A Baptism on the Feast of the Holy Innocents
This past Monday, on the feast of the Holy Innocents, our little Rose was baptized, according to the Traditional Rite, by one of her uncles. Her Godparents were not able to make it to the baptism, so two of my siblings stood in as proxies.
After the baptism we were talking about how she started crying/screaming during the exorcism and stopped immediately after the following Imposition of Hands. Father said, “Who knows, maybe her heart is all better now that she is baptized!”
Interestingly enough, yesterday afternoon she had her 2 week appointment, and even though just last week (when I had her checked for jaundice) the doctor reconfirmed that her heart still had the murmur he could NOT hear it yesterday!!!! He kept checking and then tapping his stethoscope and then checking again, before finally giving up and saying he just couldn’t hear it anymore. I guess we will see at her next echocardiogram, but I’m thinking the holes may already be closed/closing thanks to all of the prayers and her baptism! God is so good!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
The Rite of Baptism
The priest (wearing a violet stole), sponsors, and the catechumen stand in the narthex of the church, symbolizing that at this point, the candidate is not a member of the Church.
Priest: N., what do you ask of the Church of God?
Sponsor/Catechumen: Faith.
Priest: What does Faith offer you?
Sponsor/Catechumen: Life everlasting.
Priest: If then you desire to enter into life, keep the commandments. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.’
The Exsufflation
The priest then breathes 3 times on the candidate in the form of a Cross, recalling the Spirit (breath, wind, “ruach”) of God.
Priest: Go forth from her, unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
The Sign of the Cross
The priest now makes the Sign of the Cross with his thumb on the candidate’s forehead and breast.
Priest: Receive the Sign of the Cross both upon your forehead + and also upon your heart +; take to you the faith of the heavenly precepts; and so order your life as to be, from henceforth, the temple of God.
Priest: Let us pray: Mercifully hear our prayers, we beseech Thee, O Lord; and by Thy perpetual assistance keep this Thine elect, N., signed with the sign of the Lord’s cross, so that, preserving this first experience of the greatness of Thy glory, she may deserve, by keeping Thy commandments, to attain to the glory of regeneration. Through Christ our Lord.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen.
The Imposition of Hands
The priest places his hands on the candidate’s head.
Priest: Let us pray: Almighty, everlasting God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look graciously down upon this Thy servant, N., whom Thou hast graciously called unto the beginnings of the faith; drive out from her all blindness of heart; break all the toils of Satan wherewith she was held: open unto him her, O Lord, the gate of Thy loving kindness, that, being impressed with the sign of Thy wisdom, she may be free from the foulness of all wicked desires, and in the sweet odor of Thy precepts may joyfully serve Thee in Thy Church, and grow in grace from day to day. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Priest: Through the same Christ our Lord.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen
The Imposition of Salt
Now the priest puts a little blessed salt in the candidate’s mouth. Salt is the symbol of that wisdom which gives a relish for the sweetness of divine nourishment; preserves, by the teaching of the Gospel, from the corruption of sin, and prevents evil passions from growing in men’s souls. Adult catechumens might be signed on the brow, ears, eyes, nostrils, mouth, breast, and between the shoulders before the imposition of salt. If this procedure is followed, afterwards the candidate will kneel, recite the Our Father several times, and a Cross is made on his forehead, first by the sponsor and then by the priest.
Priest: N., Receive the salt of wisdom; let it be to thee a token of mercy unto everlasting life. May it make your way easy to eternal life.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen.
Priest: Peace be with you.
Sponsor/Catechumen: And with your spirit.
Priest: Let us pray: O God of our fathers, O God the Author of all truth, vouchsafe, we humbly beseech Thee, to look graciously down upon this Thy servant, N., and as she tastes this first nutriment of salt, suffer her no longer to hunger for want of heavenly food, to the end that she may be always fervent in spirit, rejoicing in hope, always serving Thy name. Lead her O Lord, we beseech Thee, to the laver of the new regeneration, that, together with Thy faithful, he may deserve to attain the everlasting rewards of Thy promises. Through Christ our Lord.
Priest: Through the same Christ our Lord.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen
The priest makes the Sign of the Cross over the candidate three times and says:
Priest: I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father + and of the Son, + and of the Holy + Ghost, that thou goest out and depart from this servant of God, N., For He commands Thee, accursed one, Who walked upon the sea, and stretched out His right hand to Peter about to sink. Therefore, accursed devil, acknowledge thy sentence, and give honor to the living and true God: give honor to Jesus Christ His Son, and to the Holy Spirit; and depart from this servant of God, N., because God and our Lord Jesus Christ hath vouchsafed to call her to His holy grace and benediction and to the font of Baptism.
The Sign of the Cross
The priest again makes the Sign of the Cross on the candidate’s forehead.
Priest: And this sign of the holy Cross, which we make upon her forehead, do thou, accursed devil, never dare to violate.
Priest: Through the same Christ our Lord.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen
The Imposition of Hands
For the final time, the priest lays his hand on the candidate’s head.
Priest: Let us pray: O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Eternal God, Author of light and truth, I implore Thine everlasting and most just goodness upon this Thy servant N., that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to enlighten her with the light of Thy wisdom: cleanse her and sanctify her, give unto her true knowledge; that, being made worthy of the grace of Thy Baptism, she may hold firm hope, right counsel and holy doctrine.
Priest:Through Christ our Lord.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen.
Admission into the Church Building
The priest lays the end of his stole on the candidate as a symbol of his priestly authority, and admits him into the church building, which is the symbol of the Church of Christ. If the catechumen is an adult and was anointed in Part I above, he may be asked to lie prostrate before the Altar in adoration of Christ before this next step.
Priest: N., enter thou into the temple of God, that thou mayest have part with Christ unto life everlasting.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen.
The Credo and Pater
Sponsor/Catechumen: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into Hell. On the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence shall He come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil. Amen.
The Solemn Exorcism
Priest: I exorcise thee, every unclean spirit, in the name of God the Father + Almighty, in the name of Jesus + Christ, His Son, our Lord and Judge, and in the power of the Holy + Spirit, that thou be depart from this creature of God N, which our Lord hath deigned to call unto His holy temple, that it may be made the temple of the living God, and that the Holy Spirit may dwell therein. Through the same Christ our Lord, who shall come to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire.
The Ephpheta
The priest takes a little spittle and touches the ears and nostrils of the candidate with it. For health reasons, the use of spittle may be omitted. This rite comes from Mark 7:33-35, when Jesus healed the deaf-mute: “And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears: and spitting, he touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he groaned and said to him: Ephpheta, which is, Be thou opened. And immediately his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spoke right.”
Priest: Ephpheta, that is to say, Be opened, for an odour of sweetness. Be thou, devil, begone; for the judgement of God shall draw near.
The Renunciation of Satan
Priest: Do you renounce Satan?
Sponsor/Catechumen: I do renounce him.
Priest: And all of his works?
Sponsor/Catechumen: I do renounce him.
Priest: And all his pomps?
Sponsor/Catechumen: I do renounce him.
The Anointing
Priest: I annoint you + with the oil of salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord, that you may have everlasting life.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen.
The Profession of Faith
Priest: N., do you believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth?
Sponsor/Catechumen: I do believe.
Priest: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord, Who was born and Who suffered?
Sponsor/Catechumen: I do believe.
Priest: Do you believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting?
Sponsor/Catechumen: I do believe.
Baptism (Matter and Form of the Sacrament)
If the one to be baptized is a baby, the godparents take him to the font (the godmother holds him in her arms, the godfather touches the baby’s shoulder with his right hand); if he is an adult, the sponsor puts his right hand on the shoulder of the one to be baptized.
Priest: N., will you be baptized?
Sponsor/Catechumen: I will.
The priest pours water over the head of the candidate three times, once after each mention of the Divine Persons. The water he uses will have been consecrated during the Easter Vigil or on the Eve of the Pentecost. As he pours the water, the priest says these words (or the words of a conditional Baptism):
Priest: I baptize you in the name of the Father + and of the Son + and of the Holy + Ghost.
The Annointing with Chrism
Priest: May the Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath regenerated thee by water and the Holy Ghost, and who hath given thee the remission of all thy sins, may He Himself + anoint thee with the Chrism of Salvation, in the same Christ Jesus our Lord, unto life eternal.
Sponsor/Catechumen: Amen.
Priest: Peace be with you.
Sponsor/Catechumen: And with your spirit.
The White Linen Cloth
This priest takes a white linen cloth — symbolizing the purity of a soul cleansed from all sin, and a relic of the days when the newly baptized wore white albs for 8 days — and places it on the head of the candidate.
Priest: Receive this white garment, which mayest thou carry without stain before the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest have life everlasting.
The Lighted Candle
Priest: Receive this burning light, and keep thy Baptism so as to be without blame: keep the commandments of God, that when the Lord shall come to the nuptials, thou mayest meet Him together with all the Saints in the heavenly court, and mayest have eternal life and live for ever and ever.
Last Words of Good Will
Priest: N., go in peace and the Lord be with you. Amen.
Nativity Cookies
Painting Sugar Cookies on Christmas Eve
My Daybook ~ December 30th
Outside my window… there is still some snow on the trees and ground from yesterday! It was a nice surprise for the forecasted rain to turn to snow and my children immediately headed outside to play.
I am thinking… about how hard it is to find time to blog with a new little baby in the house! It has been a week since I got online for a minute to post our Christmas picture. Between Christmas, visiting family, Mass on Sunday, and the baby’s baptism on Monday, I haven’t had any extra time (or motivation!) to sit down in front of this computer. I do have a ton of pictures to share though, so I’m thinking this daybook is going to include quite a few! 😉
I am thankful for… Hubby’s brothers, who are always willing to fly out to administer the sacrament of Baptism to our children. This particular brother-in-law has baptized all three of our daughters! (In fact, Twinkle Toes was his first baptism ever as a newly ordained deacon at the time.) Thank you “Uncle Father!”
Living the Liturgical Year at Home… I have so many pictures to share from Christmas Day… It was wonderful! I also have a newly blessed bottle of wine from the feast of St. John. (Another benefit to having a priest visiting right after Christmas this year!) Our Christ Candle replaced our Advent candles for the Christmas season, and the Advent Mantle was updated with the word “REJOICE” in gold as well! I am still trying to decide what we will be doing to celebrate the Solemnity Feast of Mary the Mother of God/Circumcision of Our Lord, but I still have a couple days, right? Other than attending Mass, what will you be doing with your family?
I am going… to town this afternoon. Rose has her 2 week check-up and then I have an appointment with a Physical Therapist due to my sacroiliac joint. (Now you know the real reason I haven’t been motivated to sit and blog! 😉 ) Hopefully they will be able to re-align everything and give me some exercises to do at home to help recover! In the meantime, it is giving me a little something extra to offer up…
I am reading… The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child’s Heart for Eternity
I am hoping… that it won’t be nearly 5 years before Father is able to come out for another visit… We miss him already!
Noticing that… our little Snuggles is not a baby anymore! When did he grow up???? He sure loves his new little sister and will spend every opportunity he can get snuggling with her.
Around the house… lots of evidence that we have a new little one living in our home. Baby Blankets, a Boppy pillow, burp rags, bouncy chairs, and a darling moses basket can be found scattered all around. Not to mention all the new Christmas and Baby gifts… Time to start decluttering again to make room for it all!
A few plans for the rest of the week:
- 2 week check-up for Rose and PT appt for me
- Attend Mass on January 1st, a Holy Day of Obligation
- Finish Mailing out Christmas Cards
- Start Planning our Back to School “Schedule”
- Make plans for celebrating Epiphany
A Picture thought I am sharing:
Taken by Captain as I was leaving to go to my scheduled OB appointment on December 15th at 4:00 pm… The very last photo of “Rose” in my tummy! Little did I know I would be holding our sweet little girl later that very night!
Taken by Hubby moments after delivery.
Christmas 2009
… from our family to yours!
Christmas Cookies
Yesterday four of my five sisters came over to bake cookies with the girls and I. It did end up being much more work than I thought it would be, but it is so rare that we are all able to get together, and it will be so nice to have all these goodies to take to my parents home tomorrow for Christmas, as well as for all the company we have arriving on Sunday! (Our little Rose will be baptized this coming Monday!) I sure wish my sister Jamie could have been here… (Could you all please say a prayer for her father-in-law who was just hospitalized, and then moved home to be with his family, due to complications with his lung cancer.) We miss you Jamie!
We started out WAY too ambitiously with a huge stack of recipes we were hoping to make, but ended up shortening our list to just Cranberry White Chocolate Bars (using a mix from Costco), Oreo Truffles, more Rice Krispies Treats Wreaths, Pecan Turtle Bars, Cranberry Orange Cookies, and Chocolate Coconut Balls. I also have the dough in my fridge for Sugar Cookies for my children to cut out and decorate sometime soon.
Twinkle Toes and Chiquita really enjoyed spending time with their aunts, licking spoons, and helping out whenever they could!
The boys on the other hand went ice skating with their daddy and my youngest brother, and Rose spent the day sleeping, nursing, looking cute in her little t-shirt from Aunt Meagan, and being just as sweet as ever!
Despite thinking it would be “easy” to have everyone over to bake (in my tiny kitchen!) I was pretty overwhelmed tired by the end of the day. Thankfully a dear friend dropped off dinner, hubby washed dishes, and my mom stopped by on her way home from shopping to force me to sit down while she finished cleaning up!
Today will be much more relaxed, though I can’t believe it is already Christmas Eve! Advent sure did fly by, didn’t it?! Christmas is almost here!
Highlights From This Years O Antiphon Activities
Despite all my planning, we still weren’t able to do everything I had hoped to do this past week, and I did need to improvise a bit… Nevertheless, it has been a lovely week of prayers and fun activities as we’ve counted down these last days till Christmas with the O Antiphons! Here are a few pictures from the past week:
Home Sweet Home
It has been a wonderful weekend!! Friday afternoon my sister watched our children so that Hubby could come and pick the baby and I up from the hospital. I was so anxious to come home and introduce her to her siblings! It was love at first sight and they haven’t been able to get enough of our little Rose. We were welcomed home with a lovely banner the children made with Aunt Mary’s help, dinner from Aunt Bridget, as well as beautiful roses and cake from Hubby. I must say, bringing the baby home to meet the children (rather than having them meet the baby in the hospital shortly after delivery, as we have always done in the past) was hard, but it sure added to the anticipation and excitement!
Can you believe that Christmas is just five days away!?!
Getting Ready to go Home!
Praying for Rose
Our baby girl ~ December 16th, 2009 ~ 15 hours oldFirst of all I want to THANK YOU for all the lovely comments and congratulations!!! What a blessing it has been to have you all share in our excitement and know that you’ve been praying for us!
Right now it is early Friday (12/18) morning, and the baby and I are still at the hospital… Originally we were supposed to be going home yesterday, but it turned out that the baby’s pediatrician wanted to keep her a little longer to monitor her heart and get an echocardiogram after hearing a murmur. The test was sent to a pediatric cardiologist specialist 4 hours away to be read and it wasn’t until late yesterday afternoon before her pediatrician had spoken with the cardiologist and was able to come back in to go over the results with us.
Apparently our precious baby does have a couple of small holes (Ventricular Septal Defects, aka: VSD’s) in her little heart in addition to a Patent Ductus Arteriosos (PDA). The doctor seems pretty confident that the PDA will resolve itself fairly quickly on its own, but we will need to have another echocardiogram done with the specialist when he is in town in January for the VSD’s. The pediatrician also said that there is a really good chance that the holes (especially the top one) will close on their own sometime in the upcoming months/year as her heart grows, but it is something we will need to watch.
Other than that, she is doing wonderfully. She nurses well and is such a sweet little baby! She is so strong and big (almost a pound bigger than her sisters were at birth!) and hardly feels like a newborn!!
As for me, other than being a bit emotional yesterday, I am feeling okay. Despite a relatively quick (my actual “active labor” was only 2 hrs and 10 minutes, in which the last 20 minutes I went from 7cm to holding the baby!) and “easy” (ie: no pain meds, tears or stitches! Oh and the nurse got the IV, for antibiotics, in on the first try – which was a first ever for me!!) delivery, the recovery (particularly the postpartum contractions/afterpains) has been challenging and so the extra day in the hospital has probably been a good thing for me as well. I do so miss my other children though and can hardly wait to introduce them to their new baby sister!
Anyhow, I better shut off this computer (thank you Dad for loaning me your laptop!!) and try and get a bit more sleep…
Thank you all for your continued prayers. God bless!!
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