The seven Sacraments are precious to us because they are channels of God’s grace. We celebrate them in a worthy and inclusive way.
Baptisms are normally conducted in the parish church on the day agreed upon after meeting with the parish priest.
Please click the link below to download a Baptism request form, fill it and bring it along with you.
If you are in need of other sacraments, please don’t hesitate to contact the parish priest.
Some Reflections on preparing for the sacrament of Baptism.
Our journey begins with an invitation, a call from God through the Christian community to live the gospel as committed disciples of Christ. When we accept the invitation, that call and response are ritualized and made visual and real for us in the celebration of Baptism.
The sacrament of Baptism expresses the wonderful gift of God by which we are “made holy”, become “children of God” and “temples of the Holy Spirit”. We must take care, however, not to restrict God’s gift to one single moment (the pouring of water) or overlook that part of the sacrament that is our lifelong response to God’s gift.
Baptism, and all sacraments, for that matter, are much more than the moment of celebration. They neither begin nor end with the ritual. They are celebrations of lived experiences. They exist before, during and after the celebration. The ritual of Baptism does not bring God’s love into being as if that love did not exist before the ceremony. Baptism is the Church’s way of celebrating and enacting the embrace of God who first loved us from the moment of our conception. It remains for us to grow into what we already are: sons and daughters of God. Baptism celebrates a family’s and a community’s experience of that love in the baptised.
Water and Spirit are strong and important symbols of Baptism. To be baptised is to be welcomed into the Church and to be nourished there as we journey with each other. To be baptised is to be given new birth and new life. It is interesting to note that some of the early baptismal fonts had the shape of a “womb”, to emphasize the new birth/new life aspect of the sacrament. In birth we emerge from the darkness of the womb to the bright light of a new world.
When we say “yes” to Baptism, we publicly acknowledge that we have been chosen, marked out and set on our way. Most of the real business on Baptism comes after the ceremony. Obviously, infants cannot respond immediately to the call/response aspect of the sacrament. However, the parents of those infants can understand and live those values and pass them on to their children. They can also experience the support of the community in living those ideals. Infant baptism only makes sense if parents are true Christian disciples. If they are not, then it makes little sense to initiate their children into a Church which calls for a commitment to living the mission of Christ. The Rite of Baptism for Children emphasizes the importance of faithfulness on the part of parents when it says to parents: “In asking to have your children baptised, you are accepting the responsibility of training them in the practice of the faith”. The word practice is crucial; it calls for Christian modelling on the part of parents.
Parents are the principal and the primary educators of their children in the ways of faith.
Christ invites us to become more fully human, to accept the human condition, to journey through life with its risks and trials by living a way of life which he has shown us: a life that does not end with death. He invites us, in fact, to live our lives by the same power with which he lived his – the Holy Spirit. We receive this power to begin the lifelong journey with him through our baptism.
