The answer
It is befitting for the celebrant — whether a bishop or a priest — to take part in the preparations with the baptism candidate, by prayer and fasting. When he begins in performing the sacrament he should be fasting (at least nine hours in the current Coptic rite). He also prays in his priestly service garments. The latter has been neglected of late. St. Theodore of Mopsuestia says to the candidate for baptism: “The priest approaches you, not in his regular clothes … but is rather clothed in a gown of pure and splendid linen. His joyful clothing signifies the joy of the world you are proceeding towards in the future. The luminous color refers to the splendor that you will receive in the life to come.”1328
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
1328 E. C. Whitaker and M. E. Johnson, Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy (revised 3rd ed.) (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2003): pp. 47–48.