Again, it is fortuitous that we consider this optional feature of Sunday Mass during the Easter season – for this season is the particular time singled out in the Roman Missal for this blessing and sprinkling to especially but occasionally substitute for the Penitential Act.
This optional rite echoes the rite which is a required part of the Easter Vigil when after those to be baptised have been baptised and confirmed, the faithful present are invited to renew their promise of of baptismal faith (although they can also be invited to renew this promise during the baptismal liturgy iteself (Roman Missal, The Easter Vigil, 49).
On Easter Day the renewal of promises and the sprinkling follows the homily and takes the place of the Creed.
Dear brethren (brothers and sisters), through the Paschal Mystery
we have been buried with Christ in Baptism,
so that we may walk with him in…
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