Categories: uncategorized
Date: 09 April 2006 13:46:43
I've decided to be baptised this easter (the week after easter for orthodox easter). Lent has apparently always been the time for preparation for people seeking baptism on Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday is a symbolic time for baptism, dying to self and being raised with Christ. Each lent after is a time to remember, repent and renew the decision to follow Christ.
So the day after reading this in The Year of Grace of the Lord by A Monk of The Eastern Church (which is a very informative and easy to read book about the Christian year) I decided as I drove to the supermarket, yes it is a great time of year to be baptised, to join with millions of my Christian brothers and sisters through out history who have done the same, and I'm not waiting another year for this. That and I'm 30, the same age as Jesus when he was baptised.
So while I don't know everything about the Orthodox way, and there's still a thousand things that will take me a while to learn about and understand and be comfortable with, which will probably take a whole life time, I do believe that this is the church, and this is the way that the church has always done things, so I would like to become Orthodox and keep working towards becoming all that that entails.
No one could ever convince me before that I should be baptised. I even did one of those preparing for baptism classes. No one ever told me that I needed to be baptised. The best answer I got was that it was a good idea, and a profession of faith.
I sent off an email to the priest saying I wanted to be baptised, who replied, "what a Godincidence." He had been praying that morning and wondering if he should baptise me this easter, despite the fact that he doesn't like to rush people, and hasn't done any catechism training with me. Then I emailed. Amazing.