Iohan Hilary, the newborn son of our dear friends, Gabe and Laura, was baptized this past Sunday at their home parish, Christ Our Savior Orthodox Church in downtown Chicago. His godfather, Brandon made the trip out from Pennsylvania to participate in the sacrament.
Father Anthony Coniaris, in his book, Introducing the Orthodox Church, writes:
Baptizing infants before they know what is going on is an expression of God’s great love for us. It shows that God loves us and accepts us before we can ever know or love Him. It shows we are wanted and loved by God from the very moment of our birth. To say that a person much reach the age of reason and believe in Christ before he may be baptized is to make God’s grace in some way dependent on man’s intelligence. But God’s grace is not dependent on any act of ours, intellectual or otherwise; it is a pure gift of love.
"And now take that spark within you and protect it, stoke the heavenly fire in your soul, use the tools God gave us—prayer, fasting, confession, Holy Communion—to grow in faith and finish what was started on the day of your baptism. And then love, love others as Christ loves each and every one of us—without bias, without limits, without restraint." (Molly Sabourin, Close to Home)
