i went to my friend's baby's baptism yesterday. it was my first time witnessing a catholic baptism or any catholic ceremony (at least that i can remember), and i found it to be very educational and enlightening. the priest that conducted the ceremony explained a lot of things, probably b/c he was warned that some of the friends attending were not catholic, and i thought he did a really great job.
things i learned and/or things that stood out to me:
- i don't know if all catholic priests are like this one, but i noticed he mentioned "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" several times which surprised me b/c i always thought that the catholic church didn't put much emphasis on the relationship with Jesus.
- i was impressed that he clearly stated that the baptism was NOT a declaration of the baby's faith, but more of the parents' and god-parents' faith. and that the baby would later need to make her own personal decision about her faith.
- the priest also went on to explain about the praying to the saints. he said that the saints were great people of faith in history that were now with God in heaven, and just like we would ask our friends to pray for us, we can also ask the saints to intercess on our behalf. this was very eye-opening to me and helped me to see the "saint" thing differently. i never knew much about why the catholic church put so much emphasis on saints, but this was one view that helped me to understand a little more. granted, i still think why not just ask Jesus, the son of God, to intercess with the Father for you.
after the ceremony, i thought about how this ceremony compared to a christian baby dedication service i also just recently attended, and i was pleasantly surprised that they were very similar. i still believe that a person should be baptized as a "personal" decision rather than a parents' decision, but overall i was encouraged to see my friend and her husband take this step in pledging to raise their child by God's word and will. i hope and pray for more opportunities to talk to her about the events of the day.
1 comment:
glad u had a good catholic experience- the protestant church is rife with vast misunderstandings of our catholic brothers and sisters. there are of course some differences, but we stand on more common ground than not. baby baptism is practiced in some protestant denominations as well, and always held in combination with a hope and expectation for "confirmation" (an independent adult faith decision) which completes the process that baptism began.
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