“Sarah Elizabeth, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” With those very simple words, and the pouring of blessed water over Sarah’s head, something truly astonishing happens: she is mystically incorporated into the Body of Christ, becoming a treasured and irreplaceable member of the household of God. At the same time, she is liberated from the original sin we inherit from our first parents, and is promised a share in the eternal life Christ won for us by his saving death and resurrection.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, Baptism “is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit . . . and the door which gives access to the other sacraments” (no. 1213). Put another way, Baptism into the life of Christ lays the foundation for everything God holds in store for his adopted daughters and sons. As some of our Protestant sisters and brothers like to say, in Baptism we are truly “born again,” spiritually recreated in the image of our Savior, and therefore heirs to the Kingdom.
In the western Church, the vast majority of people are baptized in their infancy. We share God’s gracious gift of new life at the earliest opportunity, with parents and godparents speaking on behalf of their child. At St. Lawrence, Baptisms are ordinarily celebrated on two Sundays each month, at 1:00 PM. For more information on preparation for, and celebration of, the sacrament for infants, please click below.
Adult Baptism
Baptism may, of course, be received at any time in life—anyone who seeks to be joined to Christ and to his Church is welcome to leave their “old self” behind and enter into the new life that Baptism confers. The process by which an unbaptized adult or young adult prepares for Baptism and the other two sacraments of initiation (Confirmation and the Eucharist) is called the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (or “RCIA”). For more information on this process, click below.
