taken from Psalm 41:2-4: “As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God,” an allusion to Baptism. Palestrina wrote a beautiful polyphonic setting of this Tract.





The blessing of the font and baptismal water is a solemn blessing, so like the blessings of the palms and the Paschal Candle, it is in the form of a Preface, imitating the Mass. The priest begins with two prayers analogous to the Secrets of the Mass. After the Sursum corda dialogue, the priest continues in the tone of the Preface, praising God for the gifts of water and Baptism. The priest divides the water in the form of a cross, because it is through the Blood shed on the Cross that we are baptized.The priest exorcises the water, commanding all powers of evil to depart from it. He also casts water toward the four corners of the earth, echoing Jesus's command, “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19).





As the blessing continues, the priest elaborates more on the significance of water throughout the history of our salvation. Four rivers flowed out of the land of paradise in the Garden of Eden: the Phison, the Gehon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates (Genesis 2:10-14). God quenched the thirst of the children of Israel with water from the rock in the desert of Egypt (Exodus 17:1-6). In the New Testament, Jesus first manifested his divinity by transforming