presentation church baptism

CHURCH OF THE PRESENTATION

A welcoming Catholic community leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ through Word, Worship, and Outreach.

271 W. Saddle River Rd. • Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 • ph: 201-327-1313

Contact: Nancy Mierswa, 201-327-1313, ext. 839 email: nmierswa@churchofpresentation.org

SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

The sacramental life here at the Church of the Presentation is an important aspect of  living  out our callings and our Christian faith, within and outside our church walls. Our life, our zeal to be missionaries for Jesus Christ, and our love of one another revolves around our gatherings for prayer and retreat, the sacraments, and most especially the celebration of the Eucharist.

There are seven sacraments in the Church, namely: Baptism, Confirmation or Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Holy Matrimony.

Our parish community draws strength and inspiration from the Church’s sacraments, especially from our celebration of the Mass. It is through the sacraments that we – as a community – find meaning to the signs of God’s grace that is present in our ordinary, day to day lives. Celebrated always with great hope, joy and love, the sacraments show us visible signs of the invisible reality of God’s care and love for us. 

Jesus’ Great Commission “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, And of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. …and behold, I am with you always To the end of the age” (Mt 28:19-21).

The sacrament of Baptism “is birth into the new life in Christ” (CCC 1277). Here at Presentation, it is the formal way in which we receive families and infants into our family.

We celebrate Baptism once a month, either on a Saturday or Sunday at 1:00pm. The Baptism celebration lasts approximately 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how many families are participating.

Baptism Preparation Session Baptism class for the parents is a wonderful time for them to learn about the sacrament, and how as parents, they can better guide their child on a loving faith journey. It is an important time for the parents, the Godparents, and parish.

If you are new parents and/or have not had Baptism preparation before at this parish, both parents must attend Baptism preparation, held monthly in one of the meeting rooms at the Church. While not required, the godparents are welcome to attend.

Guest Participation There are a total of three readings for which volunteer lectors are asked to read. Most families welcome the opportunity to have one of their guests take an active role in the celebration.

Godparents The role of godparent goes back to the days when most adult converts to the Christian faith did not usually have Christian parents. Godparents spoke up for the baptized person and, if necessary, helped him or her to grow in the faith. Today, we understand that the parents are the primary religious educators in the faith, with the godparents setting an example and providing support.

The Church requires that at least one godparent, or sponsor, be a practicing Catholic who has received the Sacrament of Confirmation, whose primary role remains that of supporting the parents in bringing up the child in the Catholic faith. But most parents choose two. When this happens, provided one godparent is Catholic, it is certainly allowable for a non-Catholic baptized Christian to act as a witness to the Baptism. We do not require any documentation from the godparents as to their faith or standing. We trust our parents’ ability to make good decisions for their children.

Non-Christians, unfortunately, cannot serve as sponsors for Baptism, since they themselves are not baptized. However, you can certainly invite a non-Christian to have a special place in your child’s life and share with your child his or her own faith tradition.

Donation Any offering received goes to offset our administrative costs (Suggested minimum $100).

Baptismal Grace “The fruit of Baptism, or baptismal grace, is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into new life by which an infant or an adult becomes an adoptive son or daughter of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit….” 

Through the sacrament of Baptism, the baptized person is officially received into our faith community and “is incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ”  (CCC 1279).

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The Ultimate Guide to Catholic Baptism

by Shelby Mayer | Nov 7, 2020 | Formation , Ascension Articles | 17 comments

Got questions on Catholic baptisms? We’ve got answers!

We’ve gathered the insights and knowledge of our experts in Catholic Faith formation for this guide, explaining everything you need to know about Catholic baptisms .

Looking to learn:

• What a Catholic baptism is?
• The symbolism behind the sacrament?
• Why they’re so important to our faith?
• Why Catholics baptize infants?
• How to get your child baptized?

If you answered “yes” to even one of those questions, this is the guide for you!

What Is It?

Baptism serves as the first sacrament one receives when entering the Catholic Faith. It is a sacrament of initiation (which you can only receive one time), meaning once you received it, you officially enter into the body of Christ, the Catholic Church. The recipient receives justifying and sanctifying grace when baptized , and the Holy Spirit begins to dwell within them.

Form and Matter

Every sacrament requires two things, form and matter. The form of the sacrament is the words that are spoken and the matter is the physical substance used during the sacrament. For example, for baptism, the form is the baptismal formula, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The matter is the water poured over the head of the recipient. Traditionally, the one being baptized has water poured over them or is fully emerged in water three times. Additionally, the ceremony includes vows rejecting Satan, vows of the godparents, and the material symbols of the white gown and baptismal candle. These additional aspects are important, but not required for all baptisms, namely those in emergency situations (scroll down to learn more about emergency baptism). 

Valid and Licit

Like any sacrament, baptisms must be both valid and licit to serve the individual as God intended. If a baptism is valid, then it is recognized as having been done using the correct form, matter, and structure that is needed for the sacrament. If a baptism is licit, meaning it’s legal, it is recognized as having been done in line with Canon Law.

It is impossible for a baptism to be invalid and licit, because all invalid baptisms are also illicit. However, a baptism can be valid and illicit. An example of this would be if a lay person baptized someone using the baptismal formula and pouring water over their head, but doing so without being in an emergency situation that requires such action. Another more specific example would be if the parents of the child being baptized said during the ceremony that they will raise the child in the Faith, but are lying and don’t actually intend to do so. It is very important for baptisms to be both valid and licit, making the form, matter, structure (baptismal promises, vows of the godparents, baptismal candle, etc.)  and meaning (the “why” behind it all) of the sacrament of great significance. 

What It Does

St. Paul describes baptism as the “first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:14). According to aboutcatholic.com baptism does five things : 

• It forgives all sins that were committed before baptism including original, mortal, and venial sin.
• It makes the baptized a new creature.
• It turns the baptized into a newly adopted son or daughter of God and a member of the Church.
• It brings them to share in the royal priesthood of Christ. (1 Peter 2:9)
• It leaves a spiritual mark (or character) of belonging to Christ on the soul of the baptized. 

It serves as the foundation of communion within the Church, and the initiation into Christ’s Body the Church. With this initiation comes a sort of seal, St. Augustine calls it a “character.” This character, which is the fifth thing that baptism does in the list above, is “like a brand imprinted on a soldier that cannot be removed.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks upon this character as well, saying:

“No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation … The baptismal seal enables and commits Christians to serve God by a vital participation in the holy liturgy of the Church and to exercise their baptismal priesthood by the witness of holy lives and practical charity” (CCC, 1272 and 1273).

Baptism orients the soul not only to worship God and serve him with their lives, but also to take part in his kingly, prophetic, and priestly offices.

For more info on what baptism does:

Unpacking Confirmation, Baptism, and the Birth of the Church

Sealed in the Spirit: Relying on the Graces of Baptism and Confirmation

Form, Intent, and Why They Matter

Symbolism 

Now that you know what a Catholic baptism is, you might be asking yourself, “what does it all mean?” Everything that is done during a baptism has a purpose, even the material objects used during the ceremony. Here are just a couple of the biggest areas of symbolism in a Catholic baptism:

For more info on the meaning behind these and more objects in the Catholic Church, check out The Sacred That Surrounds Us at the link .

Baptismal Font

The baptismal font is the large bowl of holy water where most baptisms take place. The word “baptism” itself means “to be immersed.” For the first few hundred years of the Church’s history , baptisms would be done in large natural bodies of water, such as rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans. The earliest baptismal fonts in the Western Church were found in the catacombs of Rome, where indoor baptisms would take place. Baptismal fonts were moved to churches in the fourth century A.D. Most are located at the front of the church, to signify the sacrament as being the “door to the Church.” In fact, we are reminded of our baptismal promises whenever we enter or exit a church. Small baptismal fonts are located at all doors within a church, which we dip our fingers in upon entering or exiting, blessing ourselves in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Water is the essential matter within a baptism. It is so to symbolize that Jesus is living water, and as we are cleansed during the sacrament, we are welcomed both into the Church and into eternal life. Water is also a symbol of divine life, grace, new birth, growth, deliverance, power, and the covenant God established with his people, first through Abraham. 

Baptismal Gown

A baptismal gown is the outfit worn by the one receiving baptism. Traditionally, the gown is white. This is to signify Christian dignity, and the act of becoming a new creature through the sacrament. The color white is also to symbolize being clothed with Christ, as we are cleansed from sin.

Baptismal Candle

The baptismal candle that is lit during the ceremony is also used as the Easter candle. The lighting of the candle represents the flame of faith, which is to be kept burning throughout the life of the baptized. Additionally, the candle symbolizes the risen Christ, as he is the light of the world. The fact that the baptismal candle is also used for Easter is to remind us of Christ’s passion and rising which made the gift of baptism—a full cleansing of original sin, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit within us, and the invitation into eternal life—possible. 

The Sacred Chrism and Oil of the Catechumens 

Two of the three holy oils are used during a baptism. The first is the oil of catechumens. This oil is used to bless the child before the actual baptism takes place, in order to strengthen the recipient and prepare them for the sacrament. The second oil used is the Sacred Chrism, which is considered the most important of the three holy oils. The Chrism is not only used during the sacrament of baptism, but also during confirmation, holy orders, and at the consecration of a church.

Early on in Church history, this olive oil was used for several different functions, such as welcoming guests into a home, cooking, medicating the ill, preparing a body for burial, and many other practices. The earliest formula of blessing the oils for sacramental use was first found during the fourth century in the Prayer Book of Serapion . The use of the three oils comes from the instructions of Jesus himself, as we see him asking the apostles to anoint the sick (Mark 6:13). The apostles passed this custom on throughout the years (James 5:14-15), giving us the practice of using them still today. 

Many of the Church fathers have written on the importance of blessing the newly baptized with sacred oils. The oils are held in vessels called stocks and are placed in an ambry (or cabinet) until they are needed. Chrism is used to consecrate persons, setting them apart for God, while the oil of catechumens is used for those seeking baptism, and the oil of the infirm is used while anointing the sick or dying. 

Who Is Involved in a Baptism?

Baptisms are a family affair, not just for the individual but for the Church as well! The baptism is usually attended by the recipient’s close family and friends, as well as those chosen to be their godparents, whom play a role in the ceremony. Today, most people are baptized as infants by a priest or deacon, though this is not strictly necessary (see below). The parents present the child for baptism while the godparents are present as witnesses. 

Ordinary Minister of the Sacrament (Priest or Deacon)

Although any lay person can baptize in certain emergency situations (see FAQs below), it is preferred to have a priest administer the sacrament of baptism. In the Catholic Faith, priests act in persona Christi Capitis, which means “in the person of Christ the Head.” Pope Benedict XVI explains this in his letter, The Priest’s Three Duties , saying:

“The priest represents Christ. What is implied by ‘representing’ someone? In ordinary language it usually means being delegated by someone to be present in his place, to speak and act in his stead because the person he represents is absent from the practical action.” 

This does not mean, however, that Christ is absent in the Church and in the roles of the priest. Instead, it infers that:

“The priest, who acts in persona Christi Capitis and representing the Lord, never acts in the name of someone who is absent but, rather, in the very Person of the Risen Christ, who makes himself present with his truly effective action … The Lord makes his own action present in the person who carries out these gestures.”

It is thus believed that the priest is the best member of the Church, given practical circumstances, to administer the sacrament of baptism. St. John the Baptist tells the people he is baptizing in Matthew 3:11 :

“He who is coming … will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

It is because of Scripture and the role of the priest as persona Christi that we are baptized through priests. Through their hands, which are to represent the hands of Christ himself, we are brought into the body of the Catholic Church. 

If a priest in unavailable to perform a baptism for whatever reason, it is permissible for a deacon to perform one in his absence . Because a deacon is not a priest, there are limits to what they can do in the celebration of our faith. However, baptism is a sacrament they can administer. This is because the deacon is considered a cleric and an ordinary minister of the sacrament of baptism, just as a priest or a bishop is. Baptism is an action proper to his role, and if he has the approval and knowledge of the priest at his parish, he may baptize both validly and licitly . 

Parents or Guardians

Parents (or guardians) take on the responsibility for raising the child Catholic when they ask for baptism. They are the ones responding to the baptismal promises (click here to view the baptismal promises) on behalf of the child. When asking for a Catholic baptism, the parents or guardians must be able to say with confidence that the child will be brought up within the Faith. This includes taking the child to Mass, teaching them the Faith, praying with and for them, and making sure they receive the sacraments including reconciliation, first Communion, and confirmation. The role of the parents is a crucial aspect of any infant baptism, and must not be taken lightly. For more info, check out the FAQ below on whether you need to be Catholic to have your child baptized. 

The role of the chosen godparents is twofold. First and foremost, they are to act as a source of prayer and example for the child being baptized. Secondly, they are expected to assist in the formation of the child’s faith throughout their life, and, if needed, are available to raise the child in the Faith if the parents cannot. This being said, the faith of the godparents is an extremely important factor in fulfilling the baptismal promise of being raised in the Catholic Faith. For more information on choosing godparents, check out Father Josh’s podcast here .

Emergency Catholic Baptisms

Although most baptisms are celebrated by a priest or deacon, there are extreme circumstances in which someone can be baptized by even an unbaptized individual. (see FAQs below) All that needs to be done for a valid baptism is the cleansing through water and the spoken blessing of the Trinitarian baptismal Formula:

“I baptize you in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit.”

(For more on emergency baptisms, go to the FAQs below.)

For more info check out About Catholic’s “A Guide to Catholic Baptism”

Why Do We Have Them?

The question of why we have baptisms in the Catholic Faith is easily answered: to gain eternal life. As Christians, we are blessed by baptism. It is the door to the Catholic Faith and the first step we take to pursue eternal life in heaven. This is backed up in Scripture, most notably in John 3 where it is written:

“Unless you’re born again in the water of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

On these grounds, baptism is believed to be one of four things that are needed for salvation. This also plays into the reasoning of why we baptize our infants: it is to give them the gift of eternal life in heaven, and through our faith that we invite them into salvation (for more on baptizing infants, go to the FAQs below). 

Baptism isn’t just a sign of faith either, it is a cause of it. 

Nicholas LaBanca points this out in his article on infant baptisms , quoting from The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s “Instruction on Infant Baptism” (IIB):

“It produces in the baptized ‘interior enlightenment,’ and so the Byzantine liturgy is right to call it the sacrament of enlightenment, or simply enlightenment, meaning that the faith received pervades the soul and causes the veil of blindness to fall before the brightness of Christ.”

It’s through the graces we receive in baptism that we are saved for the glory of eternal life, making this first sacrament extremely essential to our Catholic faith. 

More info on why we have baptisms:

What Does It Mean to Be Blessed?

Do All Good People Go to Heaven?

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. why are catholics baptized as infants.

This is a commonly asked question about Catholic baptisms in particular. The origin of infant baptisms goes back to the days of the Old Testament when God established his covenant with Abraham. Back in those days, male infants would enter covenant with God by being circumcised at just eight days old through their parents faith. St. Paul explains in the New Testament that circumcision is no longer needed since the coming of Christ and the institution of baptism. However, the practice of inviting infants into the Church through the faith of their parents still stands.  

Just the same, St. Augustine recognizes infant baptism as a “tradition received from the apostles.” This can be seen in Acts 2:38-39 when Peter addresses the crowd, saying:

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.”

When Peter would baptize people in the New Testament, he would often baptize them as well as their entire household, which would include babies of the family. As Father Josh explains in one of his podcasts:

“God never denied children being involved in his covenant relationship.” 

Baptism is never administered without faith, for it is the faith of the parents and of the Church who guide the infant in baptism. Even more so, given what we know of baptism being an essential part of gaining salvation, parents choose to baptize their son or daughter for the sake of their soul, not to impose any religious beliefs upon them. As LaBanca puts it :

“To consciously withhold that grace from my child, when I know it will remove original sin and incorporate my child into the Church, making him or her a son or daughter of God, would be to betray the very duties a parent has to the wellbeing of their child … Since we believe in that supernatural grace given to us by God in the sacraments, we certainly want our children to take part in these graces as well.”

For More Info: The Love and Logic Behind Baptizing Infants

Q. Why was Jesus baptized?

If the purpose of baptism is to eliminate original sin and grant us the graces necessary for salvation, why did Jesus need it? This question makes a lot of sense; Jesus, being God, is perfect and therefore did not need to be baptized to remove any sin or secure a spot in heaven. However, Jesus, in being baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, gave us a model for our own baptisms . It wasn’t that Jesus needed to be baptized, it was that we needed to be. 

Chris Mueller explains , “Jesus loaded the burden of all mankind’s guilt upon his shoulders,” plunging them into “the depths of the Jordan.” When Jesus was baptized, he rose from the water bearing our sins with him, and carried them to the Cross. Mueller goes on:

“Just as Jesus’ public life and mission began in the waters of the Jordan, our lives begin through repentance and baptism as well. We should never forget that Jesus lived his life, not as some unattainable goal, but as a template of how we are called to live.”

Jesus was baptized to take on our sins and to give us a model for our own baptisms, giving us the means to accept our spot in heaven.  

For More Info on Why Christ Was Baptized:

Why Did Christ Have to Be Baptized?

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (Encountering the Word with Jeff Cavins)

Q: How are godparents chosen?

Fr. Mike Schmitz says:

“You don’t have to be perfect to be a godparent! All you have to do is do your best to love Jesus, to love the Church, and to love this child.”

These requirements mentioned by Fr. Mike imply that you are a practicing Catholic. A godparent also needs to be at least sixteen, baptized, and confirmed. Godparents are expected to help the parents raise the baptized child in the Faith, and therefore need to be practicing it themselves.

Q. Are there any exceptions?

You may be asking yourself, “Are there any exceptions to the graces received in baptism? Is one automatically bound for hell without them?” The Church recognizes that baptism is an essential element in the salvation of a soul, however, there are some extraordinary circumstances that could grant a soul salvation without having received baptism.

The two exceptions are these: martyrdom and an untimely death. For example, if someone dies for the Faith but never was baptized, their act of martyrdom can grant them the same graces one would receive in baptism. Likewise, if one is truly seeking to be baptized, but is unable to due to extreme circumstances (such as dying before they could receive the sacrament) those graces can be bestowed upon them as well. These two circumstances are often called baptism by blood and baptism by desire.

In the case of infants , there is a theory that infants who die before receiving the gift of baptism are placed in limbo , a place that lacks the beatific vision, but does not inflict any punishment on its residents. This theory has never entered dogmatic definitions, and the mention of limbo has yet to be seen within the Catechism of the Catholic Church , although limbo remains a possible theological hypothesis.

Q. Do I need to be Catholic to get my child baptized?

While you don’t need to be Catholic to get your baby baptized, due to the nature of the sacrament as an initiation into the Catholic Church, the parents or legal guardians of the infant must agree to raise the child in the Faith upon being baptized . If the parents refuse to raise their child in the Catholic Faith, in most circumstances the infant may not be baptized.

Now, there are certain scenarios where a baby can be baptized without their parents promising to raise them in the Catholic Faith. An example of this situation would be if the baby is in serious danger of death, and someone in the family wants to have the baby baptized in fear that the child will not reach heaven without it (since baptism is one of the four things needed for salvation), then the baby can be baptized even if the parents don’t agree to raise the child in the Catholic Faith. For this instance, the faith required for the baptism would be coming from the Church and whoever wants the baby to be baptized, and it becomes a direct concern for the salvation of the infant’s soul rather than the responsibility of the parents. 

Q. How can I get my child baptized?

The short answer to this would be to go to your parish, or a church you trust, and meet with the priest. However, catholiccompany.com lays out four steps in getting your child baptized:

• Choose a Church: If you are already enrolled at a parish, you would most likely go there for your child’s baptism. However, if you are not yet enrolled in a parish, you’ll want to choose one in your area and schedule a baptism. The church you choose will probably have a set of classes for the parents and godparents to go through before the child is baptized. This is to help those involved better understand the sacrament, and to dive deeper into the meaning of what baptism really is. Click here to view a baptism prep program featuring Fr. Mike Schmitz.
• Set a Date: Talk with your parish about what dates are available to have your child baptized, keeping in mind that the prep classes will take some time. It is preferred to have a baptism on a Sunday, but many baptisms are performed on Saturdays as well. 
• Ask the Godparents: Next step is to ask the godparents. It can be tricky business when choosing a godparent for your child, but ultimately, the godparents should be in communion with the Church, love your child, and be an active part in their Catholic upbringing. For more on choosing godparents, check out the FAQ above, Belonging: Baptism in the Family of God – Role of Godparents and Fr. Josh’s podcast on choosing godparents .
• Buy a Baptismal Gown: Although tradition states that the godmother buys the gown and the godfather buys the cake, you can absolutely buy your child’s gown yourself. The benefit of this, of course, is that you can choose something you would love to see passed down from generation to generation. Also, you might want to consider buying a more casual outfit for the child to wear after the baptism; you don’t want that family heirloom to get covered in cake!

If you still have questions about scheduling your child’s baptism, we suggest you contact your parish priest, or talk to friends who have baptized their kids. 

Q. Emergency baptisms?

When it comes to emergency baptisms, it’s not as simple as just saying the words and blessing the individual. There are, of course, certain rituals that must be respected, the most important of these is to keep the matter of the sacrament, the water, intact. If the baptism does not use water, then it is not believed to be a valid baptism. As explained by Colin B. Donovan from EWTN :

“If it’s called something else it’s not water (e.g. IV fluids). Even something so predominantly water as tea or coffee is doubtful matter.  One could baptize conditionally with doubtful matter IF that was indeed all there was available and time was of the essence.”

When it comes to the form of the sacrament, the words said, it must be the Trinitarian baptismal Formula:

“I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

This must be said out loud, even if it cannot be heard by others. As faith is a necessary component in any baptism, a person in the age of reason must want to be baptized. You can’t just go around baptizing whoever you like. If the person is a child who has yet to reach the age of reason, then the faith of the baptizer is sufficient, as is the case when baptizing infants. 

We hope you found this guide helpful! Ascension is always looking for ways to improve your knowledge of the sacraments and we’d love to hear from you!

Contact us for additional support and share your story in the comments below!

17 Comments

it’s absolutely great stuff. Thanks a lot.

My grandson was baptized by a Deacon, my question is this, when he said the words I baptise you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen. I know that the Amen should never be added, was his baptism valid?

The bible consistently states baptism is “works” and that we are not saved by works but by faith alone in Christ alone by God’s grace alone .Any attempt to live a good enough life to stand justified before a holy and righteous God is futile. All people are corrupt and deserving eternal separation from God.

Why are we told that in Baptism, we become priest, prophets and kings when it does’ seem that was the intent?

I don’t think there is any better explanation than this! As a catechist, the information was very useful in my lesson plans

I am searching for a book that will simply explain the importance of children being baptized. My granddaughter and her husband have three little girls who have not yet been baptized although their mom and dad are Catholic but not practicing at this time. I don’t think they understand the importance of baptism. Thank you.

Once Baptized in the Catholic Church, are you forever a Catholic, even if you have not received any other Sacraments in the Catholic Church or practice the Catholic Faith?

Baptism is an act of worship which points us to Christ and in him there is forgiveness of sins.

What parts of the Baptism rite require the congregation to stand?

I wass baptist catholic andmy god parents never played any good role in my life infact my god mother told me that this was the blame of my ancestors and my god father said to me did your grandparents leave you enough money … I was extremely offended reading what i just seen with my owe eyes answers eveything i need to know and here i thought i was crazy ..40 years of my life i been threw so mu h hurt and pain a d never understood why and i get it now …thank you

If you were baptized as a child by the Holy Catholic Church. Is it required to then again be baptized as an adult?

No. As it says in the Creed, we “recognize ONE Baptism for the remission of sin…” However, Confirmation, Confession, and First Communion are the other sacraments you’d want to complete before adulthood (but they can be completed as an adult as well.)

It is to only be done once, if done validly, because it leaves an indelible mark of the soul of the recipient.

I have a question, my question is can someone else stand in if one of the godparents can’t be there?

Yes. The person is called a proxy. Ask the priest or director of religious education at your parish to explain.

My 2 grandsons (3 and 1) are shortly to be baptised into the catholic church. Is it possible for them to have a c of e naming ceremony at a later date please?

Very informative and well explained; thank you. However, in the first part of the article it says, “Traditionally, the one being baptized has water poured over them or is fully EMERGED in water three times.” Is that correct? I believe you mean IMMERSED.

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Las Presentaciones: A Vibrant Hispanic Tradition

This principally Mexican tradition of the presenting of a child to God, and to the Church, stems from a strong desire by parents to ask for divine protection for their newborn, and thanksgiving for a safe childbirth, as infant mortality rates are extremely high in developing nations.

During most Spanish Masses that I celebrate on Sundays, there are always a great number of “ presentaciones ” of children, who can be either forty days old or three years old.  Towards the end of Mass after the final prayer, I call the names of the children who are to be presented that day.  Those who are forty-days old are carried into the sanctuary in the arms of their parents or their “ padrinos ” (“godparents”); while the children who are three years old, walk up to me accompanied by their parents and godparents.  Then, I invite the parents and godparents of each child to draw near to the altar, standing before the congregation.

La presentación” consists of three parts: the marking of a child with the sign of the cross, the anointing with the oil of catechumens, and the consecration of the newborn or toddler to Mary. 1   The rite begins by my saying a prayer over the child held in the arms of one of the godparents, or if three years old, next to the godparents and parents:

La vida es el mayor don que hemos recibido de Dios y la vida de los hijos es el signo mayor de la bendición divina para nuestra familia.  Hemos recibido estos dones y por eso presentamos a N________ al Señor.  Queremos que lo bendiga y acepte para que sea un buen cristiano en la vida. 2

Then, I turn to the parents and “ padrinos ” and pray as found in the baptismal rite:

N_____, la comunidad cristiana te recibe con mucha alegría.  En el nombre de Dios yo te marco con la señal de la cruz y, en seguida sus padres y padrinos les marcarán con la misma señal de Cristo, el Salvador.” 3

I then trace a cross on the forehead of the child, and direct the parents and godparents to do the same as directed in the baptism rite.

Next, I anoint the child on the chest with the oil of catechumens as described in the rite for the sacrament of baptism and pray:

Por la unción de este niño, le damos la bienvenida como miembro de la familia de Cristo e iniciamos nuestra jornada unidos a ellos hacia el bautismo.  N____, te ungimos con el aceite de salvación en el nombre de Cristo, nuestro Salvador; que El te fortalezca con su fuerza que vive y reina por los siglos de los siglos. Amen. 4

I conclude by consecrating the young child to Mary.  I hold the child up and pray:

Santísima Virgen María, Madre de Dios y Madre nuestra, te presentamos a este niño que Dios ha dado y confiado a tu cuidado y protección.  Te lo consagramos con todo nuestro corazón y te lo entregamos confiadamente a tu ternura y vigilancia materna.  Para sus padres ayúdales a cumplir fielmente sus obligaciones hacia ellos y el compromiso que han contraído delante de Dios.  Intercede por ellos ante tu Hijo, que vive y reina con el Padre y el Espíritu Santo por los siglos de los siglos.  Amen. 5

This long-established tradition of a presentation is principally Mexican in origin. However, with the intermingling of many Latin American cultures in the United States, more and more Hispanics are celebrating this extraordinary custom.  The presenting of a child to God, and to the Church, stems from a strong desire by parents to ask for divine protection for their newborn, and thanksgiving for a safe childbirth.  As documented in many studies, infant mortality rates are extremely high in many developing nations. Therefore, this custom began because parents wished to give thanks to God, and the Virgin Mary, for the survival, and ongoing good health, of their child.

In addition, this tradition has become an important pastoral opportunity to celebrate God’s gift of life, not only for a family, but also within a larger community, for example a church congregation.  With each “ presentación, ” a family formally announces the birth of a child to the faithful, their brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom they pray at Mass, and socialize with at church events.  This moment is also very significant since it marks the beginning of pre-baptismal formation for the parents.  The ritual first emphasizes the presentation of a newborn infant or child, but it also incorporates the marking of the cross, and the anointing of an infant or child, with the oil of catechumens, which occur during the baptism of a child.  The ultimate goal of all presentations is the baptism of the child.  Unfortunately, many families now wait to baptize their children. So, often children, who are even three years old, also need to be christened.  The rite of “ la presentación ” follows closely a pattern outlined in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), where the rites for adults occur in a progressive manner over time, and not in just one specific moment.  If the marking and anointing is done at “ la presentación ” of a child, then there is no need to repeat it again during the actual baptism of the child.  In effect, in the adult catechumenate, many rites are likewise performed separately on different Sundays before the actual Easter Vigil, when one receives the sacraments of initiation.

The source of this tradition of “ la presentación” is, without a doubt, the presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, forty days after Christmas, or on February 2 as noted on the Church calendar.  In Mexico, this special day is an annual holiday as the entire family attends Mass and carries .  These statues are of many different sizes, with the child Jesus lying down as in the manager, or sitting up in a chair.  In almost all cases, “ el ni ño Jes ús” is nicely dressed in elegant clothes, often sewn by the mother of the family.  The bringing of “ el ni ño Jes ús ” to church for a blessing has become a widespread tradition now in the Mexican, and Mexican American, communities in the United States.  However, in the United States this celebration has moved to the closest Sunday to the Feast of the Presentation since it is not celebrated as a national holiday in the United States, and many family members work long hours during the week.  On that Sunday, I often have hundreds of statues of “ el ni ño Jes ús ” in the sanctuary to show the deep love that Mexicans have for “ el ni ño Jes ús ” and the Virgin Mary.

On the Feast of the Presentation, we Catholics commemorate Jesus being carried to the Temple in the arms of Joseph and Mary.  In doing so, the parents of Jesus were merely following the Mosaic Law of that time by giving over their first-born male child to the Lord, as a testimony and remembrance of his Divinity.  As observant Jews, Mary and Joseph knew of this law from the Book of Exodus, when Moses informed his followers that, when the Lord brings you safely into the land of the Canaanites, everyone “must offer every first-born male to the Lord.”(Exodus 13:11).  Moses explains that, as a result of obtaining this freedom, everyone had to “buy back every first born male child” (Exodus 13:13; Numbers 18:15) by going to the Temple, and paying with a lamb, or if one is poor, “with two turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:24).  From that moment, the eldest son was fully consecrated to the service of God.

For the Blessed Virgin Mary, the offering of her Son in the temple was not merely a ritual gesture.  The significance of the presentation of her Son was that Mary was offering Jesus up for the redemption and salvation of the world.  In fact, by her very act, Mary was renouncing her maternal rights to Jesus, as she offered her Son fully to the will of the Father.  Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, in the eleventh century, expresses this very clearly in one of his prayers: “Offer your Son, Holy Virgin, and present him to God the Father as the fruit of your womb.  Offer him for our salvation, the sacred victim who is pleasing to God.”

By placing Jesus in the arms of Simeon and Anna, Mary also offers her Son to the world.  In this respect, she is acting as the Mother of the whole human race.  Pope Benedict XVI, in a homily for the liturgical feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, and for the Day of Consecrated Life on February 2, 2006, explains the singular role of Mary in the temple:  “Carrying her Son to Jerusalem, the Virgin Mother offers him to God as the true Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world; she hands him to Simeon and Anna as an annunciation of redemption; she presents him to all as light for a secure journey on the path of truth and love.”

There is a strong connection between the presentation of Jesus to God, and the saving act of Jesus’ death on the cross. On this joyful occasion of the presentation of Jesus in the temple, we also hear of the impending sadness in the words of Simeon to Mary:

This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel.  He will be a sign from God which many people will speak against and so reveal their secret thoughts.  And sorrow, like a sharp sword, will break your own heart” (Lk2:34-35).

The sword, mentioned by Simeon, represents Mary’s participation in Christ’s suffering, particularly in his passion and death.  In effect, the Mother of Jesus Christ suffers because of the rejection of Christ by men.  This suffering, prophesized by Simeon to Mary, is not limited to solely one particular moment, but assumes dimensions much greater that extend to her entire life.  Every rejection endured by Christ, throughout his life, will pierce his mother’s heart.  This suffering clearly finds its culmination onCalvary, when Christ is crucified and dies.  John Paul II has emphasized the character of the Presentation of Jesus in the temple as a “second annunciation.”  According to the Pope, the first annunciation focuses on the Incarnation and the role of Mary as Virgin Mother; however, the second one centers on Mary’s co-operation in redemption as she witnesses her Son’s passion and death.

The second custom of the presentation in Jewish law was the purification of the mother after giving birth to a son.  This law is spelled out in the first chapter of Leviticus that “if a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days … on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised … She shall bring to the door of the tent of the priest a lamb a year old for a burnt offering … and if she cannot afford a lamb, then two turtledoves or two pigeons … and the priest will perform this ritual to take away her impurity and she will be ritually clean”(Lev 1:8).  Thus, this feast day is also known as the “Purification of the Virgin Mary.”  However, in truth, Mary did not have to go through this ritual purification since she remained a virgin, even though she had given birth to a child.

Over time, the Mexican tradition of “ la presentación” has changed noticeably.  In the past, Mexican families would follow the custom known as “ sacamisa ,” (“take one to church”), which was a tradition to bring the already baptized child to church in order to hear Mass for the first time.  The parents did this precisely forty days after the birth of the child.  At the end of the Mass, then, the priest would give a special blessing to the child and the mother.  Why has this tradition changed so drastically?  Times have changed.  Catholics no longer baptize their children within the first week of birth.  Perhaps, also due to the lack of catechesis, parents do not feel obliged to baptize their children so quickly.  They often wait to baptize their children when they have enough money for a large gathering or celebration.  As a result, parents first plan to present their child during his first year, and delay the baptism for later.  Surprisingly, “ los padrinos ,” form an important part of “ la presentación” of a child.  They often are the ones who carry the child up to the altar, if he is forty days old, or if three years old, they hold the child’s hand and walk with them to the sanctuary.  In most cases, “ los padrinos” are chosen based on their ability to help pay for the child’s clothes and party, and not especially for their deep faith in God.  Interestingly, parents often ask me if the “ padrinos ” for “ la presentación” have to be married in the church if they are a couple, as required for godparents for the sacrament of baptism.  The Church does not provide any definite rules about “ padrinos” for a presentation, but I try to encourage the parents to choose carefully so as to have the same “ padrinos ” for “ la presentación ” as for baptism.

Even though “ la presentación ” is a wonderful and significant tradition in the Hispanic community, I often reiterate that the truest form of “ la presentación ” of a child is at the sacrament of baptism.  A presentation is no substitute for this sacrament.  In “ la presentación ,” a child is merely presented to God and the Church, and the parents are blessed.  It is not a sacrament instituted by Christ for grace, and entrusted to the Church. In addition, the efficacious sacrament of baptism is the basis for our whole Christian life.  By this sacrament a child is freed from original sin, becomes a member of the Church, and also a child of God.  So, true catechesis is required for the parents, and even the faithful, to learn about the role of “ la presentación ” which leads to baptism.

According to the Old Testament, only the first born son was presented to God for consecration.  However, tradition provides a basis for “ la presentación ” of young girls.  On November 21, the Church celebrates a feast known as the “Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary” in the temple.  This event is based on an ancient tradition of Judaism, which is not found in Sacred Scripture.  This presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is detailed in a work titled the “ Protoevangelium of James,” from the second century.  However, the true commemoration of this feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary did not truly begin until the solemn dedication of a church to the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem in 543 A.D.

According to the proto-Gospel and tradition, the Virgin Mary was carried to the temple at the age of three by her older parents, Saint Ann and Saint Joaquin.  The Blessed Mother was presented to God by her parents, who were also further instructed in the faith on that day.  Even though the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated to God on that eventful day, in reality this sanctification had begun much earlier during her infancy when the Holy Spirit bestowed graces on her from the time of her Immaculate Conception.  In the apocryphal gospel, we also learn that lighted torches were carried by the parents of the many girls, who were also to be presented that day.  At the temple, we are told that Mary broke away from the crowd of children, and climbed fifteen steps, in spite of her young years, drawing near to the most sacred place of Judaism, the Holy of Holies.  According to tradition, there she received a special gift of food from the angels above, who were singing psalms to her.  At that moment, Mary was being prepared, in both body and soul, for her unique role to become the Mother of God, and the Church.  Her presentation, of course, points to the similar event of the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple.  Due to the deep love and honor that Mexicans have for the Blessed Virgin Mary in the person of “ La Guadalupe ,” they also began to practice the custom of presenting little girls in the church in order to consecrate them, along with the boys, to the maternal care of Mary.

In the third phase of “ la presentación,” the child is consecrated to the care of “ la Virgen Mar ía.”  Honor is rendered to Mary in a unique way in Catholicism.  She is celebrated for being present in the salvific events in the life of Christ, for example, in the Presentation of Jesus Christ, which points directly to the death and resurrection of her Son, Jesus Christ, and the salvation of all peoples.  All devotion to her is based on a Christological orientation because all of the various forms of piety towards the Mother of God ensure that, while the mother is honored, the Son is always glorified. On December 9, 2010, at the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, John Paul II proclaimed the Virgin of Guadalupe as “ la Emperatriz de las Am éricas. ” (“Empress of the Americas”).  Extending from Canada to Patagonia, the Pope entrusted all Americans to the unconditional love and the care of the Blessed Mother.  In “ la presentación, ” the consecration of a child to the Blessed Mother highlights, in a public way, how all of us are children of Mary.

For priests, extra attention needs to be given to the explaining of the wonderful tradition of “ la presentación ” for each family and the faithful.  Many of our faithful are not catechized, and, therefore, they merely believe that the presentation of a child is an excuse to celebrate the birthday of a child with a huge party.  Many families even believe that the certificate given for “ la presentación ” of a child is an important document that they often frame and hang on the living room wall of the house, surrounded by pictures.  However, nowhere in sight is the baptismal certificate.

Therefore, the priest, during the “ presentaciones,” should emphasize the intrinsic value of “ la presentación” since it is a way to catechize the child, the family, and even the faithful.  I often utilize a beautiful stained glass window of the Presentation of Our Lord in the church to help teach about the history and value of a presentation.  This is a teachable moment for all.  Not surprisingly, if the celebrant shows genuine trust and warmth in presenting the child to the congregation, his credibility will be enhanced.  The same is also true if the priest looks for ways to involve all of those present in “ la presentación, ” both family and the faithful.  However, it should never be overlooked that the true objective of this vibrant tradition should always be the baptism of the child.

In fact, the priest should underscore that, from the moment of “ la presentación, ” the child and the family should walk along with Jesus to that special moment of the “ entrega ” (“giving over”) in the sacrament of baptism, when the parents entrust the child to the godparents for the pouring on of water, and the praying of the Trinitarian form by the priest, and, afterwards, the lighting of the candle.  Only then, can we understand how “ la presentación ” is a very special and sacred way for a family to begin to walk with God towards that great sacrament of baptism.

• Mark Francis and Arturo J. Pérez-Rodríguez, Primero Dios:  Hispanic Liturgical Resource (Eldrige, Iowa:  Liturgy Training Publications, 1997), 25. ↩
• Translated by author, “Life is God’s greatest gift to us.  The life of a newborn child is the family’s greatest sign of blessing.  Since we have received the gift of a new life, we come to present N_______ to the Lord our God.  We ask that God bless and welcome him so that he may become a good Christian in this life. ↩
• Translated by author, N____, the Christian community welcomes you with great joy.  In its name I claim you for Christ by the sign of the cross.  I now trace the cross on your forehead and invite your parents and godparents to do the same.” ↩
• Translated by author, “By anointing this child, we welcome him as a member of the family of Christ and we begin our journey with them toward baptism.  N____, we anoint you with the oil of salvation in the name of Christ, our savior, may he strengthen you with his power, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.  Amen.” ↩
• Translated by author, “Most holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, we present to you this child that God has given us and place him in your care and protection.  We consecrate him with our whole heart and we give him over to your tenderness and maternal love.  Help his parents faithfully comply with the obligations they have committed themselves to this day in the presence of God.  Intercede for them before your Son, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever.  Amen.” ↩

Reverend Gus Puleo, a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is presently the pastor of St. Patrick Church in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and teaches Pastoral Spanish at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia.

Dear Fr. Gus, I believe there is a typo on the fourth to the last paragraph. Was it not in 1999, the year that Blessed John Paul the Great, when he proclaimed. “La Virgen de Guadalupe”, the “The Emperatriz de las Americas”? I enjoyed this article, very much! I witnessed this “presentacion” of a 3 y.o. girl at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Parish in Orange, TX, some few years back. Yours in Christ, Sylvia JD, parishioner of St Paul Catholic Church, San Antonio, TX

[…] Las Presentaciones: A Vibrant Hispanic Tradition – Fr. Gus Puelo, Homiletic & Pstrl Rvw […]

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Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Meet our clergy.

Slide title

REV. FR. MARK WAGNER, PASTOR

About Fr. Mark (excerpted from his 2018 “How I became a priest” article for St. Joseph’s Church):

“I attended 6:30 am Mass every day at Presentation Parish before my classes at Lincoln High School.  I also tried to do a daily holy hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, following the famous recommendation of Bishop Fulton Sheen.  As the only young man in the Legion of Mary group,   I was “blessed among women” at meetings.  As a high school foreign exchange student in France, I discovered that most French people are non-practicing Catholics, who were amazed that I wanted to attend daily Mass.  By bicycle, I went to countless wonderful churches! Attending Delta College for two years, I played on the soccer team and gradually began to lose interest in becoming a priest.  Next, I studied journalism at Chico State University, becoming a disc jockey for a campus radio station.  I also attended parties and chased girls (but God prevented me from catching any!)  Throughout, I was not able to drown out the voice of God calling me to the priesthood.  I felt unfulfilled and resumed my practice of daily Mass and holy hour, and decided to enter the seminary.  When I told my roommates about my decision, they said it was “cool,” and I found out that some of them were Catholic.  After two years of college seminary, I was sent for five years of theology study in Rome. This was a blessing, as I was able to visit the shrines of Europe and the Holy Land.  I received a theology degree from the “Gregorian University” and a license degree (S.T.L.) in moral theology from the “John Paul II Institute for Studies of Marriage and Family.”   Upon finishing my studies, I returned home and was ordained a priest by Bishop Donald Montrose on September 24, 1988.”

Fr. Mark is pleased to return to his “home parish” and looks forward to serving the parishioners of Presentation Parish.

REV. FR. RAMAKOTI SAKANI, HGN, PAROCHIAL VICAR

Coming Soon

REV. FR. SUDHAKAR MANDA, HGN, PAROCHIAL VICAR

Rev. dr. bill brennan.

Rev. Dr. Bill Brennan: [email protected]

REV. MR. SCOTT JOHNSON

Rev. Mr. Scott Johnson: [email protected]

REV. MR. MIKE NAVAREC, SR.

Rev. Mr. Mike Navarec, Sr.: [email protected]

Meet our Parish and School Staff

Administrative Team:

• Eren Bongcaron, 209-320-5719,   [email protected]
• Laurie Franco, 209-472-2150

Administrative Assistant:

Abigail Orrison, 209-320-5715,   [email protected]

Facilities Scheduling:

[email protected]

Facilities Supervisor:

[email protected]

Media Coordinator:

Eren Bongcaron,  [email protected]

Parish Data Coordinator:

Juanita Chavez, 209-320-5720,  [email protected]

Receptionist:

Adriana M. Benitez, 209-472-2150,   [email protected]

MUSIC: 

• Minister of Music: Victor Victorino, [email protected]
• Choir Director: Errol Respicio, [email protected]
• Music Accompanist, Robert Hull, [email protected]
• Minister of Liturgy: Katherine Andrews, PhD,   [email protected]

PASTORAL & SOCIAL SERVICES:

• Parish Co-Administrator, Eren Bongcaron, [email protected]

RELIGOUS EDUCATION (Grades K-12);

• Religious Education/RCIC: Nancy Gomez, [email protected]

YOUTH MINISTRY (High School):

• Sandra Gonzalez, [email protected]

Maria Amen, [email protected]

Vice Principal:

Nicole Wright, [email protected]

School Office Assistant:

Jeana Saccomagno, ​ [email protected]

​Administrative Assistant:

Clariza Bermudez, [email protected]

Meet our Councils

The Pastoral Council  is an advisory board that assists the parish in its spiritual growth. The Council, a representative body, collaborates with the Pastor in making major decisions, both pastoral and administrative, which affect the parish as a whole. The Pastoral Council consists of active members from our community that are appointed by the Ministry Team. Each are leaders of their respective ministries and serve a 3-year term with the option of re-election or re-appointment. 

Debi Hill, Chair- Early Childhood

Ron Hoverstad- Past Chair

Patricia Bader- Liturgy/Music

Tolen Teigen- Finance

Carol Quijada- Member-At-Large

The Stewardship Council  exists for the purpose of establishing and articulating the concept of stewardship in parish life. It also engages parishioners of all ages in stewardship practices and connecting the overall concept of stewardship with the parish’s mission to become a more deeply Christ-centered and Eucharist-centered community of faith. The Stewardship Council meets regularly to carry out and evaluate the stewardship effort on an annual basis, prepare a time and talent list or catalog of parish activities and organizations, ensure that those who volunteer are contacted and asked to become involved and updating of ministry and parishioner information.

Kathy Janssen, Chair

Alma Suerdieck

Carol Quijada

Cathy Schrader

Deacon Scott Johnson

Fabienne Johnson

Julie Schneider

Linda Bradshaw

Marcy & Alex Mendoza

Tom & Pat McMillan

The Finance Council  is a consultant group under the authority of the Pastor.  The Finance Council assists with administration of parish goods, through studies analysis, reflects and monitors the budget and other financial issues, as needed. Volunteers are selected by the pastor and have experience in accounting, property management, budgeting, or other business related activities.

Cathy Schrader, Chair

Beverly Klunk, Vice Chair

​Jorge Lopez

Tom McMillan

Tolen Teigen

We welcome you all to be part of our Church community.

Useful links, contact info, church of the presentation (physical address), 1515 w ben holt drive, stockton, ca 95207 , ministry center (mailing address), 6715 leesburg place, stockton, ca 95207, ph: (209) 472-2150, fax: (209) 472-0541.

Parish School:

1635 W. Benjamin Holt Drive, Stockton, CA 95207

Phone: (209) 472-2140

Fax: (209) 320-1515

www.presentationschool.org

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What Presbyterians believe: the sacrament of baptism

“Remember your baptism and be thankful.” For what, though, are we giving thanks, and what are we remembering?

David Gambrell - January 21, 2016

The following article was originally printed in the November/December 2015 issue , "Hope in a child," of Presbyterians Today .

Baptism is one of two sacraments practiced by Presbyterians; Communion is the other. The act of baptism is deceptively simple—but in a handful of water, there is a deep well of mystery and meaning.

In baptism, we are called to a new way of life as Christ’s disciples, sharing the good news of the gospel with all the world.  

Presbyterians describe baptism as a sign and seal of the covenant of grace made by God through Jesus and extended to us. In baptism, God claims us as beloved children and members of Christ’s body, the church, washing us clean from sin as we renounce the power of evil and seek the will and way of God.

Presbyterians have recognized baptism as one of two sacraments initiated by Christ in Scripture. All four Gospels report the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan River (Matt. 3:13–17; Mark 1:9–11; Luke 3:21–22; John 1:29–34). When we are baptized with water in the name of the Trinity, we share in Christ’s own baptism.

Presbyterians celebrate baptism as a communal act of public worship. In the Middle Ages, baptism came to be an increasingly private, family affair, separated from worship. The Protestant Reformation sought to change that, arguing that the power of baptism did not come from the act itself but from its connection with the promise of God conveyed in Scripture. That’s why Presbyterian baptism is always accompanied by the proclamation of the Word in the context of public worship. Luther and Calvin also insisted that baptism be followed by ongoing instruction in the faith, particularly through the study of the Bible and catechisms.

Presbyterians practice both adult and infant baptism. Infant baptism expresses that it is God who chooses us for faith, discipleship, and salvation; without God, we have no power to claim these things for ourselves. However, we affirm that people come to faith at different stages in life, and recognize the baptism of older believers as an equally valid expression of the sacrament.

While pouring or sprinkling water upon the head is most common, Presbyterians also allow for baptism by immersion. Whatever the method, the deep significance of baptism demands a visible and generous use of water, conveying the lavish outpouring of God’s grace, filling believers with the gifts of the Spirit, and overflowing in lives of faithfulness, service, and love.

A teaching elder—a pastor—must preside at the baptism, but it is a congregation’s session (or ruling council) that authorizes baptisms and provides for the spiritual growth and nurture of members. That’s why a ruling elder of the church always presents the candidate for baptism. In turn, both the family and the congregation promise to contribute to the baptized person’s Christian formation.

Can anyone be baptized? Yes! Christ’s gracious invitation is open to all. However, baptism is but the beginning of a lifelong process of formation in the faith.

Can a person who is not baptized be saved? In a word, yes; but this by no means diminishes the importance of the sacrament. To insist on baptism as necessary for salvation would be to impinge on the limitless sovereignty of God, one of the essentials of the Reformed theological tradition. At the same time, baptism is an indispensable part of Christian life (Rom. 6:3–4), Christian identity (Gal. 3:27–28), and the church’s mission (Matt. 28:19).

Do non-Presbyterians need to be baptized when joining the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)? Not if they were previously baptized. The PC(USA) recognizes all baptisms with water in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit administered by other Christian churches.

So remember your baptism and be thankful! In the sacrament of baptism—our inclusion in the covenant of grace, incorporation into the life of Christ, and anointing with the gifts of the Spirit—we have countless reasons to give God thanks and praise. As Jesus said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). Filled with the never-failing grace of Jesus Christ poured out for us, our hearts overflow with gratitude and joy, spilling out into the world in lives of service and love for God and neighbor.

This column is adapted from a four-page article published by The Presbyterian Leader. For the full version: pcusastore.com (search by title). David Gambrell is associate for worship in the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Author: David Gambrell

Department: None

Language: English

Agency: Presbyterian Mission Agency

Tags: baptism , sacrament , theology , what presbyterians believe

Topics: Baptism of the Lord , Sacraments , Theology

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Baptism in the Catholic Church

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Baptism in the Catholic Church. Ashleigh Vella. What is Baptism?. Baptism is an initiation into the Catholic Church. Through Baptism, we form and confirm our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church. Order of the Ceremony. The Sign of the Cross The Proclamation of the Word

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Presentation Transcript

Baptism in the Catholic Church Ashleigh Vella

What is Baptism? • Baptism is an initiation into the Catholic Church. Through Baptism, we form and confirm our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church.

Order of the Ceremony • The Sign of the Cross • The Proclamation of the Word • Baptismal Promises • Baptism with Water • Anointing with the Chrism • Farewell

The Sign of the Cross • ‘The sign of the cross … marks with the imprint of Christ the one who is going to belong to him and signifies the grace of the redemption Christ won for us by his cross.’ (CCC 1235) • The sign of the cross is used a number of times throughout the Baptismal Ceremony to remind us of Christ.

The Proclamation of the Word • The proclamation of the Word of God reminds the candidate of the faith we need to share in God.It reminds us that Baptism is the sacramental entry into the Catholic Church and the life of faith.

Baptismal Promises • During the Baptismal ceremony, Baptismal Promises are made on behalf of the child that is getting Baptised. They are based on the Apostles Creed and usually take place around the Baptismal Font, before the baptism with water.

Baptism with Water • During the Baptism with water, the priest pours water of the head of the person receiving the sacrament of Baptism. He will use the words “I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” • Water is used as a sign of cleansing – symbolically meaning the person baptised is free from all sin.

The Anointing • During the anointing, two different oils are used – the Oil of Baptism and the Oil of Chrism. The anointing with the Chrism signifies the newly Baptised has received the Holy Spirit.

Other Important Information

The God Parents • A Godparent is a member of the church who symbolically welcomes your child into the church, and acts as a witness of faith to the recipient of the sacrament of Baptism. • A Godparent is a role model who aims to install the Catholic Beliefs in the recipient of Baptism throughout their lives.

Baptism Candle • The Baptismal Candle is lit from the Paschal Candle. • The candle is presented to the newly Baptised member of the church, this is a sign of the light of Christ.

White Garment • A white garment may be worn during the sacrament of baptism. This is a sign of purity and a new found relationship with Christ.

Teacher Resources • http://www.request.org.uk/infants/milestones/baby/infbapt_infant.pdf • http://www.dltk-bible.com/baptism_rhyme.htm • http://www.dltk-teach.com/minibooks/jesus/index.htm • http://www.dltk-bible.com/jesus/baptism_puzzle.htm • http://www.dltk-bible.com/cv/jesus_is_baptized-cv.htm • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzpu5Ql1THk • http://www.sosj.org.au/index.cfm • http://www.dow.catholic.edu.au/ • http://www.cam.org.au/Catholic-Faith/Sacraments/Baptism.aspx • http://catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0285.html

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Florida pastor stabbed to death at his church by man living there, police say

A suspect has been arrested in the death of a popular Florida pastor who was found stabbed in his church over the weekend.

Antwane Lenoir, known as “Pastor A.D." by his Miami-Dade community, was found at Westview Baptist Church in the Florida city of Opa-locka on Saturday evening, according to police documents.

Police responded to a call about a stabbing at the church around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. When they arrived, they found Lenoir, 41, with wounds to the neck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The following day, police tracked down 44-year-old James Dawkins and arrested him on a charge of first-degree murder in relation to the killing. According to the arrest report, Dawkins had been allowed to live at the church temporarily but Lenoir had recently contacted a locksmith to change several locks on the property.

Dawkins and Lenoir allegedly had an argument when the locksmith arrived at church. Police alleged Dawkins then stabbed Lenoir multiple times "without any provocation" before running from the scene.

Once found and questioned, police described Dawkins' statement to authorities as "self-serving" and not "consistent with the evidence obtained throughout the course of the investigation."

Dawkins, represented by a public defender, appeared in court for the first time Monday to enter a plea of not guilty. He is being held without bond at the Miami-Dade Corrections’ Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

USA TODAY reached out to Dawkins' attorney and Westview Baptist Church.

'He was a very good example of a selfless individual'

Lenoir's wife of 20 years, Bree, told CBS News Miami that her husband had been a pastor at the church for 15 years and had become a beloved leader in the community. He leaves behind their 4 children, aged between 13 and 20.

"He was a very good example of a selfless individual, a joy-filled person," she told CBS. "He always smiled, even if things were looking kind of grim or dreary, you wouldn't know it by his countenance."

Opa-locka Mayor John H. Taylor II made a post honoring the late religious leader on Sunday, saying in part, “The City of Opa-locka grieves the loss of a Noble Man and friend. We were blessed to have this Great Man as a part of our community, serving in many capacities to ensure that our residents had a voice."

Similar messages flooded Facebook from Florida officials and community members alike, calling him a "devoted family man," "pillar of our community," and " a force for so much good ."

"His wisdom, kindness, and unwavering faith touched the lives of so many, mine included," said one parishioner's post. "Pastor Lenoir’s contributions will be remembered with great respect and gratitude. May his spirit continue to inspire us all," said another by City of North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme.

"His life is not when it ended. It's not even about when it started," his wife told CBS Miami. "It's about what he did in between to make his life count."

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church

• Presentation of Children

The presentation of children is not a sacrament, but a custom that it is very ancient. In the Gospel of Luke 2:22-40, we hear the story of the Virgin Mary and Joseph presenting baby Jesus to God in the temple. After the 40 days of ritual purification has passed, Mary and Joseph went up to Jerusalem and presented Jesus to the Lord. They offered a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons as it is the law.

Similarly, Catholic parents present their non-baptized child (children) to God in the temple after 40 days of their birth and if the child (children) have been baptized, they are presented to the Lord when they reach up to 3 years of age in thanksgiving for their life. A priest or a deacon will bless them and dedicate them to the Lord.

At our parish, presentations are done Saturday mornings along baptisms. Please call the parish office if you would like to present your child to God.

Also, it is customary that children up to 12 years old are presented in the temple on February 2nd, the day of "the Presentation of the Lord". It is recommended that the baptism godparents are the same ones who present the child (children).

Oklahoma church commended for response to long-ago allegations

An Oklahoma Southern Baptist church is being commended for how it is responding to long-ago sexual abuse allegations made against a former minister.

First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow has recently launched a third-party investigation into accusations that a former college and singles minister sexually abused a then-teenage participant of the house of worship's high school student ministry. Current church leaders said the allegations led previous church leadership to fire the minister in 2006. Current church leaders said they learned of the accusations from a social media post made by the alleged victim in 2021.

The church, with average weekly attendance of 1,000, is one of the larger Southern Baptist houses of worship in the state. Church leaders said they have hired  Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, known as GRACE,  to conduct an independent, third-party investigation regarding accusations made against the former minister. In their January announcement to the congregation, church leaders said they also have hired legal counsel who has worked with other churches that have faced similar matters.

A leader with Oklahoma Baptists, the Oklahoma affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention, commented on the recent developments unfolding at the eastern Oklahoma church. 

More: As Southern Baptists grapple with long ago abuse, an Oklahoma church takes steps

"We are saddened to learn of the behavior that occurred, and we grieve with the abuse survivor," Brian Hobbs, Oklahoma Baptists' communications director, said in a statement. "The church’s support for the survivor and the transparency being demonstrated by the church’s leadership in this difficult situation is commendable. We are praying for everyone impacted by this, and we will continue to proactively provide resources for churches in the area of preventing abuse and caring for abuse survivors."

Another Oklahoma Southern Baptist leader, the  Rev. Mike Keahbone,  also commended the church's leadership, particularly Senior Pastor Matt Brooks, for the way the church has responded to the allegations stemming from years past. Keahbone is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force tasked with implementing abuse reform measures.

Keahbone said First Baptist-Broken Arrow's multi-pronged approach to the situation is an indication that the Southern Baptist Convention is making some strides as it continues to wrestle with a sex abuse crisis that erupted after the 2019 publication of "Abuse of Faith," a newspaper investigative series by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.

"He's (Brooks) a model, that church is a model, for how any church in a similar situation can handle that situation," Keahbone said. "As someone who is at the forefront of trying to help us get better as Southern Baptists in this arena, I'm looking at what he did, how he handled it. And one, I want to show off as a model, and two, I want us to learn, so that we can help provide resources that help churches handle it as well as they did."

Focus on motivation, timing

In a statement posted on the church's website titled "Addressing Our Past," current church leaders said they reached out in 2021 to the woman who made the social media post and met with her to discuss the allegations.

The Rev. Steve Smith, the church's executive pastor, said the church filed a police report after meeting with the woman. According to a Broken Arrow Police report, current church leaders contacted police and filed a report in September 2021 regarding the accusations made in the social media post. They said they were ultimately told by police "there was no action which they could take." A Broken Arrow Police spokesman recently told The Oklahoman that there is currently no active case against the accused former minister.

Smith reiterated that the current church leadership's decision to pursue a third-party investigation was not motivated by any action or inaction by local police or former church leadership. In their statement to the congregation they said, "We recognize behavior does not have to meet a criminal standard for it to be defined as abusive," and Smith said that philosophy hasn't changed now that the accusations and the church's response to them has been publicized in a previous story in The Oklahoman and other news outlets.

"Whether a police report was filed in 2006 has not been a driving motivation behind our response," Smith said. "While the question of police reports or other legal factors may be part of the investigation’s findings, our motivation has been what we said in our statement, 'that God will bring truth to light, mightily restore and heal the broken-hearted, and bring to restoration and repentance those in need of our Savior’s never-ending grace.'"

Smith said the woman reached out to the church again in fall 2023 to ask that they take specific actions. Those actions, outlined in the church's recent statement, included reporting the accused minister to the Southern Baptist Convention, analyzing and accounting for the church's current policies and procedures for abuse prevention and response, and providing "some tangible consideration for the suffering she has experienced."

Smith said then current church leaders decided it was time to make a statement about the launch of a third-party investigation.

He said church leaders notified the accused former minister and former church leaders about the allegations several weeks before making an announcement to the church and posting a statement on the church's website in mid-January 2024.

The accused minister told The Oklahoman in mid-February that he had contacted the church and his accuser but had not heard from either. Smith said that church leaders did reach out to the former minister and received an email from him about a month later, which they acknowledged immediately and then provided a "thorough response" to the next business day.

'Tale of two churches'

Keahbone said it's important to note that First Baptist-Broken Arrow, as a large congregation, has resources available that many smaller churches don't. He said that's why the ministry toolkit developed by the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force is an important resource. Keahbone said the toolkit also will soon include the much-anticipated Ministry Check database, which is under development.

Keahbone also compared First Baptist-Broken Arrow's response to that of Immanuel Baptist, a counterpart in Arkansas. Immanuel's lead pastor did not inform his congregation about sex abuse accusations against a former youth minister until details of the case were reported in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in December 2023. The former youth minister was initially charged with second-degree sexual assault but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor harassment in 2022.  In February, he withdrew his request to have his records sealed.

As part of the controversy surrounding that case, current and past leaders of First Baptist Church of Moore in Oklahoma said Immanuel Baptist did not notify them about the allegations against the youth minister, or the subsequent investigation — which is relevant because the Moore church hired him after he left the Arkansas house of worship.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that two Immanuel church members have filed complaints with the Southern Baptist Convention's credentials committee, with one of them alleging that Immanuel's response to sexual abuse is inconsistent with Baptist principles. The Arkansas news outlet has reported that Immanuel's senior minister has announced plans to resign, effective April 7.

Keahbone noted the differences in responses.

"You have two churches that handled this vastly different," Keahbone, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lawton, said "Immanuel handled it just about as poorly as you possibly could. First Baptist-Broken Arrow handled it just about as well as you could possibly handle it. It's a tale of two churches ― one did it right, the other did not."

Marysville church to host Dana Nessel for presentation on senior scams

A Marysville church is slated to host Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel later this month for a presentation to relay information on senior scams.

According to the Rev. Curtis Clarke, a pastor for the Marysville United Methodist Church, the event, which is set for Saturday, April 27, will provide details on how to avoid scams and actions individuals can take to reduce their risk of being victimized.

“A recent study f rom the University of Michigan confirmed that senior citizens are more likely to fall victim to phone, mail, and online scams,” he said via email. “More than two-thirds of older Michigan residents report someone tried to scam in the past two years. This is a serious threat to the safety and security of our senior population.”

Clarke said the event is part of the church’s semiannual “Lunch and Learn” series, and that they were opening up the April 27 session to the community, citing Nessel’s appearance.

A spokesperson from the attorney general’s office confirmed the appearance on Friday.

Clarke said guests are invited to bring their own lunch in the church’s fellowship hall at 721 W. Huron Blvd. from noon to 12:30 p.m. when the presentation would begin. Refreshments will be provided afterward.

Those interested, according to an event flyer, are encouraged to register by calling (810) 364-7391 or finding a link to register on their website under special events at www.umcmarysville.com .

How Alvin Bragg Hitched His Fate to Trump’s

The Manhattan D.A. campaigned as the best candidate to go after the former president. Now he finds himself leading Trump’s first prosecution — and perhaps the only one before the November election.

Credit... Philip Montgomery for The New York Times

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By Kim Barker ,  Jonah E. Bromwich and Michael Rothfeld

Kim Barker, Jonah E. Bromwich and Michael Rothfeld interviewed more than 70 of Alvin Bragg’s friends and colleagues and legal and political experts for this article. Rothfeld and Bromwich have written extensively about the case against Trump; Barker, an investigations reporter, examined Bragg’s legal record.

• April 9, 2024

Reporters vied for seats in the briefing room, some even crouching on the floor. They all knew, on this Tuesday in early April 2023, that Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, was about to announce something momentous: the first criminal charges against a former American president.

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Yet when Bragg walked quietly onto the stage, it took a second or two for the audience to realize he was there. In his dark blue suit and dark-rimmed glasses, he blended into the dark blue curtains behind the lectern. He took out his notes and thanked everyone for coming. He was flanked by poster boards with flow charts, but that was as far as the showmanship went.

The accusations he went on to level against Donald J. Trump were salacious, involving money paid to a porn star just before the 2016 presidential election so she would remain silent about her claim that they had sex a decade before. But Bragg studiously avoided mentioning sex or hush money during the 13-minute event, focusing instead on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment. Bragg looked frequently at his notes while he spoke, mostly in a monotone. He seemed unprepared (or unwilling) to answer the most obvious questions: why he had abandoned a different case, about whether Trump had falsified the valuations of properties, or why he thought he could make these new charges stick.

Bragg displayed passion only once, in response to a question about why he brought a hush-money case after his predecessor and federal prosecutors had not.

“This is the business capital of the world,” Bragg said, his voice rising. “We regularly do cases involving false business statements. The bedrock — in fact, the basis for business integrity and a well-functioning business marketplace — is true and accurate record-keeping. That’s the charge that’s brought here, falsifying New York State business records.”

True and accurate record-keeping. It’s hardly the stuff of history books. But a year later, it is this paperwork case — not the three other indictments that have dominated the news, involving accusations of trying to overturn a presidential election and mishandling highly classified documents — that will in the coming days make history as Trump’s first criminal trial, and perhaps the only one before the election in November.

Hardly anyone figured that it would play out this way. Bragg himself had said that “broader justice may warrant another case going first.” Yet with those other cases mired in legal skirmishing and delay, it is Bragg, a Harvard-trained prosecutor who has often appeared to be a most uncomfortable, un-media-savvy public figure, who will now face off against the reality-television star turned Republican former president, master of spin, media-ready insult and creation of his own narrative.

Bragg’s legal argument is complicated, but it stems from a simple episode: In the days before the 2016 election, Trump’s personal attorney and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, paid $130,000 in hush money to the adult-film star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors argue that Trump, who denies that he had sex with Daniels, then lied on 34 business records — 12 ledger entries, 11 invoices and 11 checks — to disguise his repayment of Cohen as legal fees.

On its own, falsifying those documents would be misdemeanors, relatively minor crimes. Bragg elevated each of the charges to felonies by arguing that they were committed to hide or further another crime — which, in an unusual move, he did not charge. He said he wasn’t required to specify that crime, but added that it might have been a violation of state or federal election law. What may further complicate the case is that it relies heavily on testimony from Cohen, a disbarred lawyer who served prison time after pleading guilty to violating campaign-finance laws, evading taxes, making false statements to a bank and lying to Congress.

After the indictment, a chorus of critics — some but not all on the right — questioned the legal reasoning, wisdom and winnability of the hush-money case. Today, many experts believe that Bragg’s legal strategy looks considerably stronger, validated by a federal judge who rebuffed Trump’s effort to delay or even kill the case by having it moved to federal court, and by the Manhattan judge presiding over the case, who in February officially greenlit Bragg’s premise by setting a trial date.

None of which means the case has ceased to be controversial. The furor lives on, primarily in the political space. Trump and his allies have branded the case a witch hunt, a selective prosecution brought by a Democratic district attorney in the pocket of George Soros, boogeyman of the right. Many Democrats, in turn, worry that Trump’s narrative of persecution is only fueling his presidential campaign, especially because this case of sexual peccadillo and faked paperwork might look frivolous next to his three other indictments, which cut closer to his presidency and the foundations of American democracy.

“We’re all kind of like, ‘I can’t believe Alvin is at the center of this,’” says Erin E. Murphy, a New York University law professor who is part of Bragg’s close-knit friend group from law school and was one of more than 70 friends, colleagues and legal and political experts interviewed for this article. She adds: “He’s just so not political. He’s like, not a hyperpartisan political person in any way, shape or form. So there’s just this dissonance.”

Certainly, Bragg, who is 50, has never seemed to concern himself much with appearances. His friends have long joked about his wearing rumpled suits or a Boy Scout outfit on a date. If he could have applied for this job instead of campaigning for it, they say, he would have. That’s what he did when he became a federal prosecutor and then a deputy New York attorney general, each move a step forward in a life devoted to a careful, verging on nerdy, practice of the law; to the commitment to service — a word he has often used — that his parents instilled in him when he was growing up on Strivers’ Row in Harlem.

Bragg himself has seemed almost sheepish about the Trump case, preferring to talk about tackling wage theft or creating a jail-diversion program. Just after he announced the indictment last spring, his office sent out its regular roundup of big cases. It listed the Trump indictment not first, not even second, but third — after the convictions of two killers. The office’s 2023 highlights list didn’t even mention Trump. Bragg declined to comment for this article, concerned about being accused of unethical behavior before the trial.

Yet if Bragg the district attorney has been largely quiet about the former president, a look back through his record shows that hasn’t always been the case. Bragg the candidate, in fact, was more than willing to talk up his legal bona fides in the matter of Trump. Bragg may lack the polish and presentation of a politician. His friends may insist that he’s not a politician. But for all his lawyerly reticence, inside his sometimes-ill-fitting suits is a man of unmistakable ambition who has hitched his aspirations to the pursuit of Donald J. Trump.

Bragg’s emergence as a public critic of Trump came at a time when he was relatively unknown outside New York legal and Harvard-alumni circles. And it came in an unusual venue: a video, posted in May 2019 by the progressive news outlet NowThis and hosted by the flamboyantly public Trump hater Robert De Niro. In the video, Bragg and 10 other former federal prosecutors said they believed that Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election had uncovered more than enough evidence to indict Trump. “This isn’t even a close case,” Bragg said.

Bragg was on a break from public service, teaching at New York Law School. But he was also just weeks from announcing his next move: his candidacy for Manhattan district attorney in an election still two years away.

The incumbent district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., had begun his own investigation of the president and his businesses. And even before Vance announced in March 2021 that he would not seek re-election, the race had become a referendum on who could best take on Trump. In a primary campaign of would-be Trump slayers, Bragg sold himself as the most experienced.

He talked about supervising the state investigation into the Trump Foundation as chief deputy attorney general in 2017 — a case that led to the charity’s closure. He said he knew how to prosecute fraud in the valuation of properties, one strand of Vance’s Trump investigation. Referring to Trump’s “criminal policies,” Bragg added, “He has embraced white nationalism, misconstrued data and engaged in cronyism, and the result has been a parade of horribles.” Bragg told The Wall Street Journal that he “certainly” had more experience with Trump “than most people in the world.” A rival Democrat’s spokeswoman complained that Bragg attacked Trump “for political advantage every chance he gets.”

Bragg also used Trump to contrast himself with Vance. The district attorney, he argued, had appeared soft on the rich and powerful, declining to prosecute two of Trump’s children several years earlier on accusations that they misled potential buyers in the struggling Trump SoHo condo-hotel. Vance had also met with one of Trump’s lawyers, Marc Kasowitz, and accepted his $32,000 campaign contribution just months after rejecting the Trump SoHo case. (Vance later returned the money.)

For Bragg, this was a break with lawyerly protocol — to be talking about a potential case before seeing all the facts, at the risk of appearing biased. Yet in this election cycle, and especially with Trump newly vulnerable after his 2020 loss, holding him to account seemed vital to being elected in Manhattan.

Bragg’s campaign was hardly all Trump. He also championed the sort of criminal-justice-reform issues — for example, ending long prison sentences for low-level street crimes — that had helped progressive prosecutors sweep into office nationwide. But he seemed to double down on Trump as the campaign went on, simplifying and exaggerating his record. “It is a fact that I have sued Trump over 100 times,” Bragg told The New York Times in April 2021, an often-repeated claim that would be published everywhere from CNN to the BBC. “I can’t change that fact, nor would I. That was important work.” Asked recently for documentation, a campaign spokesman, Richard Fife, sent links to more than 100 news releases. A review of these and court filings found 30 cases in which the New York attorney general’s office had sued Trump or his federal agencies during Bragg’s time there — nearly always alongside other states. (The office also joined 12 other ongoing lawsuits against the Trump administration, the analysis found.) As a top aide to the attorney general, Bragg could have supervised those cases, but taking personal credit seems a bit of a stretch.

The district attorney’s office referred questions about the lawsuits to Fife, who said Bragg’s comments were not written but made “in conversation.” (Bragg, in fact, did repeat the statement in a written candidate questionnaire.) “I will concede,” Fife said, “that our use of the word ‘suit’ isn’t as limited as your definition.”

In heavily Democratic Manhattan, primaries typically function as general elections. On Primary Day in June 2021, Bragg said on Twitter: “As Chief Deputy Attorney General of NY State, I oversaw a staff of 1200+ people delivering progressive change. I led the investigation into stop and frisk. I didn’t just sue Donald Trump and the Trump Foundation — I won.”

On Nov. 2, 2021, the night he trounced his Republican opponent, Bragg moved to the microphone at Harlem Tavern as supporters chanted: “Alvin! Alvin! Alvin!” His first public remarks were hardly memorable.

“Somewhere deep down inside, I think I always wanted a bar mitzvah,” said Bragg, who had long taught Sunday school at the nearby Abyssinian Baptist Church. “This is new for me, newly elected — I think I can say that now, right?” he asked the crowd, starting his speech. Then he paused, practically giddy, to interrupt himself: “Look, this is phenomenal.”

Bragg’s remarks made it clear that he saw his election as Manhattan’s first Black district attorney as the natural next chapter in the annals of his life. Walking to the tavern on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Bragg told his supporters, his mind flipped back through a personal journey that began along this stretch of what neighborhood old-timers like himself still called Eighth Avenue: being dropped off at grade school by his parents; eventually taking the M10 bus there on his own; facing guns pointed at him by the police; graduating from high school. But that was not all. Bragg had one more memory to share.

“I had my first date with Jamila Ponton Bragg on 139th Street and Eighth Avenue,” he said. “And I was wearing a Boy Scout uniform, because I had just come from leading a troop at Abyssinian Baptist Church, and she still ate with me, and she married me!”

Bragg’s parents, Alvin Sr. and Sadie, raised him to move seamlessly between worlds. They attended church at Abyssinian, a stronghold of Black social-justice activism. But they also enrolled their only child as a kindergartner at the Trinity School, one of the city’s most exclusive private academies. Bragg, one of a handful of Black students, became the center of a tight-knit group of Trinity kids, friends who are still in his inner circle. “We always called him the mayor,” recalls John Scott, who met Bragg in middle school. “He was like the most gregarious and outgoing and charismatic guy, even back then.”

In a Trinity yearbook entry, Bragg quoted Aristotle, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the music producer Quincy Jones — and himself: “You and I are like two stalks of corn in a field of love … waiting for the harvest.” (It was apparently an inside joke.)

Asked by a journalist during the campaign if he was nerdy, Bragg said: “I think yes and no. I think nerdiness is a little bit context-based.” He paused and added: “I think in any broad sense, yes.” The Rev. Al Sharpton, who supported Bragg’s campaign and praised his indictment of Trump, described him this way: “He’s not the larger-than-life swagger figure of Harlem. He is the result of what those generations produced: a competent, efficient guy.”

Growing up, Bragg’s friends say, he didn’t make a big fuss about the three times he remembered the police pulling guns on him on the Harlem streets. Once, several police cars converged on a taxi carrying Bragg and four Black friends; the officers, guns drawn, ordered everyone out. They told them they “fit the description” of some boys who had just committed a crime nearby, then held them for a few minutes before letting them go, recalls Roald Richards, one of the friends. (During the campaign, whenever Bragg brought up his encounters with the police, he would also mention the three times criminals pulled guns on him or would praise the police for keeping the streets safe.)

Yet if Bragg swallowed those experiences as a teenager, he has also described them as fuel for his ambition. He was elected president of his high school senior class; his yearbook described an imaginary 20-year reunion in which Bragg was president of the United States. While he was at college, The Harvard Crimson highlighted his ability as president of the Black Students Association to defuse tension between warring student groups. The headline: “The Anointed One.” Bragg’s role: “Conciliator.” He became such good friends with Republicans that, years later, one would actually donate money to his campaign — despite the fact that said Republican, Harry Wilson, would later run for governor of New York. At Harvard Law School, Bragg joined the team that won the prestigious moot-court competition. Even that makes his path seem preordained: It was the Archibald Cox team, named for the Watergate prosecutor who investigated President Richard M. Nixon.

Bragg started out as a lawyer in private practice representing, among other clients, Native American tribal members who said they had been abused by the police. But he soon became a prosecutor at the state attorney general’s office, explaining later that he felt he could make more of a difference from the inside. After three years, he left to become a lawyer at the New York City Council. Three years after that, he joined the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. After four years there, he returned for a second tour at the attorney general’s office. It became a pattern: Bragg never stayed long enough to build a deep record. He seemed in a rush to get somewhere.

But in offices where head-down self-advancement was the norm, Bragg amassed friends and allies. It’s all but impossible to find anyone who worked with him who has a negative thing to say. He walked around, often slightly disheveled, messenger bag dangling and tie askew, smiled big and asked, “How are you?” Several colleagues recalled being struck by how deliberately he tested the strengths and weaknesses of evidence. “In every regard, he was one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and meticulous,” says Joshua Gradinger, who worked under Bragg in the attorney general’s office. “I say that over and over again — meticulous.”

But as Bragg prepared to take office in 2022, a conflict was brewing: between his careful approach to the law and the promises he made during his political campaign.

Within days of becoming district attorney, Bragg announced his top policy priorities. From the recesses of his campaign website, he pulled a criminal-justice-reform manifesto outlining crimes that would no longer be prosecuted, including marijuana possession, trespassing and sex work. The Day 1 Memo, as it was called, also signaled that illegal gun possession would not mean jail time unless the gun was used in a violent crime.

The timing was less than ideal. During the pandemic, murders and shootings rose, and many New Yorkers seemed to believe that things were spiraling out of control. “Happy 2022, Criminals!” The New York Post blared, referring to Bragg as the “woke new Manhattan DA.”

Bragg’s ideas weren’t exactly radical. But his execution — announcing them as one of his first acts, in the biggest job of his life, without anticipating the backlash — made him look like a rookie, like someone who didn’t seem to fully grasp that he would be upsetting some of the very people he needed to do his job. The police commissioner rebuked him; police unions condemned him. Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney who had hired Bragg and then campaigned for him, was disappointed and frustrated by what he saw as an astonishingly clumsy rollout, according to people familiar with his thinking.

Bragg had another hangover from the campaign: the case of Tracy McCarter, a nurse accused of killing her husband. Vance had charged McCarter with second-degree murder in September 2020, even though she claimed self-defense and domestic abuse. Activists on social media had defended her. Bragg had weighed in. “I #StandWithTracy,” he tweeted on the day she was charged, using the hashtag pushed by McCarter’s backers. “Prosecuting a domestic violence survivor who acted in self-defense is unjust.”

Now, invested with the powers of the district attorney, Bragg had to decide whether he would indeed stand with McCarter. Pressing him to do so was a progressive group, Color of Change, whose political-action committee had endorsed him and pledged to spend more than $1 million supporting his campaign. It ultimately spent about $425,000, money that helped Bragg overcome his closest opponent’s last-minute rush of cash. (That financial link would become Republican ammunition: Within days of its Bragg endorsement, Color of Change received a $1 million donation from George Soros, the billionaire patron of liberal causes. After the Trump indictment, the former president and his allies pointed to it as evidence that Bragg was under Soros’s control.)

In November 2022, Bragg went into court himself — unusual for a sitting district attorney — to ask the judge to dismiss the McCarter case. “I understand the gravity of this decision,” he said, before lapsing into a jumble of legalese. Several days later, the judge, Diane Kiesel, dismissed the case but excoriated Bragg for what she called legal errors and potentially politically motivated decisions. The case, she wrote, “has reached the point where the public could perceive this dismissal as bought and paid for with campaign contributions and political capital.”

But in some ways, Bragg had started to get his footing, delivering on some of his campaign promises to take on the powerful and help the less fortunate. He prosecuted hate crimes against Asian Americans, exonerated a sixth defendant in the 1989 Central Park jogger case and pursued significantly fewer lower-level crimes than Vance had. He charged Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former political strategist, with money laundering and conspiracy for his role in a charity that skimmed from donations for a border wall, a case that has yet to go to trial. Bragg would also obtain indictments of two men with ties to a fellow Democrat, Mayor Eric Adams.

Still, Bragg seemed to be trying to thread the needle, looking for compromise as he had throughout his career. While he stopped demanding bail as often as Vance had, those decisions were often dictated by state bail reforms. His office also filed about 3,800 violent-felony cases in 2022, the most in 10 years, even as shootings and murders dropped, allowing Bragg to claim that his policies were working. But none of this would stop conservatives from grumbling that Bragg was a left-wing coddler of violent criminals, as a Republican prosecutor in Arizona would later do when she refused to extradite a murder suspect to New York.

By the end of his first year in office, Bragg had turned a corner. He had just won his biggest victory: convicting Trump’s company of tax fraud. Vance had filed the charges, but Bragg delivered on them. And finally, he was finding the way forward with Trump himself.

For more than two years, Cyrus Vance’s prosecutors had hunted for a winnable case against Trump. But while it wasn’t hard to find legally questionable behavior across Trump’s business empire, each possible case had a flaw.

The lawyers were intrigued by the hush-money case. Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor Vance had pulled out of retirement to pursue Trump, was among those who called it “the zombie case,” because it was alive, then dead, then alive again. Pomerantz thought the hush-money facts seemed incriminating, easy to explain to a jury. But he worried about persuading a judge that the misdemeanor charges of falsifying business records — for disguising the hush-money repayment as legal fees — could be elevated to felonies.

Pomerantz, who had led the criminal division in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, was drawn to another option: Trump’s exaggerations of his net worth on financial statements submitted to banks. Trump wasn’t just boasting, Pomerantz argued. He was committing crimes.

Weeks before his term ended in December 2021, Vance brought together a group of experienced lawyers to evaluate the net-worth case. The group included two prosecutors who worked on the Mueller investigation, but it did not include the incoming district attorney; Bragg was not even told about the meeting. Regardless, Vance emerged with a plan. He would push ahead.

When Bragg took office that January, he needed to decide quickly whether to sign on to the case; prosecutors were already presenting evidence to a grand jury. But quickly wasn’t in Bragg’s nature. By month’s end, a frustrated Pomerantz sent Bragg an email that he would later write was “blunt, perhaps too blunt.” He told the new district attorney that he needed to “respect our judgment,” noted that it was “virtually impossible” to meet with him about the Trump case and scolded Bragg, who was two decades younger, for looking at his phone during one of their few meetings. Pomerantz later wrote that he had wondered if Bragg “was in over his head.”

But Bragg remained skeptical, according to people familiar with his thinking. He believed that there was no evidence tying Trump directly to a financial fraud; without it, he worried, he would not be able to prove Trump’s criminal intent. And prosecutors wanted a tour guide — a cooperating witness who knew the ins and outs of the crime. Michael Cohen was extremely willing, having broken with Trump, but he lacked intimate knowledge of the Trump Organization’s finances.

There were more meetings, more emails — but Bragg refused to bring the case on Pomerantz’s timeline. So in late February, Pomerantz and another lead prosecutor on the case quit — in spectacular fashion. Pomerantz’s resignation letter described Bragg’s decision as “a grave failure of justice.” He then wrote a book called “People vs. Donald Trump” that might as well have been called “Pomerantz vs. Bragg.” Pomerantz wrote that the investigation turned into “the legal equivalent of a plane crash” and accused Bragg of “pilot error.”

Bragg, for his part, said little — even when Pomerantz’s resignation letter became public, even when many of his liberal supporters complained that he had dropped the ball on Trump and even when critics lumped this decision together with the Day 1 Memo as some kind of proof that he wasn’t up to the job. For all of Bragg’s campaign rhetoric, those who know him insisted that he would never have indicted Trump without reviewing every piece of evidence. Plus, Bragg did not feel bound by Vance’s view of the case — he was the district attorney now.

“He doesn’t get the luxury of saying, ‘Well, Cy Vance said it’s OK,’” says Kim Foxx, a Bragg friend who is the state’s attorney in Chicago. “His name is on the door. His face is on the wall. He owes it to the case. He owes it to the potential defendant to do his due diligence.”

To the world, it might have looked as if the Trump case were dead. Bragg was no longer talking about Trump publicly. But he and three top aides had begun meeting regularly on the eighth floor of the district attorney’s office, going back through all the documents from the net-worth case. The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, had already been indicted in the tax-fraud case; now he might be persuaded to plead guilty and cooperate against Trump in this one. And he might, perhaps, become a witness about another matter: the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Bragg kept returning to that payment. This case had a far cleaner narrative than the net-worth case, with clear evidence of Trump’s involvement; he had personally signed nine checks repaying Cohen. And Cohen was the perfect tour guide: He had paid Daniels in the first place. By the summer of 2022, Bragg was confident that he could convince a court that these misdemeanors should be elevated to felonies. He added prosecutors to the Trump team. The “zombie case” was alive.

A payoff to a porn star might seem like a trivial matter on which to hinge a historic prosecution of a man who later tried to overturn an election. But in late February, the Supreme Court further delayed the federal prosecution of Trump on charges of plotting to do just that, agreeing to decide whether he has immunity for acts taken as president. Trial dates for the other two cases — the federal classified-documents case in Florida and the state election-interference case in Georgia — seem at best months away.

So the hush-money case it is. Some legal experts initially deemed it shaky, largely because Bragg failed to specify the underlying crime that Trump intended to commit. Though the crime of falsifying business records is nominally a misdemeanor, the Manhattan district attorney’s office almost always charges it as a felony. Still, the Trump case stands apart. The Times could identify only two other felony cases in Manhattan over the past decade in which defendants were indicted on charges of falsifying business records but no other crime.

In an opinion piece in The Times soon after the Trump indictment, Jed Shugerman, a law professor at Boston University, called the case a “disaster” and a “legal embarrassment.” Some lawyers predicted that it would be kicked up to federal court and buried in delays, largely because it was related to a federal-election campaign. Some wondered how internal records could prove intent to defraud.

But in the following months, Bragg beat back legal challenges. He detailed the crimes that Trump was trying to conceal — violations of state and federal election law and state tax law. When Trump’s lawyers tried to move the case to federal court, the judge there, Alvin K. Hellerstein, rebuffed them, saying that the fact that the alleged fraud happened in a federal election was “not a basis” to move the case. Then the New York judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan, ruled that Bragg’s prosecutors had presented “legally sufficient evidence” for the grand jury to reasonably find that Trump intended to defraud voters and the government. Some initial skeptics have come around, even if they believe that the legal questions surrounding the case will probably re-emerge in appeals.

Accounting for the weight of the moment, Bragg has increasingly cast the case as an attempt to subvert the 2016 presidential election. “The case is not — the core of it’s not — money for sex,” Bragg said in a radio interview in December. “We would say it’s about conspiring to corrupt a presidential election and then lying in New York business records to cover it up.”

Trump heads into the trial after a series of setbacks, both legal and financial. Relying on some of the same evidence that was pursued by Pomerantz, the New York attorney general, Letitia James, recently won a $454 million civil judgment against Trump for fraudulently inflating his net worth. He also owes an $83 million defamation award to the writer E. Jean Carroll. And in his pretrial rulings, Merchan has slapped Trump with a gag order and strictly circumscribed the arguments his lawyers will be allowed to make. Defense lawyers have signaled that their case will most likely focus on attacking Michael Cohen as a serial liar who cannot be trusted and arguing that prosecutors have little evidence of Trump’s intent to commit a crime.

If Trump is convicted, he faces limited personal jeopardy, at least in the near term; any penalty — a maximum of four years in prison — would probably be deferred by his almost-certain appeal. The far-larger questions as the trial and the Trump-Biden rematch converge are about political jeopardy, or political advantage. Republican strategists believe, and some of their Democratic counterparts fret, that an acquittal or a hung jury will energize Trump, while he could more convincingly write off a conviction than with the other cases. “I can’t imagine anything easier to paint as a partisan witch hunt,” says Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican pollster.

Even so, some Democrats argue that wall-to-wall coverage of the trial will remind voters on the fence — like the moderate Republicans Trump needs to win — that he has been accused of having sex with a porn star while his wife cared for their infant son and then covering it up to win a presidential election. “The world’s going to stop for this,” says James Carville, the longtime Democratic strategist. “I mean, the first criminal trial ever of a president? I think if anything, the significance of this event is not yet fully appreciated.”

On the morning of Feb. 15, Bragg was back in the dingy courtroom where Trump was first arraigned. The district attorney, this time wearing a well-fitted gray suit, sat on a hard wooden bench in the second row, behind the team of prosecutors he had assembled. Walkie-talkies crackled, signaling the arrival of the former president. In a dirty hallway crammed with Secret Service agents, Trump spoke to television cameras. He said his lawyers would ask to delay the case — then he walked in, wearing a slightly rumpled navy suit and a screaming red tie.

In the courtroom, an unusually subdued Trump stared at the ceiling, arms at his sides. But once the trial date was set, Bragg didn’t seem to focus on Trump or on discussions about jury selection and trial exhibits. He bent over the judge’s decision declining to dismiss the case, reading it slowly, carefully. After the hearing, he released a brief statement, pronouncing himself “pleased.” Pleased . His spokeswoman confessed later that it was a struggle to get him to say even that.

Susan Beachy and Julie Tate contributed research.

Read by Emily Woo Zeller

Narration produced by Emma Kehlbeck and Krish Seenivasan

Engineered by David Mason

Kim Barker is a Times reporter writing in-depth stories about national issues. More about Kim Barker

Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney's office, state criminal courts in Manhattan and New York City's jails. More about Jonah E. Bromwich

Michael Rothfeld is an investigative reporter in New York, writing in-depth stories focused on the city’s government, business and personalities. More about Michael Rothfeld

Our Coverage of the Trump Hush-Money Case

The manhattan district attorney has filed charges against former president donald trump over a hush-money payment to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election..

Taking the Case to Trial: Trump is all but certain to become the first former U.S. president to stand trial on criminal charges after a judge denied his effort to delay the proceeding and confirmed it will begin on April 15 .

Implications for Trump: As the case goes to trial, the former president’s inner circle sees a silver lining in the timing. But Trump wouldn’t be able to pardon himself  should he become president again as he could if found guilty in the federal cases against him.

Michael Cohen: Trump’s former fixer was not an essential witness in the former president’s civil fraud trial in New York  that concluded in January. But he will be when he takes the stand in the hush-money case .

Stormy Daniels: The chain of events flowing from a 2006 encounter that the adult film star said she had with Trump has led to the brink of a historic trial. Here's a look inside the hush-money payout .

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Right-believing Prince Daniel of Moscow

Troparion & Kontakion

OUR MINISTER

Dr. Joseph Lozovyy was born into a Christian family in Elektrostal, Moscow Region, and was raised in a pastor’s home. From the age of fifteen, he began actively participating in the music ministry of the Baptist Church in Mytishchi, where his father served as a pastor, and also played in the orchestra of the Central Moscow Baptist Church. From 1989, he participated in various evangelistic events in different cities of Moscow Region and beyond. From 1989 to 1992, as a member of the choir and orchestra “LOGOS,” he participated in evangelistic and charitable concerts, repeatedly performing on the stages of the Moscow State Conservatory, the Bolshoi Theatre, and other concert halls in Russia and abroad. In 1992, his family moved to the United States. In 2007, after completing a full course of spiritual and academic preparation, Joseph moved to Dallas, Texas, to engage in church ministry. In 2008, he founded the Russian Bible Church to preach to the Russian-speaking population living in Dallas, Texas.

– Bachelor of Arts in Music (viola) from the Third Moscow Music School named after Scriabin, Russia (1987-1991)

– Master of Theology (Th.M); Dallas Theological Seminary, Texas (1999-2003);

– Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) Hebrew Bible (Books of Samuel): University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom (2007).

– Doctoral research (2004-2005) Tübingen, Germany.

– Author of a theological work published in English: Saul, Doeg, Nabal and the “Son of Jesse: Readings in 1 Samuel 16-25, LHBOTS 497 [T&T Clark/Continuum: Bloomsbury Publishing]).

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/saul-doeg-nabal-and-the-son-of-jesse-9780567027535/

Joseph and his wife Violetta and their son Nathanael live in the northern part of Dallas.

Saul, Doeg, Nabal, and the “Son of Jesse”: Readings in 1 Samuel 16-25: The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies Joseph Lozovyy T&T Clark (bloomsbury.com)

Joseph, his wife Violetta and their son Nathaniel live in North Dallas, Texas where he continues ministering to Russian-speaking Christians and his independent accademic research.

Published Work

1. bloomsbury:, 2. buy at christian book distributors:, 3. buy on amazon:.

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Vladimirskaya Church in Bykovo

The Gothic style Church of Vladimir Icon Mother of God is the main sight of former Bykovo manor. The church was built in 1789 by project of talented architect in the court of Catherine the Great, Vasiliy Bazhenov, on the grounds of the former grand estate in Bykovo of a powerful nobleman, Mikhail Izmailov, Governor of Moscow and for twenty years head of the Kremlin Expedition which oversaw important construction work in Russia. For this exacting patron Bazhenov built and oval church dedicated to the Vladimirskaya Icon of Our Lady on two floors crowned by a veritable forest of spires and pointed forms in the Gothic manner (unusual or even rare example of the architecture of Russian Orthodox churches). The church is entered by a wonderful staircase which fans out on two sides and is approached through the long trapeza (refectory) supporting twin bell towers. The large freestanding bell tower opposite built by Ivan Tamansky in 1840s in the same style has long taken over this function.

The lower, Nativity, is the heated winter church. The upper, Vladimirskaya (St. Vladimir) church, with marble-lined walls, originally contained a silver organ, also strange furnishing for an Orthodox church where musical instruments are not used but undoubtedly reflecting the taste of the patron. The church was given back for worship in 1990 after long use a storehouse.

Wonderful Staircase Leading to the Heights

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About Me in Short

My name's Arthur Lookyanov, I'm a private tour guide, personal driver and photographer in Moscow, Russia. I work in my business and run my website Moscow-Driver.com from 2002. Read more about me and my services , check out testimonials of my former business and travel clients from all over the World, hit me up on Twitter or other social websites. I hope that you will like my photos as well.

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• Date: May 14, 2016

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The Tsar's Pew

Interior of the upper church of Intercession Cathedral in Fili dedicated to the Icon of Our Savior Not Made by Hands (Church of Veronica’s Veil), angle view on the Tsar's Pew carved in late 17th century by talented Russian craftsmen. During construction this cathedral in 1690-1693, Tsar Peter the Great himself granted to his uncle Lev Naryshkin four hundred gold coins (tchervonets) for the decoration, it was a very large sum by that time’s standards.

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