Come in to the temple of God

Schellhorn baptism 007

Ingredere in templum Dei "Come into the temple of God" are the words addressed to a baby who is about to be baptised.

We have had a series of "Bank Holidays" in England recently and today was another; therefore I found myself unusually free to attend the baptism of the first-born of Matthew and Benna Schellhorn. Ferdinand Joseph was baptised at St Bede's, Clapham Park, by Fr Andrew Southwell. Matthew is a renowned pianist - I wrote about him last August.

Dr Joseph Shaw and his wife, Lucy, were the Godparents

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After the Baptism there was first the blessing for a mother who has given birth. Sometimes this is ignorantly decried as though it implied that childbirth was somehow "impure" (which would be a manichaean error.) In fact, the blessing is a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving for the birth of a child. Today we were blessed with a schola to sing the 23rd psalm.

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We weren't quite finished: Matthew and Benna placed Ferdinand on the Lady Altar and said together the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

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Afterwards we went downstairs to the parish hall for some tea. There were lots of children in attendance; here is a picture of two very well behaved children who did not touch the (very tempting) cakes until Fr Southwell had said grace:

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(Comments off for this post.)

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