Catholic Dads

Dear brothers:

Today I received a letter from a friend; we are the Godparents for one of their daughters. My friend stated that he and his family were leaving the Catholic Church to join the Anglican Church.

I let him know that as a Godfather I could not let this decision pass without comment. I reminded him that my responsibility was to teach the Faith to my God-daughter in the event that her parents were not able to do so. I consider this scenario to be one of the worse ones under which I must fulfill my obligation.

I requested that my friend give his reasons for leaving Holy Mother Church, and I made an initial reply to his letter. I consider this the beginning of what may be a long dialogue.

I request your advice, but more importantly I ask – beg – for your prayers as I take on this task.

Thank you for your advice and prayers in advance. I may print some of my letters on my blog after removing any identifying marks.

Stephen M. Donahue

Carolyn was arranging some flowers we had just bought from Costco.

“I want you to always have fresh flowers in the house,” I murmured in her ear as she removed some of the extra greenery from the roses.

“The most beautiful bouquet a mother can have is her children surrounding her,” she replied.

“True, but sometimes they don’t smell as good as these roses.”

“Especially those teenage boys,” she said.

Costco-Style Romance

Love on a Budget – a helpful hint for the frugal romantic male:

The next time you are in Costco with your wife, pick a bunch of flowers; even better, have her pick them out.

Let her admire them for a while before handing them to the youngest child with you – so he or she can hold on to them for Mommy.

Invariably, said youngest child will set them down and forget the flowers – probably while sampling gourmet meatballs.

Check out when shopping is complete. When you get home, suddenly remember that the flowers must have been left behind. You score points for picking out flowers, and save money by not buying flowers!

It is a WIN-WIN situation!

I recently baptized an infant before he died, and the experience made me pull up some of the teachings of the Catholic Church on infant baptism to review in the event anyone questioned me on this incident.

First of all, I asked for the permission of the infant’s father beforehand. I was blessed with the opportunity to speak with him shortly before it was obvious that the child would not survive.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church can be accessed online at this website. It has a search engine attached to it, so one can browse the whole document and dive into the text at will.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church(from here on referred to as CCC) discusses baptism in paragraphs 1213 to 1284. The word baptize comes from the Greek word baptizein, which means to “plunge” or “immerse”; the “plunge” into the water symbolizes the catechumen’s burial into Christ’s death, from which he rises up by resurrection with him, as “a new creature.” (CCC 1214)

The CCC gives several examples of the prefigurement of the sacrament of Baptism found in the Old Testament. Noah and the Ark show life starting over after washing away sin, and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea prefigure the liberation from the slavery of sin through baptism. Later, the baptism is prefigured when the Israelites cross over the Jordan to enter the promised land; entering the promised land is symbolic of entry into Heaven. (CCC 1217-1222; they write it far better than I do)

I recall reading somewhere that St. John the Baptist, when he was baptizing in the River Jordan, was baptizing on the ‘far’ side of

Click here to continue reading “Emergent Infant Baptism”