Isabella’s baptism was this morning at the 10:30 am Mass at our parish, Immaculate Conception in Salem, Mass. Although the date was picked out of convenience, the Holy Spirit also had a hand in it as well, being Trinity Sunday and all. And could the Gospel have been more appropriate? “Go, therefore, and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Our pastor, Fr. Murphy, incorporated the baptism into his homily as he said that the most important thing to know about the Trinity is not what God does for us (creates, redeems, sanctifies) or concepts of mathematics (one-in-three), but that God is family. What does that mean? It means that God is love because it is love that binds families together. He also went on at length about how our families act as images of the Divine Trinitarian Family and the bonds that tie us together and that we’re temples of the Holy Spirit and so on. It was really an excellent baptismal and Trinitarian homily and I’m so glad he gave it.
After Mass, we all retired to our house where we had a simple brunch of bagels, muffins, danishes, and, of course, cake. It was very relaxed and comfortable and I was so glad that everyone could come over and also that today turned out to be such a gorgeous day. The rain has finally let up, at least for a little while. (The forecasters say that this has been the rainiest May-June combo in the record books. I believe them.)
Fr. Murphy and the seminarian who’s staying in our parish this summer stopped by too. It turns out that the seminarian, Alex, had a former Steubenville professor of mine as a spiritual director, Fr. Giles Dimock, OP. That let me recall a great baptism story Fr. Giles told in Sacraments class once about a priest who was a little too enthusiastic about applying the oil of chrism to the “bambina” and how baby + oil + water = a game of catch the greased pig.
On the whole we’re very happy to have had Isabella baptized and welcomed into the Church and made a daughter of God, a princess in the kingdom. What a great day.
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Update: Also see Melanie’s thoughts on the day. There are few things, if anything, more wonderful than seeing how much my wife loves my daughter.
Image Credit
- isabellabaptism.jpg: Own photo
