Benjamin Tobias, son of God

Benjamin Tobias was baptized on March 10, at the 10:3o am Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Hays, KS. It was a beautiful day and we are grateful to God for welcoming him into the family.

New call sign: Peter Joseph, child of God

Hooray, Peter Joseph has been baptized into the Catholic faith!!

Peter Joseph, in the baptismal gown made from my grandma's wedding dress.  All of Grandma's grandchildren were baptized in it and so far all of her great grandchildren as well.

Papa holding Peter.

Nana and Papa with Peter

Grandma holding Peter, after he took off his gown, with Rebekah.

Welcome to the family of God, Zipporah Marie!

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray.  The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them, but Jesus said, "Let the little children come tome and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs."  And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.  (Matthew 19:13-15)

I'm not sure this verse is mentioned in the section on baptism from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but I have always thought of it when I have my infant children baptized.  Today it really struck me how it is the faith of the community that is witnessed to at this event.  True, the grace happens to the baby.  Little Zipporah Marie is now a daughter of God, adopted through Jesus Christ, but she is also still just a baby.  And it is up to us as parents and her godparents and in fact, the entire Church community to help her learn and live the faith.

I should also note that Father Fred gave us kudos on picking her name and quizzed the congregation on who Zipporah was in the bible.  He also chose Mass today to mention how kids are most welcome and he understands how it can be tough for parents with little kids.  He, himself, was the second oldest of 10, so he "gets it," and was most encouraging of families that pack up all the kids to get to Mass on Sundays.

And now, without further ado, here are some pictures:

For the record, I have no idea what I found so funny at the time of this picture.

Receive the light of Christ!  :)

Being baptized really wears a girl out.

In the gown made from Great Grandma Mary Schmeidler's wedding gown.  (Which all the grandkids and great grandkids, thus far, have been baptized in.)

Decorated with lots of love (and perhaps not so much skill).  This was "Grandma's recipe" for chocolate cake and there were no left-overs.

Miriam Dolores - Child of God

The baptism of Miriam Dolores



 
Here she is, clothed in her white garment.  Looking absoultely content and at peace (as we all should, knowing we belong to God).  The baptism went VERY WELL.  All of our other children happily went to sit with their grandmas (one on each end like bookends - Grandpas in the pew behind).  Miriam herself was also amazing.  After a quick snack at the beginning of Mass, she slept through EVERYTHING - even the ice cold water on her head.  Father was most impressed.  Of course, he claimed, to the entire congregation, that "she must be drugged" (not excatly my favorite word choice, but everyone gave a hearty laugh).  She did not even stir for the applause that I was sure would rouse her.  In any case, I was most grateful God blessed us wtih a meaningful and stress free Mass.  No pictures were taken during the baptism part itself and unfortunately the ones taken afterward with my camera were blurry.  (There is a certain setting to pick in order to avoid that, but the person operating my camera did not realize - I should have set it for him, but for various reasons let it go - to my detriment, apparently.  In any case, other people took some pictures, perhaps I will get to see those eventually.)

Doesn't she just look angelic?

Here is "the baptismal dress."  It is made from my Grandma Mary's wedding dress (my mom's mom).  I believe all of Grandma's kids, all of her grandkids (myself included), and all of our other children have all been baptized in this very dress.

This is "the cake." I wanted to make my own cake for the reception. I was thinking of doing our traditional "party cake," the Nutri Cake. But I have no skill at decorating cakes, as I wrote about here. I just wanted a simple verse:

Let the children come to me. (Mark 10:14).

I thought of just printing out the verse and posting it somehow beside the cake and then just putting her name on the cake, but even that, I feared was beyond my skill. I briefly toyed with the idea of making my nutri cake and having someone else decorate it, but finally I decided to just let someone else make the cake so that would be one less thing to stress over. Unfortunately I was not so pleased with the result. You could hardly see the verse. Her name was very pretty, but. . . plus, the cake was SOOOO SWEET! I know, it is cake and that is how they are made, but I guess I am just conditioned to what we usually have. In any case, it is done now and the guests seemed to enjoy it (as did our children) so life moves on.

Miriam, asleep on her Grandma Mary Alice (Gordie's mom).  We never quite got the dress snapped back up after the anointing with oil on her chest, but she did not seem to mind.

Miriam's Godmother gave Miriam these AWESOME hair bands and homemade bows for them.  So Rebekah and I decided to take a few pictures with them after everyone went home.

Rebekah and Miriam

Mom and Miriam (picture taken by Rebekah!)