Baptism
I was baptized the night before Easter and it was such a beautiful ceremony. After taking the classes for 7 months I feel I really have discovered my faith. I was born into a religion that was considered a cult, "The World Wide Church of God". There is tons of stuff on the internet about it if you don't believe me. It was really strict, we could not celebrate any holiday including birthdays and we were not allowed to eat certain foods. Children were not allowed to be baptized and were looked at as rebellious and needed lots of discipline. You could only be baptized later on in life. Then it all changed in about 1994, the church split and my family realized the way we were living was wrong. Everything I had thought to believe was true was a LIE. Now we learned that Jesus had fulfilled everything in the new covenant. So we still went to church, we just attended with the ones who understood the changes. It took awhile to understand everything. After a while I started straying from everything, I hated myself and God. Sometimes I didn't know what to believe anymore. If someone would have told me "you are going to become Catholic when you are 21" I would have probably given them a really negative response. When I first met my now husband I had just come out of a real slump. I had floated between beliefs and was in a lot of negativity. He is Catholic and wasn't really practicing his faith. He was actually coming back to a spiritual point in his life. For the first year that I was with him I was skeptical. He never pushed me to do anything, but he willingly answered all my questions and believe me I asked a ton. So finally I decided to sign up for the classes. I started feeling a call after I attended services with him. I actually felt at peace and happy, like I didn't need to search anymore. The classes helped so much, I had know idea how much more there was to learn.
So, on the day of my baptism, we were all standing outside, it was 9:00pm and a fire was lit in the center of everyone. There were those to be confirmed and those (like me) to be baptized, and confirmed. The priest spoke and everyone held candles except for us to be baptized. The priest then led us in, leading us in song. The most beautiful feeling of singing as you enter into a dark church filling with candle light. We sat down you saw how every ones light filled the place. We sat through many readings, then the moment came and everyone blew out there candles and the lights came on and the choir sang praises. It was so wonderful. We finally processed up to the front to be baptized. When my turn came, I can't even describe what I was feeling. My husband was my sponsor throughout the whole process. He had his hand on my shoulder as I bent over the water and the priest poured the water over my head. I then wore a white robe which my husband put on me and he gave me a lit candle.
We were then led up to be confirmed. We then turned around to the church and were welcomed by clapping. I wonder if it was a dream. I never expected anything like it. Even preparing for this moment, nothing could have prepared me for the feelings I felt that night. All the while our little baby boy was sleeping in his Grandparents, and cousins, and aunts arms, they passed him around. I keep thinking of the day we will have him baptized. We just need Godparents.
So after everything I finally feel whole. I have my normal ups and downs in life, but I feel like I have a some grounding. I know what I am doing is right and I am not living a lie. God truly does work in mysterious ways.
So, on the day of my baptism, we were all standing outside, it was 9:00pm and a fire was lit in the center of everyone. There were those to be confirmed and those (like me) to be baptized, and confirmed. The priest spoke and everyone held candles except for us to be baptized. The priest then led us in, leading us in song. The most beautiful feeling of singing as you enter into a dark church filling with candle light. We sat down you saw how every ones light filled the place. We sat through many readings, then the moment came and everyone blew out there candles and the lights came on and the choir sang praises. It was so wonderful. We finally processed up to the front to be baptized. When my turn came, I can't even describe what I was feeling. My husband was my sponsor throughout the whole process. He had his hand on my shoulder as I bent over the water and the priest poured the water over my head. I then wore a white robe which my husband put on me and he gave me a lit candle.
We were then led up to be confirmed. We then turned around to the church and were welcomed by clapping. I wonder if it was a dream. I never expected anything like it. Even preparing for this moment, nothing could have prepared me for the feelings I felt that night. All the while our little baby boy was sleeping in his Grandparents, and cousins, and aunts arms, they passed him around. I keep thinking of the day we will have him baptized. We just need Godparents.
So after everything I finally feel whole. I have my normal ups and downs in life, but I feel like I have a some grounding. I know what I am doing is right and I am not living a lie. God truly does work in mysterious ways.