Beloved and I have a hot date tonight. We’re dropping the kids off with my parents and going to – church.
Actually, we’re going to a pre-baptism information session, because we’ve finally decided to go ahead and get the boys baptized this summer. I’ve gotten over most of my initial concerns about the whole Catholic baptism thing, and grappled with other minutia like actually finding out where our church is physically located (in a high school gymnasium, apparently, so I don’t feel so bad about not finding it earlier) and deciding on a set of godparents.
The godparents thing was an easy choice, once we thought about it. We asked our very dear friends Jojo and Jaimie, mostly because we love them so much but also largely because when Joanne’s mother heard about our struggles with infertility, she went to her church and lit a candle for us to ask the Big Guy to bless our IVF. We often joke about Maureen’s magic matches. And when I asked Joanne if she and Jaimie would honour us by being the boys’ godparents, she said, “Will they pour water on the boys’ heads and do the oil thingy? If not Jaimie and I will bring water guns and fill them up with holy water and we’ll chase the boys in and out of the pews”, which assured me that we had made the right choice.
The more this whole baptism thing crystalizes into reality, the more I’m realizing that having your two year old and your four year old baptized is not so much like having your four week old baptized. First off, what are they supposed to wear? Beloved, pious soul that he is, has decreed that they should wear ornate white Christening gowns in the traditional style. Hmm, I’ve got a wedding dress or three I could sacrifice for the cause – it would be worth it just to have the pictures for blackmail purposes in later years.
And suddenly I have a vision of baptism day. We’re in the church high school auditorium with the other dozen or so families whose newborns are being baptized this month. The babies are tiny and fresh, and the tired but blissfully happy new parents are beaming with pride at perhaps the first major social appearance of the new family. All the families are sitting patiently and respectfully, absorbing the solemnity of the occassion, and even if one of the babies cry, it’s that lovely mewling sound that only newborns make.
And then there’s us, trying to corral Simon and keep Tristan relatively engaged, surrounded by a mountain of dinky cars, books and playdough that are doing absolutely nothing to distract the boys from the pursuit of mischief. And it’s beginning to occur to me that Simon absconding with a hymnal is perhaps the least of our worries, because maybe the priest might even try to TALK to Tristan on this most sacred and auspicious day, and not even the Lord knows what might come out of his mouth. I’ve been working on a crash course version of Catholicism for Preschoolers (lesson one: God does not buy his car at the corner store, nor is he something to be shouted in traffic) but it may be too late.
I get it now. The Catholics baptize their new recruits when they’re pre-verbal and the Baptists wait until they are adults and have social skills and functioning self-edit features. There’s a reason no major religion indoctrinates preschoolers!
Leave it to us to make it a uniquely memorable, if not sacrosanct, occasion.
WOW Congratulations on doing this. AND They will be fine and trust me the Priest will love it if Tristan asks a question. They tend to love that. Shows that they are listenign and thinking. Nothing is a dumb question from a preschooler!
Last sunday the Man who baptised both my kids was visiting at jack’s Chruch and during communion Nathan went up to the front with jack as he usually does. And the Minister blesses them and says something like Bless this child. Well this Minsiter stuck his tongue out after he said this to Nathan and Nathan said loud enough for the WHOLE Church to hear…Daddy he stuck his tongue out at me…he’s funny!
The place broke up!
my dad’s a minister, and while he’s not of the baptizing babes type (he’s a baptist), he does love it when the little ones ask questions, no matter how strange or wildly inappropriate some adults might think they are – he figures there’s always something that can be learned from a child’s question…
I hope it is a good day for you all 🙂
oh, and whatever they do, it won’t be as bad as the time my father’s preschool daughter stood up in the middle of one of his first sermons at his new church and declared very loudly that she did not want to sit still, she wanted to walk to daddy. only she had trouble with “w”s sounding like “f”s and “walk” sounded suspiciously like a certain F-word…
i have no memory of the event, and yet my parents have yet to let me live it down…
Your kids will do great. If nothing else, it will be fodder for good stories later in life – graduations and weddings are always a great way share your own mortification with the grown up versions of your children. At least you’ll provide a bit of comedic relief for an otherwise stuffy event.
We had my daughter baptized when she was 8 at the same time as our newborn son. It was lovely. She wore a green dress with cherries on it. It was her best dress at the time and we didn’t think it was nescessary to buy some swank wedding dress for her.
Hope it is a wonderful experience for all of you.
glad to hear you finally came to a decision about this, I know how much you agonized over it
have to agree that they will do fine and the priest will love them and who cares about the other parents with babes
just dress them as if they were going to someone’s wedding
have fun!
I don’t think you have to worry about the boys saying something inappropriate. But I will speak to Jaimie about not telling his joke about the priest and the altar boys.
Did I tell you that Jaimie’s mom said “Shit” as she fell off the altar at Amelia’s baptism? Praise the Lord it wasn’t her usual “F#*ker!” It’s not always the kiddies that do the embarassing things. At least with them, everyone thinks it cute.
We baptized our three girls at the same time. They were 4.5, 3 and 4 months. (We baptized our son as an infant after he was born).
Our parish priest (we also worshipped in a high school gym as Holy Spirit in Stittsville doesn’t have a building yet), said that baptizing older children is very special to him. Because, “They get it.” and it’s true. Nothing they do will be anything he hasn’t seen.
Good luck!
They’ll do great and make you proud (or laugh?). They can wear whatever they (you) want them too.
Congratulations on making this decision and going with it, you may be surprised at what a truly emotional day it will be for you. In a good way!