Presenting Mary (Constance), full of grace

Full of the grace of Baptism, that is.

It was a beautiful celebration of her life and God's love, at our parish's vigil Mass last Sat. Lots of family and friends made it now that we are so much closer to everyone. For the first time, I was prepared and focused enough to have it arranged within the first few weeks. (It helped that we did not have to take the parents prep class again, although we felt lost at times b/c we had not even seen another Baptism at our new parish.) As always, it began with her anointing with holy oil, when the parents and godparents also mark the baby's forehead with the sign of the cross, claiming her for Christ and his Church. Our family and that of her very holy godparents were part of the entrance procession into Mass. After the Liturgy of the Word was the actual Baptism, when the holy water was poured three times over her head and she was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Immediately after, Fr. put the ancient-type white garment on her chest (this one also went around her back) to make outwardly apparent her new inner purity and life in Christ. Then she was anointed with the beautiful smelling chrism oil and her little baptismal candle was lit from the huge Paschal/Easter Candle. Christ is the true Light of the world, may she always know and follow Him.

Afterwards, we had a big family dinner at our house before her godparents had to head home. The next day we continued celebrating with a bigger party, including new friends from church, to mark her Baptism and Mark's 2nd b-day. It seemed appropriate to combine the celebrations b/c Mark's own Baptism was basically private at the time and I feel like including him in the party somehow completed the public celebration of his own Baptism as well. He is one joyful & charismatic toddler. "He draws you in," as our Mimi says. More pics of him in another post!