Owen's Christening

The same weekend we celebrated Collin's second birthday, we also celebrated Owen's Christening. We crammed everything into one weekend because Owen's Godmother, Andrea, had a two day window for coming to Minnesota, so we made it work and crammed everything together in one whirlwind weekend. Owen's Baptism ended up being the spring day we had hoped for all weekend, with temps in the high 60s, but a brisk wind. We ignored the wind and went on our merry way.

Owen is growing so quickly, we can barely hang on to the moments before they've slipped through our hands and he's off toward some new milestone. Thank goodness he's only proverbially "off"-- if he was crawling I'd probably retire to my room and cry that I've nearly missed my son's infancy. This time it just feels so much more quick to pass, much more difficult to grasp onto the moments and savor them, every time I turn around he's bigger, and smarter and making leaps and bounds toward developmental milestones.
For Owen's Christening we chose my sister Andrea and Drew's brother Chris to be Owen's Godparents. Here's to hoping they do a good job.
Seriously though, we're excited to have them as a big part of Owen's life and we're confident they'll be amazing influences on him as he grows ( as an aside though: DEAR ANDREA: AMAZING INFLUENCE DOES NOT EQUAL SUPER SPOILER. No need for noise toys or other ridiculous contraptions).


In our family, Baptism is sort of like paying bills. Its how you ensure your entrance ticket is all paid up. You don't really think about it much, you just do it. At first, I didn't give it a second thought, of course we'll have Owen baptized. That's what all of the crazy Catholics in our family do. We Baptize.

But, it turns out that's not such a good reason to have someone baptized. So, Instead of swallowing the pill, I decided to really sit on it for a bit and decide if it was something I was happy with. Don't get me wrong, I am/was very interested in Owen having a home in faith, but I wasn't so sure if forcing him into one, even with the best intentions, was the best idea. What if one day he'd rather be Episcopalian, or Lutheran, or a Buddhist? Regardless of what faith he ascribes to I'd still be happy about his commitment to faith, so where should my druthers lay???

So, I prayed about it. (By the way, the photos sort of give away what we decided to do, I hope you aren't expecting any crazy ending to this story, if you'd rather read on to determine our course of action you're going to have to try to ignore the photos, which is pretty much impossible). This is unusual for me. I don't usually go asking God for advice. I generally make requests that are more in line with help (i.e. please help me to be a good mom, please help me to be patient, please help me to be a good influence on my family's life choices etc.). Advice is a bit weird because it requires a response, and to be honest, I don't really get responses from God. I'm not very perceptive of the subtle ways God can interact with your life, so if I'm looking for a response it should probably look something like a billboard outside my front door.
Just sayin'.

Mainly, my advice requests stemmed from the question "What if Owen chooses another path in his beliefs?" For goodness sakes, so many people change paths, so many people reconcile their beliefs and up and quit religion, and so many people become Christians late in life. It's a regular crap-shoot trying to predict this stuff. I felt guilty laying out the groundwork for his faith when I want my boys to be independent consumers of religion. I loathe blind belief. I want them to investigate and figure out what their own beliefs are, I want them to be passionate about how they establish their life's moral compass, and I think much of that is rooted in faith.
So, while I was waiting for that billboard, Easter came and went. We went to Easter mass, and I sat in the reconciliation mass and listened to mass while I nursed Owen. I was super tired that day, and I remember that couch being so very comfy and I dozed off for a few minute. Yes, its true I fell asleep in church. Call me a heathen, I don't mind.
The critical part of the story though, is when I woke up. The sermon was going on and the priest was talking about "Good Christians", his message was that you can be a Bad Christian just as easily as you can be a Good Christian. That we shouldn't really associate Christian with kindness. As I write this I'm thinking "thank you captain obvious". It's a fairly simple statement, but one I'd sort of forgotten. It reminded me to not pass judgement on religion, but to pass judgement on behavior. Its not what you say you are, its what you do that makes a difference. How you live. Christian, Catholic, Mormon...just labels.
So, at that point the labels became superfluous. We could have baptized Owen into a tribe of purple people eaters, it wouldn't have mattered. Baptism, for me is about setting the foundation to lead a life of examples that help mold Owen's conscience, not about the Religious title. I don't really think its even ticket to pass. I think its a promise of guidance, regardless of religion.
So, even though it wasn't a billboard, I settled into the notion that Owen should be baptized, so that we (Drew and I) and his Godparents make a commitment to leading him down a path of "good faith", honesty, love and compassion
So, together with four other families we spent a Sunday afternoon confirming that promise. Owen was tired, but overall pretty happy, since once the warm water hit his head I think he was pretty sure he was about to get a bath (which he loves).

So now, at least officially, he's part of the Catholic faith. I hope one day he'll make a choice about if its the right faith for him after years of preparation to choose his way. I hope this opens the door for him to feel confident that no matter what he believes, we'll always love him, unconditionally.




And, of course, as any reader of our blog knows, family events = family photos. Here's a smattering: Owen with lots of love and family, meeting Aunt Susie and Uncle Chris for the first time (a HUGE thanks to them for coming from all the way from Vegas, we wish we could have spent more time with them catching up!) spanning the gap of two generations. He's surrounded by love. We like it that way :)

Family Photos