“‘Do
you desire to be baptized?’ All you have to do is want it.”
I wanted it so much.
The prayer book called baptism the
“sacrament of new birth” and promised that those sealed by anointing at baptism
would be “marked as Christ’s own forever.”
I wanted new life, as fiercely as I’d wanted
a child in the middle of a war … oh, I desired it …
So that Sunday morning, Donald Schell poured
water over my head from a scallop shell, as I stood outside St Gregory’s back
door at the fountain, where sweet water gushed from a huge, split-open slab of
rock. He made the sign of the cross, motioned Mark and the people around us to
pray, and asked me to make some promises. “Will you continue in the breaking of
the bread?” he read aloud.
“I will,” I answered, “with God’s help.” We
sang a hymn and walked back into the church. My face was wet.
How did you approach your baptism? Did
you desire it fiercely? Did you approach it reluctantly? Pray about your
experience.
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