lohr@wsqtb8.crd.ge.com (P. J. Lohr) (10/27/89)
Request for info on Baptism preparation and Sacrement of Baptism
My wife and I have been asked to start a Baptism preparation
"program" for parents who wish to baptize their infants in the Catholic
faith. The main goal of the program (believe it or not :-) is to get the
parents to re-evaluate their faith and make a renewed commitment to their
faith and church community. The secondary goal is to inform the parents
about the sacrement and ceremony of baptism itself.
We seem to be breaking new gound here since all the material we've
seen to date deals only with the secondary goal. If anyone has any
suggestions or pointers to material please let me know. We are very
ecumenical so don't feel restricted to suggesting material from Catholic
publishers.
Secondly, before I teach anything under the authority of the Catholic
church I feel that I must fully understand what the Catholic church _truely_
teaches (as opposed to popular opinion of what it teaches, or what medival
theologians may have thought). I need to verify that these teaching are
consistent with scripture. (Perhaps "not inconsistent" is a better way to
put it, since scripture refers to baptism in a variety of different ways,
and doesn't treat baptism into the Christian church very extensively.)
If you feel you are well versed on this topic and would like to carry
on an off-net discussion to help me out let me know.
Phil Lohr
lohr@crd.ge.com
uunet!crd.ge.com!lohrsmith_c@ncsatl.uucp (11/10/89)
In article <Oct.27.03.08.28.1989.18051@athos.rutgers.edu>, lohr@wsqtb8.crd.ge.com (P. J. Lohr) writes: > Request for info on Baptism preparation and Sacrement of Baptism > > My wife and I have been asked to start a Baptism preparation > "program" for parents who wish to baptize their infants in the Catholic > faith. The main goal of the program (believe it or not :-) is to get the > parents to re-evaluate their faith and make a renewed commitment to their > faith and church community. The secondary goal is to inform the parents > about the sacrement and ceremony of baptism itself. > > We seem to be breaking new gound here since all the material we've > seen to date deals only with the secondary goal. If anyone has any > suggestions or pointers to material please let me know. We are very > ecumenical so don't feel restricted to suggesting material from Catholic > publishers. I'd try the Book of Common Prayer. In the Episcopal Church, at ever Baptism, all the member of the Congregation renew their baptismal vows in the form of a question and answer session with the priest. Cathechisms are also every useful; look up under Baptism in the BCP or any standard Catholic catechism. Incidentally, whenever Catholics make the sign of the Cross with Holy Water as they enter the Church, they are, using the physical symbols of Holy Water and the Sign, reaffirming their baptismal vows. I'd mention this as not all Catholics are aware of what they're doing. Whenever you genuflect, you are showing respect for the action of God dying on the Cross for your sins. In the Episcopal Church, some people genuflect, some people bow. The meaning is the same. People do lots of things without necessarily being aware of their intrinsic meaning. When Protestants kneel at the Altar to receive Communion, they're kneeling in humility, humbling accepting the gift of Salvation which Christ purchased for us with His own blood, although many Protestants don't realize that or think about it; they kneel because that's what everyone else is doing. I guess what I'm saying is, Catholics genuflect every time they enter Church, but receive Communion upright; Protestants don't genuflect, but kneel when they receive Communion. "Respect is the same; customs differ." (Frank Herbert, DUNE). At any rate, I say all this because the very act of humbly receiving the Body and Blood of Christ is one way of reaffirming our baptismal vows; our way of thanking God for the gift of Baptism. Does that make sense? Sincerely, SPAWN OF A JEWISH CARPENTER gatech!ncsatl!smith_c