Acts 4:23-31 / John 3:1-8 (2019)
The usual practice for the Rite of Baptism is to use water as the form or the means for baptism.
So whether it is infant or adult, whether it is by immersion or by affusion, the form or the means is water.
The symbol of water gives us the indication that baptism washes away our sins and purifies us and makes us God's children.
Yet water has also an additional meaning. It also points to the descent of the Holy Spirit into our hearts at our baptism.
So at our baptism, it is like what Jesus said in the gospel - we are born again through water and the Spirit.
The waters of baptism purify us, and the Spirit sanctifies us.
The Spirit sanctifies us to be a people of prayer who will listen to the promptings of the Spirit.
It is in trusting in the Spirit that we will experience the power of prayer.
In the 1st reading, as the disciples prayed, the house where they were assembled began to rock.
May our hearts too be moved by the Spirit when we pray.
As our hearts begin to be moved by the Spirit in prayer, we also pray that the hearts of those whom we are praying for be moved so that they too will follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit.