Parish of the Visitation

From the Pastor's Desk

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for your faithfulness, your encouragement and your love to our parish this last year especially under such trying circumstances. The Lord through our Bishop has sent me here to Parish of the Visitation along with Fr Virgil and Fr Edmund in these trying times. We are so happy  to see the devotion and love we have found here in our parish community. It is a blessing. I thank the Lord with all my heart and I thank you as well. Also I pray that you and your family will have a blessed, joyful and holy 2021. 

     Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord and so we should recall our own baptism. Jesus himself commanded us to go and baptize all nations. For most of us it was when we were babies so there is no memory. I found a black and white photograph among my mother’s papers of a woman wearing a beautiful mantilla, and holding a baby, a man dressed in a suit standing behind her and the bespectacled priest wearing a cassock, lace surplice and stole touching the baby’s mouth. They are surrounded by family members and friends, I can name each one, including my mother standing to the side. I recognized the couple as my godparents and I remember our parish priest from when I was a young child. I did not recognize myself in the picture. 
 
The godparents bear witness to the faith. That is why they must be faithful to Christ and to the Church. It’s not about an honor, or a family member but about bearing witness and giving testimony to the faith itself. That is why the godparents must have received all their sacraments, be lawfully married in the Church and lead a life which is consistent with this: going to Mass on Sunday and holy days, frequenting the sacraments, reading scripture, having a consistent prayer life and being able to show this by their way of life. After

all, the best way to teach is by example. It is the duty of the parents to bring the child for baptism as early as possible. 
At our baptism our godparents stand in our place and speak for us, unless the person to be baptized is older, in the hope that Jesus will forgive all our sins, make us members of Christ’s Body, members of his Church and put us on the path to eternal life. Our parents promise to bring us up in the faith. They are our first teachers and take on the responsibility to nurture that faith as we grow up. It is important to do so. You would not keep your child from studying Math until she grew up and decided to do so herself? That is ridiculous. Yet on your death bed, will knowing how to solve the quadratic equation help you? Certain knowledge of Christ, our Lord and Savior, will make a much greater difference.  The godparents promise to help the parents in this worthy effort of teaching the faith. It’s important for children to be raised in the faith from the earliest age. 
 
As our first teachers in the faith parents have a grave responsibility. My dear parents, when you go before the Lord and He asks you about this, what will you say? How will you account for yourself? As for all of us who were baptized we have a responsibility as well. To learn about the faith to integrate the teachings of the Lord and the Church into our lives. In the photograph the priest is touching my mouth. That is a prayer which recalls the Lord opening the ears and the mouth of the deaf-mute. He says, “Ephphetha! Be opened!” So that, when the time comes, the ears are opened to the word of God and the lips opened to proclaim it. Let’s celebrate our baptism by renewing our promises to Christ every day.