I remember a little over a year ago hearing something the Holy Father said during his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square and thinking, “No fair, the Pope gave us homework!”
“And do not forget your homework today: find out, ask for the date of your Baptism. As I know my birthday, I should know my Baptism day, because it is a feast day,” Pope Francis said to a full house.
Have you done your homework yet? (You’ve had about a year and a half since he gave the assignment.) Do you know the date of your Baptism?
We celebrate our birth into this life with cards and gifts and parties. We mark each passing year noting we are one year older, and hopefully one year wiser. Ironically, we are also closer to that for which we have been created—leaving this earth for union with God.
In our Baptism we become new creatures born into the greatest life! Through baptism we become sons and daughters of God and “heirs in hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7). In fact, Pope Francis said, not only are we heirs of hope, but we become “bearers of a new hope, for Baptism gives us this new hope: the hope of going on the path of salvation our whole life long. And this hope nothing and no one can extinguish, for it is a hope that does not disappoint. Remember, hope in the Lord never disappoints.” Now that’s something to celebrate!
So, do you celebrate your baptismal day? If not, now’s the time to plan a celebration!
“To know the date of our Baptism is to know a blessed day.” ~Pope Francis
PS. Mine is tomorrow. Feel free to mark it on your calendar, but no need to send me gifts, for nothing could top the gift of salvation that allows me to live in communion with God!
To read the Holy Father’s address visit: http://www.news.va/en/news/a-date-to-remember
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