To baptise children is to ignite in them the flame of faith.
As parents co-create with God in conceiving new human life, so too they work with him when they bring their children to be baptised. They ask the Divine Spirit to bestow on their children a supernatural gift that is nothing less than divine life itself.
Parents, in the actual ceremony
- publicly ask that the child be baptised
- sign their child with the sign of the cross after the celebrant
- renounce Satan and recite the profession of faith
- carry the child to the font
- hold the lighted candle
- are blessed with prayers formulated specially for mothers and fathers.
Theirs is a genuine ministry.
Parents with children on their minds may want to know
- why it is important to have children baptised
- how their local community (parish) is involved
- about preparation beforehand and follow up afterwards
- about godparents
- the “when” and the “where” for the baptism of children
- what happens in the ceremony of baptising children
- that sometimes children have already been baptised, and that there is a rite for bringing a child already baptised to the church.
Issue for consideration: The baptism of children is about their belonging to one another, to a family, to a church…. and ultimately to God himself.
Acknowledgement: The Rites of the Catholic Church, Volume 1A, Initiation, Rite for the Baptism of Children
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