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Published: Friday, April 24, 2009

Renewing your sense of the mystery of baptism

Paul F. Ford

---Watch the birth of a baby.

---Attend an infant baptism. Be on the lookout for the "down payment" on the Eucharist and the "down payment" on Confirmation.

---Attend the rite of acceptance into the catechumenate (pay attention to all the signs of the cross and the words spoken).

---Find out the date of your baptism, your godparents, priest/deacon (go on pilgrimage to the church of your baptism; find your name in the registry); ask to see photos and movies. For whom were you named? Why? If you are named for a saint, explore who she/he is, when her/his feast day is, and begin to invoke them. Learn to use the litany of the saints.

---Renew the Signs of the Cross by use of the rite of admission to candidacy for full communion and by discovering the experience of the cross already in your life.

---Renew your baptismal promises on the anniversary of your baptism (the plenary indulgence).

---Renew your sense of being a baptized person:

*Learn to bless.

*Invoke the saints.

*Use holy water.

*Light a candle every Sunday at church or at home.

*Dress for church.

*Learn the meaning of each petition of the Lord's Prayer.

---Renew your sense of your Father in heaven. Picture a loving father holding his child to his chest in a harness, and at least mentally stretch your arms and legs out and put your head on his chest.



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