Creating a Catholic Culture

Not too long ago I got into contact with my former third grade teacher. Her name is Sr. Lawrence Marie. She continues to live her life as a professed sister of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. This woman, who I am now taller than (and given I am only 5’1” tells you how petite she is) loomed as a giant in my life as a child. When I was a student in her class, Sr. Lawrence Marie was very big on celebrating our bapismal anniversaries rather than our birthdays. At the time, it didn’t really make that much sense to me. It only mattered that we got pick someone to sit next to for the day… and some other things that were meaninginful to my third grade self but cannot remember now. Because of this exercise of hers, I now remember my baptismal “birthday”. With maturity, I have come to recognize the pivot-ness of that moment in my life. Through the pouring of water and the invocation of the Trinity, I became a new creation in Christ. Though my two-week old self did not realize the magnitude of that event, it put into motion a divine drama in life in which I, claimed for Christ, would come to see Him as the source and center of my life. I can only encourage all of you to celebrate your baptismal date… and your children’s. In a world where we often see people being torn down, let us take time to remember we have Christ on our side. We are claimed by and for a God who loved us into existance. In Him we have hope.