Bringing it Home, through Catholic Radio and Catholic TV

Photography by Jerry Naunheim Jr. and Lisa A. Johnston (St. Louis Review)

Yesterday, I had a plan. Get to the store, finish the errands, get back in the car by 2:00, and home as quickly as possible. My grown son and his wife were coming for a visit, and I had a list of things to do before they arrived.

Just minutes after 2:00, I closed the trunk on the groceries and my daughter and I climbed in the car and headed home. Immediately, the sound coming from my radio reminded me of what day it was, what time it was, what profound thing was happening just an hour away.

The Installation Mass of Archbishop Carlson to the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

I listened as I drove. I could almost imagine the beauty and splendor thanks to the sounds coming to me through the blessing of Catholic radio.

As soon as I arrived home, I dashed inside and quickly stuffed groceries into the refrigerator and pantry. Then, I grabbed the remote and turned on the television. There it was. Living proof that Our Lord has preserved His Church, through the miracle of an unbroken line of Apostolic Succession, and St. Louis - indeed the entire world - is the beneficiary of this gift.

Archbishop Carlson began his homily. By now, my daughter and husband had joined me in the living room, and we watched together. Soon after he began speaking, the camera scanned a group of priests - and there was our parish priest! What a thrill.

All of the connections were there. A representative from the Holy Father. Those shepherds who had come before Archbishop Carlson to care for the flock in this archdiocese, the new Archbishop, and the priests and faithful. Yes, even my priest. To whom I confess. To whom I go to receive Our Eucharistic Lord Jesus Christ.

One Body in Christ.

It is good to have a new Archbishop. It is good to be one Family. It is good to know I have a place at the Table.

Bringing it Home, through Catholic Radio and Catholic TV

Unity in Baptism

When I became Catholic, I was asked one question regarding my baptism: Have you been baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? I was not asked my age at the time of baptism. I was not asked if I was baptized Presbyterian or Wesleyan or Baptist. I was not asked if someone sprinkled me, dunked me, or poured water over me. I was only asked if I had been baptized in the name of the Triune God.

In St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (4:5), we are told that there is one baptism. In the Gospel of Matthew (28:19), Jesus tells his disciples to “go into all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Since there is one baptism, and it had been done in the Name of the Triune God, there was no need to do it again. While it did not mean the Church and I were completely and perfectly One yet (as in one faith and one doctrine), it did mean that the miracle of unity had begun.

In the third chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again, and Our Lord goes on to describe this new birth by saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

The Disciples called the crowds to baptism, and the people presented themselves to be baptized – they and their entire household with them. We see five references in the New Testament to the baptism of entire households (so that unity can encompass everyone under the roof). Peter baptized the household of Cornelius (Acts 11:14). In Philippi, Paul baptized the household of Lydia and the household of the jailer (Acts 16:15, 33). He also baptized the household of Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, he refers to baptism of the household of Stephanas (1:16). Here’s something you may not realize – in the Greek, the word for household included everybody. Grandparent, parent, teen, child, and infant. It even included the servants and their families. Nowhere in the Bible does it turn away someone on account of age.

Through Baptism, we are born into the family, and we learn to walk and skip and run in the Spirit. We are taught “to preserve the unity,” by embracing the “One Body and One Sprit,” which we have because of our “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; One God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:3-6).

Unity begins with baptism, it grows by the Power of the Holy Spirit, and it finds fullness in the arms of the Church.

(article by Denise Bossert first published by One Bread Lay Apostolate at http://www.1bread.catholic.org/)

Unity in Baptism