Hannah Clare Holmes was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church on October 30, 2016. Her godparents are my brother, Nicholas, and my dear friend, Sarah. It is very special to me to have each of my brothers be a godparent to one of my children. Sarah and I have been close friends for a decade, and Mike and I both feel she will be such a positive role model and loving mentor to Hannah as she grows up.
The officiant, Father Fernando, did a very nice job with the mass and made it memorable for our family.
We were included in the processional at the start of mass, and it was a nice way to begin the sacrament. The mass moved along until the homily, when Father Fernando got wrapped up in his remarks, forgot about the baptism and rambled on for quite some time. We have no clue what the homily was about, as we were silently praying for him to please, please finish up since good behavior from L.J. in church is very much a limited time special.
The baptism itself was quite theatrical. We’d seen a baptism a few weeks prior, so we knew what to expect. More accurately, we thought we knew what to expect. We followed Father Fernando over to the large baptismal font, stopping at the side where the other baptism had taken place. He motioned for us to come around the other side.
Whoa, hang on. What is he doing?!? Up a rickety little flight of stairs went Father Fernando. He motioned for me to follow. So up I went onto a platform about a foot wide, in spiky heels, carrying a baby. I wasn’t sure who was going to land in the font first – the priest, me or Hannah. I was sure, however, that this was not the most brilliant idea ever.
Hannah was baptized with water. In keeping with the theme, this wasn’t the ordinary sea shell lightly poured over the baby’s head. It was pretty much a waterfall all over her head and face. She found it mildly amusing and much to the congregation’s surprise, didn’t make a single peep.
We descended back to ground level and moved to the altar for the last part of the baptism, which involved being anointed with the oil of chrism. For this part, the priest dips the tips of his fingers into the oil and makes the sign of the cross on a baby’s forehead, face and chest. Father Fernando dumped a quarter cup of the stuff on the top of her head and smeared it everywhere.
I took ‘sucking it in’ to a whole new level to avoid getting the oil on my brand-new dress. Sarah quickly and thoughtfully shoved a burp cloth between me and my ultra greasy daughter.
Oh my goodness – I have never seen an anointing like that! It took days to get it all out of her hair and her car seat perfumed the car seat closet at school for a solid week.
After the anointing and the baptismal candle, Father Fernando pronounced her officially Catholic, reached for her and then gave her her very own Simba moment on the altar.
(That’s oil in the last pic, not a wet head!)
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