Inspirations by Chava Redonnet, Chaplain |
A Catholic Worker Baptism
I love setting up the chairs for a Mass on the first floor. Usually we have between two to four people attending Mass, so it’s really fun to set up twenty chairs – hooray for having a whole bunch of people!! We had planned to set out some leftover pizza and soda along with cake after Mass – but with typical Catholic Worker serendipity, someone showed up with party leftovers just before Mass, so we had chicken and potatoes and green beans. Isn’t that wonderful? God is so good, all the time. Fana and the Godparents arrived with little Sophia shortly before five, and pretty soon we had a mixture of Fana’s friends and family, and folks from the St Joe’s community, with two toddlers running around – it was great! I had tried to find a little white stole earlier in the day, but Fana brought one that went with Sophia’s purple dress. “Cool,” I told her – “Purple stoles are the symbol of women’s ordination!!” I’m learning how important it can be to have music as part of worship. Even if there aren’t any musicians, you can sing songs that are familiar to everybody. So Tim Sigrist started us singing “This is the Day that the Lord has Made,” which is pretty easy to pick up, and suddenly – that magic thing that happens when people are worshipping together – that energy – that gladness – filled the room. A glad and friendly spirit. What a difference one person can make. Tim’s presence was part of what took us to wonderful: he’d just keep on singing when everybody else stopped, so we’d all join in, and the singing kept on. So we had our readings, and I preached about seeing the wonderful in the ordinary, and then it was time for Sophia’s baptism, her welcome into the Christian community. We all promised to walk with Fana as she raises her daughter, pledged to be community – that’s a big part of what infant baptism is all about, I think. Raising kids is hard, and one of the messages of baptism is, do it in community. Reach out and get the help you need. Watch out for each other. Life is hard and we need each other, need to walk together, sing together, pray together. Don’t do it alone. So I put that purple stole around the neck of the beautiful barefoot child, and told her to preach the gospel, reminded us that it’s all of our job to preach the gospel, to live lives that reflect the love of God. God be with you, Sophia. She cried when the water splashed her head, but the oil for anointing interested her and she reached out to touch it. I lifted the vial for her to touch. Taste and see the Lord’s goodness – how good it is to be human, to touch and taste and feel. Blessings on your life and journey, little one. Blessings on all of our journeys: never forget, we’re in this together! Love to all Previous Inspirations by Chava Redonnet: Inspirations-November-2009 Inspirations-November-18-2009 ============= To volunteer, review our rewarding opportunities on our Volunteer page. To help us financially, visit our Donation page. For more information, please call 232-3262 and ask for Tom Malthaner. |
Our friend Fana brought her little daughter to the community to be baptized. We celebrated Sophia’s baptism at the 5pm Saturday Mass at St Joe’s, holding Mass in the first floor dining room instead of up on the third floor like we usually do.