Series on the Sacraments Part 1 – Baptism

A few days ago, I placed a poll on the side of my blog asking what series of articles to do first. The winner was “The Sacraments,” and in second was “Devotions to Our Lord,” and “Marian Apparitions” coming in as a tie. Therefore I will write an article on each sacrament each Thursday for my series. I hope you will stay tuned!

Baptism:

baptism of the lord

The most essential sacrament of the seven is baptism. The reason for this is that without it we cannot receive any of the other sacraments, nor enter the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.” (John 3:6) Without baptism, there is no hope to enter heaven. Without baptism, the soul is stained with original sin and cannot receive sanctifying grace. Without baptism, the soul cannot be saved.

Through Baptism, the soul is purified from original sin passed down from Adam and Eve, and is made completely pure. Once someone is baptised, he enters into the state of grace which can only be lost through mortal sin. Through his state, he can enter into eternal happiness with God forever! Why delay or reject that? Maybe we have a choice not to baptise our child, but we certainly don’t have the right.

“But maybe it should be up to the person to be baptised or not… we don’t want to decide for them to be Catholic.” This is often heard when it comes to Baptism, and to be honest, it isn’t true at all. There is just one true religion to believe, one chance to get to heaven, and one crucial moment that will determine whether that persons gets there, baptism. It isn’t a choice of if he is going to be baptised and what he is going to believe. At the end of the day the choice is either heaven or hell, where do you want your child to go? It’s a parent’s obligation to love their children, and in loving them, wanting them to go to heaven. The only way to get them there is taking them to a priest to be baptised and starting their journey to the eternal kingdom.

Not only this, but the risks for not baptizing a baby are quite serious. A child cannot sin before the age of reason and does not deserve the punishments of hell. However, without baptism there is no grace and if the child dies goes to a place called Limbo. It is a place of natural happiness, but not supernatural happiness with God. They cannot enter heaven because they don’t have that state of grace, so why take the risk of them going to that place? “Let the little children come to me!” Our Lord said this for a reason. He thinks of each of us individually, when He said this He was thinking of you and your child.

Baptism is the entrance to the narrow path of salvation! There isn’t anything more beautiful than a pure soul ready to enter heaven, to see the everlastingly beautiful face of God, to be infinitely happy! Therefore treasure and appreciate this sacrament, it’s one of the greatest gifts God has given us! Thank you dear Lord!

Alexandra Reis

Alexandra Reis

Alexandra Reis is a 16-year-old cradle Catholic. Her passions consist of learning and writing about the Faith and trying to spread it. She is drawn to the traditional Latin Mass. She is also interested in poetry, art, playing the piano, and acquiring wisdom at a young age. She hopes to become a writer and professional public speaker in the future in order to save souls for the greater glory of God.

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18 thoughts on “Series on the Sacraments Part 1 – Baptism”

  1. Pingback: Series on the Sacraments Part 1 – Baptism - CATHOLIC FEAST - Every day is a Celebration

  2. The Catholic Church doesn’t teach that unbaptised infants go to Limbo.

    “…in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), the theory of limbo is not mentioned. Rather, the Catechism teaches that infants who die without baptism are entrusted by the Church to the mercy of God, as is shown in the specific funeral rite for such children.” from “The hope of Salvation for Infants who die without being Baptised” on the Vatican website

    1. The theory of limbo was once taught and mentioned and the Church in her wisdom is slowly but surely backing off from that obscene appendage from
      Trent and the bind theologians get us into when they try to square too many circles. Some day the church will teach that Hope IS Salvation
      when enough time goes by so they can erase such an unholy concept
      from the books.

      1. The author’s point is valid. Why leave the state of the child’s soul to chance? Why not have a baby baptized and bring the child into contact with God’s redeeming grace? As St. Augustine taught, while the infant cannot show love perfectly because of the Fall, there is nothing preventing the infant from receiving love, i.e., the redeeming grace of God imparted by the Sacrament of Baptism.

        btw, to refer to the concept of limbo as an “obscene appendage” smacks of a certain ignorance. Rather, it was a reasonable and timely proposition based on biblical sources and attempted to reconcile the mercy and justice of God. While never official, the concept of limbo was still useful.

        Your last comment merits a challenge: “Someday the (C)hurch will teach that Hope IS Salvation…”. If you are so certain that you have the answer, perhaps you should do more than merely blog about it. Why not offer your thoughts in the appropriate theological forums and help the Church embrace what you propose to be the correct insight?

      2. Today we know it as crib death. Devistated parents wake to find a child in a state of rigor mortis, the soul long gone from its body. Do you, in your wildest dream, think todays theologians could come up with a concept that tops this unimaginable grief ? Never. This idea came at a time when the death of an infant was no big deal to men. It was to the mom, but to men it was just another day. Do you really believe that Jesus, who loved children – for these are as the kingdom of heaven – would approve of such a theological twist to support a construct that jived with the lopsided theology of the day ? Today we have pagans who can get into heaven if they fit a certain notion of baptsm by desire, but these babies are awarded a spiritual Disneyland in lieu of God’s face. This theology is no better than those of the southern baptists who painted themselves into a corner with literal translation of the bible and are now stuck with a 6000 year old earth. I know of none personally who had to suffer this tragedy but as a lifelong Catholic with 12 years of parochial education I was always appalled that the church could entertain this form of spiritual abortion. However, as I said, I believe that over the long haul, our church will slowly back off from this indecent speculation about the eternal life of so vulnerable a person.

    2. I grew up with this teaching that unbaptized children go to Limbo…..
      I think that only an unmarried man (priest) can ever say this. It is like we do not love the child…. a mother who carry the child in her womb, cannot break the rule like that….

  3. Fortunately, the Vatican has already answered this question.

    The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness, even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in Revelation. However, none of the considerations proposed in this text to motivate a new approach to the question may be used to negate the necessity of baptism, nor to delay the conferral of the sacrament. Rather, there are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it was not possible to do for them that what would have been most desirable— to baptize them in the faith of the Church and incorporate them visibly into the Body of Christ.

    http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html

    1. I think there is great confusion regarding this question. Nowhere has the Church said that Limbo has been “done away with.” The Vatican document you quote does not give a binding decision regarding the existence or non-existence of Limbo. It would be rather rash to deny its existence when countless Church Fathers, decisions of Ecumenical Councils, and Papal teachings have consistently referred to Limbo as a part of Church teaching.

      None of this minimizes the tragedy of losing a child who has not been baptized. With that said, we shouldn’t start overturning centuries of Church teaching because we cannot understand why it exists.

      Let us stay faithful to the Church’s Tradition. Abandoning the doctrine of Limbo would lead to disastrous results.

      1. Limbo remains a theological opinion though, it is not doctrine or dogma. The teaching is that Limbo is possible, but so is it possible for God, in His infinite mercy and wisdom, to save these children in ways unknown to us. We are instructed to hope, not presume either way, to pray for these souls instead of forgetting about them by consigning them in our minds to some place we thought up.

      2. At my mother’s parish, the priest told a devout Catholic mother that her nine month stillborn baby was in Limbo because he had died in the womb and could not be baptized.

        Fortunately, someone had the presence of mind to contact a less legalistic priest whose mindset was more in line with Vatican views to come minister to her.

      3. On December 20, 1951, Pope Pius XII gave the following allocution to the convention of Italian midwives:

        “All that we have said about the protection and care of natural life is with even greater reason true of the supernatural life, which the newborn child receives with baptism. In the present dispensation there is no other means of communicating this life to the child, who has not yet the use of reason. And yet the state of grace is absolutely necessary for salvation: without it supernatural happiness, the beatific vision of God, cannot be attained. In an adult an act of love may suffice to obtain him sanctifying grace and so supply for the lack of baptism; to the child still unborn, or newly born, this way is not open. If therefore we remember that charity towards our neighbor obliges us to assist him in case of necessity; that this obligation is graver and more urgent according to the greatness of the good to be procured or the evil to be avoided, and according to the inability of the needy one to help himself; then it is easy to understand the importance of providing for the baptism of a child, devoid of the use of reason and in grave danger or even certainty of death.” (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, December 20, 1951, p. 854) [24]

      4. Your theology makes salvation impossible for such children. What kind of God would make salvation impossible for anyone?

        The document continues:

        God does not demand the impossible of us. Furthermore, God’s power is not restricted to the sacraments: ‘Deus virtutem suam non alligavit sacramentis quin possit sine sacramentis effectum sacramentorum conferre’ (God did not bind His power to the sacraments, so as to be unable to bestow the sacramental effect without conferring the sacrament). God can therefore give the grace of Baptism without the sacrament being conferred, and this fact should particularly be recalled when the conferring of Baptism would be impossible. The need for the sacrament is not absolute. What is absolute is humanity’s need for the Ursakrament which is Christ himself. All salvation comes from him and therefore, in some way, through the Church.

      5. ..the person who suffer most about the concept of Limbo is the mother…she feels for the child she carried in her womb; everyone else is less affected, priests included here; this is why priests defined Limbo, with no consideration of the hurt – not having children of their own, they could not understood the pain of having their children in Limbo.
        Yes, for priests to make up sterile concepts is easy…. for mothers to accept it is heartbreaking ….but, who cares about the mother….
        After a lot of crying out , the mothers voices have been heard by the all-male priesthood, and the Limbo concept has been dropped.

  4. True story :after a baby was baptized in the Orthodox church with the participation of both parents, a catholic priest told the mother that the baby does not have a valid baptism, and therefore if he dies, he would go to Limbo, and the mother is responsible for preventing the child from seeing God.
    With this kind of torture and terror in her heart, the mother lies to the father, lies to friends, steal $ to buy transportation, steal $ from work in order to take a day off, so she can attend and cover the expenses of a new baptism, at the catholic church.
    The mother is overwhelmed by the guilt of lying , tired by carrying the child to the church, hiding behind a wall so she would not be seen by friends entering the catholic church…. and get sick mentally and physically.
    I think the catholic priest is guilty of terrorizing the mother with false beliefs .

  5. BAPTISM NOW SAVES YOU

    1 Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:(KJB)

    The Bible says baptism doth now save us …..by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    Faith alone advocates say baptism has nothing to do with salvation. They say it is a simple act of obedience.

    1 Peter 3:21 Baptism, which is like that water, now saves you. Baptism doesn’t save by removing dirt from the body. Rather, baptism is a request to God for a clear conscience. It saves you through Jesus Christ, who came back from death to life.(God’s Word Translation)

    The Bible says baptism….now saves you.
    The Bible says baptism is a request to God for a clear conscience.

    Faith only proponents say water baptism has nothing to do with salvation. They say baptism is only essential in order to join a denominational church.

    Faith only enthusiasts proclaim that baptism does not save, but is only a testimony of faith to the community.

    Faith only defenders state that men can get to heaven without being baptized in water, however they cannot join the local church without baptism.

    Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.(English Standard Version)

    Jesus said whoever is baptized will be saved. Will be, is future tense not past tense.

    Faith only champions say men are baptized because their sins have already been forgiven.

    YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY CHRISTIAN BLOG. http://steve-finnell.blogspot.com

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