Don't be embarrass! My son borned in Feb and missed the chance to baptist in Easter (because we didn't apply for the birth certificate yet). When he got baptist, he was already 10 months old.
You know what happened? He's not only crying, but struggle!!! He acted like going to execution more than baptism.
I spent the spare time last week to read through this topic from the beginning and the key message brought to me is that I need to work hard on reading Bible. Actually, the sister in慕道班 has repeatedly reminded us to read Bible every day. I still didn’t have the commitment to do so. I will pray the God to give me the power.
jk67jk,
Although I am not a Catholic yet, I am prepared to let my son to be baptisted when he is qualified. The reason is that he will have his 原罪 and 本罪赦免 and be a member of 天國的子民. In addition, being his parents, it's our role to give him the best thing. I think being baptisted is a very big 恩寵.
Something to share for my reason for attending 慕道班.
About three years ago, my husband wanted to attend 慕道班 and become a Catholic. At that time, I had no intention to go with him because I thought that religion was very personal and should be from your heart rather than influenced by others. I just said I had no objection but would not go with him because I was not prepared. Due to some reasons, (I forgot), my husband did not join. One night, I suddenly thought that I wanted to understand our god and mentioned to my husband that I would join him if he attend 慕道班. He replied that he was more than happy to know my decision. I really did not have conscious reasons. I asked myself, 'Do you want to join because you want to get five marks for your son?' My answer is negative as I think it's a kind of 利用 God to achieve some material stuff and it is totally unacceptable to me.
Last year, my husband and I enrolled in 慕道班. We now go to Mass every Sunday usually with my son.
A very long message. I also want to share something later regarding attending mass with my son.
My husband has had reservation about bringing my son when we go to mass. The reason is, like many moms have mentioned, that my son may disturb others. Before I read the messages in this topic, I had the similar thinking. The sister in church previously advised my husband and I to go to mass even we hadn’t been baptisted. We did not do so because we needed to look after my son on Sundays.
Two months ago, we developed the habit of going to mass every Sunday and we brought our son too. We chose a seat which was very near to the exit. Thanks God, although he wandered around along the seat, he did not make much noise.
Last Friday, my husband felt like to thank God and said to me that he wanted to go to mass on Saturday. I suggested bringing my son too. However, my husband did not want to because he thought that Saturday night mass did not have many people. It would be very disturbing in case my son made noise. On Saturday morning, I saw the discussion here regarding the right of kid for attending mass. I forwarded the messages to my husband and eventually saw that Bible explicitly welcomed children. It was the Bible which changed my husband’s mind and agreed to let my son go.
However, it is a pity that my son did not go eventually because he slept late in the afternoon and could not catch the mass. Only my husband went to the mass.
Even so, I believe our attitude of letting my son go the mass has changed and thanks catholic moms for your sharing and enlightenment.
I have been believing in the existence of God since I was in Primary School. I studied in two 基督教 primary schools. I did not get baptisted because基督教 says that only when you become 基督徒, you will go to heaven. Otherwise, you will go to hell. My other family members are not 基督徒and I believe I do not have the ability to influence them to believe. I don’t want to go to Heaven myself only and prefer going to the hell with them.
Three years ago, my husband told me about his decision to Catholic and I asked him the view of Catholic in this respect. He said Catholic has different interpretation, i.e. whether a person is a Christian or not is not the only criteria to go to Heaven. (jk67jk, is this correct?) I also got similar message from Sister when I first joined the 慕道班. It is this point that I believe in Catholic.