In compliance with the Law of the Lord that 'every first-born male shall be dedicated to the Lord,'

For Christ is the very incarnation of the invisible God-- First-born and Head of all creation;

And he is the Head of the Church, which is his Body. The First-born from the dead, he is to the Church the Source of its Life, that he, in all things, may stand first.

And again, when God brought the First-born into the world, he said-- 'Let all the angels of God bow down before him.'

and from Jesus Christ, ' the faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead, and the Ruler of all the Kings of the earth.' To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his own blood--