LINCOLN (SNR) – St. Michael Elementary School in Lincoln has initiated a monthly celebration to observe the anniversaries of students who were baptized in that month.
Principal Ashley Rockey invites the students celebrating baptismal anniversaries each month to join her in the Adoration Chapel to light a candle and to pray.
“As we celebrate our baptismal anniversaries we are reminded of our many blessings and the significance of being a part of the body of Christ,” Rockey said. “Through the receiving of God’s graces at baptism, we are able to live our lives faithfully through Him and with Him. It is because of these graces we are able to serve and build up the body of Christ.”
St. Michael Parish is currently building a church and is focusing on the theme “Building Up the Body of Christ,” developed by Dr. Joy Martin, director of discipleship formation for the parish.
“It was a natural choice for a theme at this time in our parish history,” said Dr. Martin, “we need to ‘equip the holy ones for work of ministry,’ essentially, build up the interior Church while we are building the physical exterior.”
The PCCW (Parish Council of Catholic Women) at St. Michael Parish support the baptism celebrations by providing the candles for the prayer experience with the principal. Additionally, all the students in the parish are invited to send in a photo from their baptism day to be included on a display wall.
St. Joseph Elementary School in Beatrice is in its second year of celebrating a quarterly “Baptismal Mass” to recognize those marking baptismal anniversaries, and the celebration is parish-wide.
Their most recent Baptismal Mass was celebrated Nov. 15. All St. Joseph students, teachers, and parishioners who had been baptized in the months of October through December were honored at the school’s daily Mass.
Head teacher Emily Lohr said pastor Father Randall Langhorst started the new tradition “to celebrate when our parish family has entered into God’s family by becoming a Child of God.”
“Recognizing each person brings unity to our parish family,” she said.
At St. John Nepomucene Elementary School in Weston, a similar quarterly “Baptism Mass” is a tradition going back more than 20 years.
Head teacher Linda Maly didn’t know who started the tradition, in fact.
“When I taught at St. Mary’s in David City, they had them, too,” she said. “We celebrate them because that date is as important as their birth date… it’s when they joined God’s family!”
At St. John, the teachers make a special baptism bulletin board that is displayed at Mass, with a token for each student being recognized at the Mass. They are grouped by the months of their baptism date: those baptized in January, February and March are honored the first quarter of the calendar year, then April, May, June the second quarter, and so on.
The priest usually talks to the students about baptism a few moments before Mass, then the teacher calls the students being recognized to the front. They each receive their token and pose for a picture.
Then the Mass begins, with the opening song calling to mind the sacrament.
Maly said the students look forward to their turn each year, and many parents come to celebrate their children’s baptism anniversaries as well.
Sarah Zook, principal of Aquinas Elementary in David City, formerly St. Mary Elementary, said they have celebrated Baptism Masses since the mid-90s.
“We celebrate them on the first Friday of each month,” she said, “and invite a parent or friend to come. We hope it spreads the joy of celebrating sacraments with the rest of their family, too.”
They also add special music to the Baptism Masses, and all students who were baptized during that month are recognized at the Mass and receive a blessing in front of the congregation. Later, at lunch, they also receive a cupcake.
“Students love getting this attention,” she said. “It reminds them to celebrate these faith landmarks in their lives, too.”
She said the school tries to keep sacraments at the forefront of their students’ minds.
“We also celebrate all-school confession days with “Confession Cookies” where the whole school gets to celebrate that their older classmates get to have their sins forgiven in the sacrament,” she said.
The next Baptism Mass will be Dec. 3 – Zook said they celebrate at the beginning of the month, in hopes that families will take the opportunity to celebrate the baptism anniversary at home on the actual date, as well.
Father Andrew Heaslip, director of religious education, commended these practices.
“Whenever I return in concrete simplicity to the gift of faith and baptism,” he said, “I am renewed in a childlike joy and confidence in God’s plan of salvation. Despite years of subsequent study and reading in theology and philosophy, the most elementary points of catechesis such as those I learned before my first confession in second grade, are what strengthen me most in this the joyful confidence.
“When we celebrate the day of our baptism,” he continued, “we open a door of renewal to this gift. We also perceive anew that the importance of the basic teachings of our Catholic faith, such as those we learn in the questions and answers of elementary catechesis on the sacraments, cannot be underestimated.”
