Welcome to the Baptism Preparation Group - watch our video here!

Welcome to our Baptism Preparation Group. Current demand for Baptism within our Parish is high, with Baptisms celebrated on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month at midday. The information sessions run by this group in St Mary’s church are held at 7.30pm on the first Thursday of each month. The Information sessions we present prepare families for the day of Baptism and take them on a tour of what it means to be a follower of Christ today. 

Family of Families- local Catholic Parishes

In the sessions we present, we show our Parish as being in a family like relationship with other local Parishes. So we are connected to St Monica’s Moonee Ponds, St Vincent de Paul Strathmore, St Therese’s Essendon and Our Lady of the Nativity West Essendon. Parishes keep their own history and identity but have a common missionary family like focus (welcoming strangers, respecting each other, supporting each other, and all the rest) We can sum up how we operate as a Parish family from four angles: Proclamation, Worship, Fellowship and Service:

Missionary community - Proclamation

Always at the heart of our missionary efforts is the figure of Jesus Christ, who loves us, who gave his life to save us and is now living at our side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free us. We in return go about developing an ongoing, personal relationship with him. It is the real presence of Jesus within our community which ensures our community is not just another secular group like a human society, a company or a political party. His presence among us ensures the presence of the Holy Spirit, the presence of meaningful prayer, the presence of love, and the reality of the real presence in the Eucharist.

Missionary community - Worship

Baptism is the Sacrament of Belonging to Christ’s body, the Church. We express this bond of unity in worship, our coming together as Christ’s body, in the Mass. The Mass demonstrates the bond of unity linking all baptised people. Baptism is the primary sacrament in our initiation into the Church. It is also the “door to life and to the kingdom of God.” It is a passing from the death of sin, which it radically erases, into life. And it is the sacrament of belonging, belonging to Christ and those who already make up the community of Church. Parents should be ready to take part in the celebration of the sacrament of Baptism with understanding, and it is the parents and godparents who proclaim the faith of the Church.

Missionary Community - Fellowship (Community)

One of the great beliefs in the Catholic tradition is that we are one great family in Christ. Pope Francis says “we are not Christians as an individual, each one on his own, but rather we owe our relationship with God to so many others who passed on the faith, who brought us for Baptism, who taught us to pray and showed us the beauty of the Christian life.” Pope Francis describes the Church as “a large family that welcomes us and teaches us to live as believers and disciples of the Lord.” We are working on the spirit of family, growing into this vision of family more completely.

Missionary Community - Service

 When we are Baptised, we are Baptised into service. We need to go out, give to others what we received in Baptism. We need to go out of ourselves to bring something good to others. We need to reach out to the sick, the imprisoned, the hungry, those with no shirt on their back. Jesus want this of us because He is to be found in them. Service can be equally found inside the Mass and outside the Mass.

Conclusion



For further information or to join our group contact Father Desmond at 9370 6688 or email ascotvale@cam.org.au