This year’s Easter Vigil was one for the records!  Last Saturday evening, 14 people in all, three children under the age of seven, nine grade-school-age children (eight from St. James school), and two adults, including our second-grade teacher) were baptized.  Everyone, except the three children under seven, were confirmed and also received First Communion.  It is the largest number of people I have ever baptized at one liturgy.

Each of these 14 persons became Catholic at this liturgy.  Each year, the Easter Vigil is the proper time for baptisms of anyone over the age of seven.  When baptized after the age of seven, the person is always confirmed and receives his or her First Eucharist.  Most of us are more familiar with baptism in infancy, First Communion at the age of seven or eight, and confirmation prior to entering high school, usually the eighth grade.  You may not know that this is the exception to the general rule (more strictly observed in the Orthodox church) that baptism, confirmation, and First Eucharist are meant to be celebrated together.  In other words, what has always seemed normative to cradle Catholics has always been the exception!

Our school children initiated the process of seeking baptism and First Communion on their own.  In our school, the non-Catholic students outnumber the Catholic students.  We are careful to respect each student and to encourage full participation in our weekly Mass, but the witness of the smaller number of students receiving Holy Communion made them desire to do the same thing.

On Pentecost, May 19, we will celebrate the sacraments of confirmation and First Communion with other students in our school who were already baptized. Some of these children were baptized as Catholics in infancy and some were baptized in a different Christian denomination, but now wish to become Catholic.

Seeing our children take their faith and desire for sacramental encounter seriously should inspire those of us who sometimes take our faith for granted.  As I preached on Easter Sunday, these children are our teachers!  Their willingness to surrender to God and act on their beliefs is not only inspiring, but an affirmation of our mission to this community.   Not only is this Easter Vigil life-changing for these fourteen people, but similarly life-changing for our two parishes.  What a gift!