Born into the Kingdom

Michael and Malcolm got a new Brother Francis DVD after Joseph was born called "Born Into the Kingdom," about the sacrament of baptism.  We thought it would be topical since the baby was going to be baptized soon!  The baptism happened last month on the Feast of Pentecost.  It was the first baptism for us since we joined our new parish of St. Thomas Aquinas a year ago, and things went a little differently.  Instead of four babies, there were nine (!) at this one, and while the deacon's explanation of how things would go was somewhat helpful, with the number of people there it really prolonged things.  Still, every family and group of friends got their own chance to come up for the main baptismal rite.  Joseph Benedict did great.  His godparents, Uncle Dan and my best friend Rachel, were both unable to make it due to travel restrictions for health reasons, so they stayed safely in the upper Midwest and our great friends Paul and Katie stepped in as proxies.  Then we had a nice reception at our house with family and some friends.  It was a wonderful, joy-filled day and we were happy to officially welcome our son into the faith!  Thanks to our families for being part of the celebration :)

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Grandparents and Great-Grandma!

Aunts and uncles :)

With Paul and Katie

With Elizabeth

Sacraments and Sunday school

Last weekend I was honored to become the godmother to my friend's little girl, Caetlin. It's the first time I've ever been asked to be a godmother! Patricia was having both her daughters baptized and her marriage convalidated and how could I not say yes to being part of that whole day? :) I take this responsibility quite seriously. Also, I'm so happy I was able to make the actual ceremony in Atlanta and get to visit with the whole family over the day. Everything went great. This family has some great friends! (All of whom seemed to have little kids running around everywhere.) I got Caetlin a small book called "Little Acts of Grace" that talks about small devotionals kids and families can do day-to-day to make their faith part of their lives. I should probably take some of the suggestions myself.

Speaking of three-year-olds and faith, I recently volunteered to be a Sunday school teacher for three-year-olds at our parish. As an aside, it wasn't an easy process to volunteer in this day and age -- despite having done three criminal background and reference checks for the D.C., Florida and Texas bars in the last couple of years, I and every other volunteer still had to have a background and reference check by the diocese as a volunteer working with kids, and watch a video about child abuse :/ -- wish all that weren't perceived, wrongly I think, to be necessary.

I've been having such a tough time feeling connected at this parish that I think volunteering might help things out. It would also give me a window into the catechism program here so we can evaluate later down the road if we really feel comfortable here canonically and liturgically or if we would do better to follow our leanings and join another parish in Dallas as Michael gets older. (We are talking to priests about this as well in this ongoing discernment -- would be a very hard decision that I really don't want to make, but staying seems hard sometimes too.) In any event, I haven't taught since my senior year of high school when I taught with my mom, but I remember it being a lot of fun. I am so looking forward to teaching the little kids! We will start with Adam and Eve, talk about Noah and the ark, Miriam and Moses, David and Goliath, and other Bible stories :) It should be so much fun. I'm going to talk to my co-teacher in the next couple of days, and I just got the class list in the mail today too. Can't wait to meet little Gillian, Mia, Nicholas, Gianna, Chloe and others. Little kids are great :)

Baptism

Michael's Baptism

Michael was baptized this past Saturday, January 17, 2009, at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Richardson, TX. My brother Ryan and Kim's sister Amanda were his godparents. The ceremony went very well- Michael was a little hungry at the beginning, but once he got a little snack he behaved extremely well the rest of the time. Fr. Louis, the associate pastor at St. Joseph's, celebrated the rite, and baptized three other children, of varying ages, along with Michael. Luckily, there was enough room around the baptismal font for everyone to get photos.

It was a beautiful weekend in Dallas, with highs in the low 60s, something my family and friends from Chicago appreciated tremendously. (It was -15° when they left there on Thursday.) Many thanks to all who came to celebrate Michael's baptism and who helped prepare us for the day. Michael behaved extremely well for all his guests in attendance, and it was wonderful to get to share all the progress he has made in two short months since he was born.

We have added some photos to the gallery linked above,  but there is more to come.

We thank God for giving Michael to us and allowing him to come into his Church and under His care.