Our next class will be this Wed, Sept 16. Please check back or email the office to be notified, when a specific date is scheduled. The class is about 1 1/2 hrs. Parents need to attend a baptism class within 5 years of the baptism. $20 registration fee.
Contact the parish office to register
#319-352-2493 or SMC.Lit@q.com
All parents are expected to attend the baptismal preparation program before their child’s baptism is celebrated at liturgy. If you attended our parish's class for another child within the last 5 years, re-attending the class is optional for this child.
In order to accommodate the vast array of schedules we find ourselves in these days, the program will be offered four times a year, there is a $20.00 program fee. We ask that parents register in advance with the office, #352-2493 ext #10 or SMC.Lit@q.com.com, so the proper amount of materials can be prepared. Parents may schedule a baptism at the conclusion of the preparation program.
Baptism will be celebrated during the weekend liturgy and will normally be limited to two families at each mass. Baptisms will not be celebrated during the seasons of Advent or Lent.
During the Second Vatican Council, the bishops of the world reminded us that in carrying out this mission we are a pilgrim people. That is to say, we are on a journey of faith. The kingdom proclaimed by Christ is still in the process of being established. As the Christian community, we too are always growing. We are still searching, still growing in Christ. Christ accompanies us on our journey. Birth gives us access to the new life that awaits us in Christ. All along our journey Christ is present to nourish us, to heal us, to help us to mature and finally to prepare us for the full glory of eternal life. This is what we call the sacramental life of the Church, and it is one of the many ways we express our life of faith.
The Sacrament of Baptism is the initial sacrament of the seven we celebrate. In this sacrament, the person is immersed, as Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, into the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. Original Sin, that inner condition that renders all of us subject to sin, is altered as the grace of Baptism transforms our relationship with God. Through the waters of Baptism we enter a new kind of life, the life of the spirit.
Infant baptism celebrates the saving faith already present in, and transforming the lives of the parents and the community – a faith that will be shared, by word and example, with the newly baptized infants as they grow into responsible young adulthood. This ancient practice of Infant Baptism continues in the church today.
It is, however, necessary, that parents and community not only clearly understand the Christian meaning of baptism, but freely choose to celebrate the sacrament as a time of growth in their own relationship with God. Part of the goal of infant baptism is the formation of a spirit-filled adult community of deeply committed Christians who, in bearing witness to their faith in Christ, glorify God. So Baptism must be understood as a birth into a new way of life. It is the first stage in an extended process of growth towards Christian maturity. In choosing baptism for an infant, parents and the community accept the responsibility to continue the initiation of the baptized through the Eucharist, Confirmation, and into adult life.
In order to make sure that we take this commitment seriously, the Board of Faith Formation made changes in the Baptismal Policy at the Community of St. Mary.