeds.
Baptism, moreover, unites Christians of all creeds.
Insofar as baptized, we are all children of God in Christ Jesus,
our master and Lord.

 
His Holiness, Benedict XVI