Learn and celebrate the day of your Baptism, Pope urges faithful
January 08, 2014
At his public audience on January 8, the first general audience of the calendar year, Pope Francis inaugurated a new series of catechetical talks, devoted to the sacraments.
Noting that the coming Sunday will be the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Pope spoke on the importance of Baptism, which “grafts us to Christ and his Church.”
Baptism, the Pope emphasized, is “not a mere formality,” but “an act that touches the depth of our existence.” He strongly encouraged the faithful to learn the date of their Baptism, and celebrate that day each year. He observed that in the absence of some such celebration, “We end up considering it merely as an event that took place in the past – and not even by our will, but rather by that of our parents.”
Baptism makes the faithful “bearers of new hope,” the Pope continued, and that vocation should be lived out every day. He added that Baptism is a gift that we receive through someone else, since each Christian is baptized by another person in “an act of brotherhood, an act of affiliation to the Church.”
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