The Psalm images of water captivate me. As a parish Baptism coordinator, I am privileged to accompany families in this journey to initiation and graced welcome in our community of faith. This work has fed my faith in ways unimagined when I began. Sharing birth, adoption and journeys of faith stories deepens God’s presence to me as family faith blossoms.
The water poured in Baptism invites us to the celebrate God’s unconditional love, made real in the faces of others. For the community of welcome, this water invites and fosters a renewal of our personal relationship with God. The simple act of pouring this water often brings tears and smiles and words of blessing sung in joy to all those who come to witness and honor this celebration with the newly baptized. Let this smile of grace, poured in this water be the attitude, and apparel we wear in the world.
—Mary Burke-Petersonis a parishioner at St. Nicholas Church, Evanston, an active volunteer in the Ignatian Spirituality Project, and a graduate student at Institute for Pastoral Studies at Loyola University.