I understood more about Christianity, particularly the Catholic faith, in my urge to study more culture and traditions about humanity. I joined the catholic preparation and progress of the baptism of the infants in St. Michael’s Catholic Church. Notably, the event takes place in the church. The speaker narrating the entire process was Monsignor Frank Rossi, who is a priest as well. However, the speaker only explained what was happening in the church and why Catholics did some things. The church was occupied by infants who were to be baptized and their parents and other adults, who are obliged to assist the parents in the spiritual nourishment of the baptized children as they grow.
In the catholic traditions, baptisms are significant among the Christians. Among the other seven catholic sacraments, the sacrament is the first to be received by every catholic. Additionally, the sacrament of baptism indicates that the baptized person is now fully a catholic and believes in the catholic faith. Besides, it is the first sacrament received by the Catholic faithful, and one can only receive any other sacrament after being baptized (Mediatrixsolutions, 2015). For a young kid, the parents present them to the church, before the priest who administers baptism, upon parents' commitment to teaching the child catholic teachings.
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The parents assemble before the congregation and administrator for the process. Again, the parents give the young ones new names, which are requirements in the catholic doctrines. I noted that the naming is associated with the unique nature of the just baptized kids (Mediatrixsolutions, 2015). Again, the naming is regarding the initial naming in the old testament of the bible. Furthermore, the new names are associated with the unique identity of the children being baptized. For instance, the new testament of the bible indicates that when the disciples were to serve the Lord were given new names as Saul transformed to Paul.
When the parents are in front of their children, the priest interviews them on why they want their infants baptized. The priest also questions the parents’ ability and willingness to take the obligation of teaching the children catholic norms as they grow. Again, the parents are accompanied by godparents who help the parents teach them as they grow. Also, the entire church agrees unanimously to help the children understand the catholic faith. Then the priest
Afterwards, the priest signifies the cross on each child's forehead, and the godparents follow suit (Alfani, 2018). The sign of the cross is the symbolic sign of the catholic faith. Then the administrator reads a sacred scripture for the baptism and makes intercessory prayers for the children and parents. The priest makes his prayers through the intercession of saints. He then proceeds to bless the water, which symbolizes the presence and power of God in the church. Upon the blessing of water, every baptized catholic in church renews their baptism vows. Again the water acts to cleanse the children from the original sin and makes them holy.
After that, the priest uses the chrism oil to anoint the children as baptized. The chrism oil symbolizes eternal grace on the anointed. It is used in three sacraments that is baptism, confirmation and holy orders. After that, a white garment is placed over the ids. It symbolizes purity and an outward sign of interior purity and dignity (TheNativityBrandon, 2020). Again, they light candles for each baptized child to represent the holiness and presence of Christ to guide them in their endeavours. Finally, the priest makes the final prayer recognizing the holy trinity and honours the newly baptized children as new full members of the catholic faith.
References
Alfani, G. (2018). Baptism and Godparenthood in Catholic Europe. In Yearbook of International Religious Demography 2018 (pp. 132-142). Brill.
TheNativityBrandon. (2020, September 4). The Rite of Baptism . YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmnX-fMJVTU.
Mediatrixsolutions. (2015, May 8). St Michael's Catholic Church: Baptism . YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD7kE8qUz5A.
