I'm so sentimental right now that this picture actually makes me cry. (That's allowed up to a year after childbirth, right?) Our humble church in West Virginia has meet in an abandoned resturant for the past twenty years. In 2011, we broke ground for a real sacturary. It's been such a blessing to watch a real church building grow up at the same time that I'm physically growing my own domestic church. Here's Jon holding Baby Abigail on her baptism day. The church is almost done! We hope that its finished in time for our son's First Communion in May.
It's so humbling to realize that our role as parents is to build a spiritual structure for the Holy Spirit to work--a domestic church. I didn't really get my role in my kid's baptism for the first four times. I thought I was merely promising to bring them to Mass on Sunday and teach them a few cool facts about Mr. Jesus, my slight acquaintence.
This time, I really focused on the magnitude of my promise to raise Baby Abigail in our Catholic Faith. This is not about teaching her the Hail Mary or throwing some religious parties on the Holy Days. It's all about my heart. It's about being a daily witness to the power of God.
Our priest spent his homily on Easter Mass talking about our Abigail's baptism. He said that we parents are "saving souls". We are the "first missionaries to our children." I hadn't thought about that part of my role before. As my priest said, "I can get up here and preach all day long. If parent's hearts are not with God, my words are useless to their children."
Happy Easter to all the Mommies and Daddies out there!
