Thank you, God! Míle buíochas!
This is the day in 1981 when I was baptised in the Holy Spirit church in Ballymun. I was born in October 1977, so there's a bit of a delay there, as you see. Not sure why. I only learned the date of my baptism a few years ago, although I suppose I could have discovered it easily enough if I'd tried. As it happened, a cousin (baptised on the same day) sent me this picture and told me the date.
That's my uncle holding me. I don't know the name of the priest, or the identity of the person on the right.
It's easy for me to believe that we are "primed" for Christianity by nature. I can't remember a time when my imagination was not steeped in images of immersion and regeneration. For instance, I've had recurring dreams about swimming pools for as long as I can remember. But it's not just literal immersion: I'm captivated whenever I read about people who immerse themselves in some particular activity, like chess-players or extremely prolific artists of any kind. I love all immersive environments, such as swimming pools and cinemas.
Similarly, the motif of regeneration, rebirth, has never been far from my mind-- conscious and unconscious. For instance, the title of the William Shatner album The Transformed Man speaks to me like poetry. (Yes, that's the album that features his spoken-word rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".)
I think this is one of the reasons I love snow so much. A landscape transformed by snow is like an image of Christian regeneration: made new, but still what it was.
God bless you, your family and ancestors. That photo reminds me of mine and what was involved across time for me to be christened. Glimpses of the Church at her most beautiful
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes, it's very moving to think of the sacramental chains that bind the generations of Christians! Bless you, too!
DeleteInteresting,in the old rite baptism parents were non-participants, they seem to have almost continued this here. I'd imagine, in earlier times, it was rare for mothers to be able to attend. And the sacrament was probably administrated fairly quickly in years gone by. Were ethnic priests a rarity in 1980? I don't recall seeing one- not sure that I generally noticed what happened in the sanctuary at that time, but we did circulate around different churches.
ReplyDeleteYes, I would say that non-white priests were a rarity in Ireland back then. I can't think of another-- although I wasn't taking all that much interest in churchy matters at that time, either. We were exporters of priests in those days, still, although the first rumblings of the vocations crisis came in 1970s as far as I can tell.
DeleteI'm not sure how quickly baptism was administered at that time-- in all honesty it makes perfect sense to me for the child to be baptised as soon as it is delivered.