As Roman Catholics, Catherine and I have planned to let Darius get baptized at our parish church when he’s a few months old.

Infant Baptism

1. A religious sacrament marked by the symbolic application of water to the head or immersion of the body into water and resulting in admission of the recipient into the community of Christians.
2. A ceremony, trial, or experience by which one is initiated, purified, or given a name.

Today, after attending the preparation classes, we were ready to bring Darius into the family of Catholics.

By noon, after the Sunday Morning Mass, we reported our attendance to the facilitator and were given a baptism candle, a cloth representing a baptism gown and some books to reference during the ceremony proceedings. Darius was dressed in almost completely white.

With the six babies and parents and godparents standing in a semi-circle, our parish priest briefed us before bringing us to into the church for the start of the ceremony. At this point, Darius was still sleeping soundly after his feed earlier.

Just after the ceremony started though, Darius woke up but was still behaving fine, looking around curiously  with his big bright eyes.

At a later part of the ceremony, we were required to unbutton the topmost button on our babies’ clothes to facilitate the anointing of oil by the priest. I proceeded to unbutton his button while he was still in Catherine’s arms, but he quickly showed signs of displease and started to cry out loudly. We tried to pacify and soothe him with the pacifiers and cuddles, but none of it really worked.

Here's where it all started...

When it was Darius’ turn for the anointing, we could only allow him to be anointed while crying loudly. We couldn’t help but wondered what the other parents and guests would be thinking, since the other five babies were ‘well-behaved’ throughout.

As the ceremony proceeded on, we continued to try our best to soothe him down, and were only momentarily successful when he was held up by our shoulder and facing the altar of the church, where the priest was at. A pesdestal of holy water was also situated there where our babies will be baptized.

When it was our turn to walk up to the altar for the baptism, I could only carry the crying Darius (almost unstoppable once he started crying) over the pesdestal, where the priest poured a jar of holy water over his head, and he started to quieten down. We were wondering if it was the work of the devil that was making him cranky earlier, or was he simply feeling too warm?

Darius is Baptized!

Anyway, his quietening down was still momentary, and when the priest walked towards us for the Rite of Exorcism, we could only watch helplessly as Darius continued crying while the priest marked a ‘T’ sign on his forehead with oil.

After that, Darius’ godparent, who is my sister-in-law, lighted the candle and also helped wore the baptism gown over Darius, and that’s when he started to simmer down. That concluded the baptism ceremony and Darius is now officially given his Christian name!

Phew! It sure was a very eventful and stressful ceremony for us. We don’t blame Darius for his crankiness as he’s just a baby, but we would certainly appreciate it if he can stay calm next time despite having one of his buttons unbuttoned. ^^|

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