John 9:1-41

The Gospel of John (3:1-6) records the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus, who comes under cover of darkness to speak with him. When Jesus declares that one must be born again, Nicodemus asks how a grown man can be born again: ‘Can he go back into his mother's womb?' Jesus responds that one must be ‘born through water and the Holy Spirit.'

The candidates for baptism who have received biological life in the womb of their mothers now receive new life in Christ and are born again as daughters and sons of God through water and the Holy Spirit. That is why the baptismal pond is referred to as a womb which begets people spiritually.

According to Genesis 1, creation took place in seven days. The eighth day, then, was considered the day of the new creation. During the early centuries, baptisms were often celebrated in specially constructed buildings or baptisteries. Many were octagonal in shape. This was to give architectural expression to the belief that in baptism the catechumens are born again and become a new creation. Many contemporary fonts are octagonal in shape (e.g. the new font in St Mary's Cathedral in Kilkenny!).