Chapter Twenty: Confirmation

This day has been the most joyful of my life, my Sam. I’m sorry that Bilbo was not here, but I still feel his presence around me, sometimes as though he is truly still with me and though I can’t see him with my eyes, my heart can. It’s a very comforting feeling. Yesterday, my instruction with Gandalf regarding Iluvatar ended and today I was formally accepted into those who serve Him. I was given a silken garment of the purest white to wear for a ceremony that started outside the dark room at dawn.

“You are a child of Eru, Frodo Baggins,” Gandalf said. “Do you so will to be recognized as such and take up the light burden of that status?”

I could barely keep my excitement from overtaking me. I must have looked like Pippin used to at Yule and that thought gave me even greater joy. How I wish you could have all been here with me!

“I do so will it,” I replied, then Gandalf put a cord with two small woven panels to wear around my neck to remind me of my new status. One said what he had just told me, that I was child of Eru, the other showed an image of a sun. What joy flowed through me then! You might think it strange that having something else around my neck would cause that, but it did and I know now I will be even stronger and my healing will continue to accelerate. Gandalf smiled then, then embraced me and kissed my head. “Welcome,” he said.

I hugged him back and smiled back up at him. He seemed to glow as bright as the sun. There is more, much more, my Sam, to that dear wizard of ours than I ever suspected. He must have seen that I realized that because he smiled wider and nodded, then the brightness was once again sheathed around mortal flesh, but his eyes still shone. I let him go and smiled at my friends who had come to celebrate with me. He told me later that I was shining as well.

Then we went into the dark room that has helped me so much and this time I felt even more at home, more loved than ever. After I bowed, I saw that a new image of the sun had been made just for me - just the right height for a hobbit to reverence properly. I nearly cried when I saw that and kissed it for the first time. The other one was always too high for me and Gandalf or one of my other friends would have to lift me up, but here was just another instance of kindness that I have been surrounded by since my arrival.

There were many more words said inside that I asked Gandalf to repeat to me so I could write them down here. I hope one day I will hear him saying them to you, my dear Sam. What joy that would give me!

“0 Lord of Power and Might, You heal every disease, look now upon Your servant, Frodo Baggins, drive out from him every evil and unclean spirit hiding and lurking in his heart, so that he may no longer be a child of the flesh, but rather a child of Your kingdom.”

Then he approached me with oil and said, “May this be an anointing of incorruptibility, a weapon of righteousness, and a renewal of soul and body, turning away every work of the dark one. May it deliver from all evil those who are anointed with it in faith and partake of it for Eru’s glory.”

He knelt and as he lightly anointed my forehead with oil, he said, “The servant of Eru, Frodo Baggins, is anointed with the oil of gladness that his mind may be opened to the understanding and acceptance of the mysteries of faith.”

He moved to my chest next and said, “For the healing of soul and body, and that he may love Eru with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind, and that he may love his neighbor as himself.”

Then he touched my ears. With each new place he touched, I felt stronger and stronger. It was a wondrous feeling. “That his ears may be ready to listen to the teachings of faith and accept the words of the One.”

The oil next touched my shoulders. “That he may willingly take upon himself the easy yoke of Eru and gladly carry His light burden and that he may shun all craving of sensuality.”

When he anointed my hands, he said, “That he may innocently raise his hands to heaven and do the right thing at all times and bless the One.”

Last he touched my feet with the oil and said, “That he may walk in the path of the Eru.”

Then he gave me a candle to hold and said, “Receive this lighted candle, and during your entire life strive to shine with the light of faith and good deeds, that when Eru calls, you may be able to meet Him with light and enter unhindered into the court of His heavenly glory.”

Then he stood and prayed directly to Iluvatar, “Now, to Your newly enlightened servant, You have been pleased to give new birth, for the forgiveness of his sins, whether committed willingly or unwillingly. Therefore, 0 Master of all, keep him in Your holiness, strengthen him and deliver him from the evil one and all his deceitful ways. Keep him in purity and righteousness, that he may please You in his every word and deed and become a son and an heir of Your heavenly kingdom.”

Then as Gandalf had taught me, I folded my arms across my chest, fingers touching the opposite shoulder and received the lembas, for the first time with the knowledge of what an awesome gift of Iluvatar’s it really was, more wondrous than we could ever conceive. We had no idea, Sam, what a great honor was given to us during the Quest when it was at times our only food. I didn’t understand than how such a little thing could give such strength, but what strength it gives me now that I do know! I feel almost light enough to float, instead of dragged down by the Ring. The call of it grows fainter day by day while I grow stronger. Oh, Sam, I can’t wait for you to come and understand all that I know, to share with me this marvelous gift!

A/N: What Frodo now wears around his neck, I modeled after the Roman Catholic devotion of wearing the scapular, but he doesn’t wear it for the same reason I do - for the grace of final perseverance and a promise of the Virgin Mary’s not to suffer eternal fire if one dies wearing it and has led a good life. It is my understanding that Frodo’s salvation is already assured once he’s in the West and he is here for healing and peace before he accepts the Gift and enters the Presence of Iluvatar so he would be wearing it as a symbol of who he is, formally recognizing himself as a servant of Iluvatar.  But I'm also still new to Middle-earth so if I'm wrong and he would still need to work out his salvation, please do tell. 

The prayers Gandalf says and the anointing with oil is adapted from the Rite of Baptism and Holy Chrismation according to the Byzantine Catholic Church. I chose Gandalf to be the one to do this as there is no priest and Gandalf is a Maia. In the Byzantine Rite, children are baptized, confirmed (chrismated) and receive their first Holy Communion all at the same time, normally as infants. It is the way my two sisters and I received these sacraments, though our parents were at the time Roman Catholics (my dad has since formally switched from Roman to Byzantine) and we consider ourselves Roman, though we were raised in both rites from before birth. I have only taken a fraction of a much larger ceremony that in our church is done as part of the Divine Liturgy (what the Mass is called in the Byzantine Rite) and with the entire congregation present and participating, not just the family and godparents. It’s really quite beautiful. The kissing of an image (icon) of God, the bowing (instead of genuflecting) upon entering and exiting and the crossed arms upon receiving Communion is also from that Rite. Our church has icons just the right height for children to kiss which inspired the hobbit-sized one. I have no idea how the Elves perceive their Creator so I chose a sun. If anyone knows of anything else, do let me know. I know there is much I still do not know about these marvelous lands and peoples. If this ceremony intrigues anyone enough, feel free to visit http://www.byzantines.net for more information about that and much more.