Today is the 41st anniversary of my baptism!

Christ taught us that to enter heaven, we must be “born again of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5) – a statement that from the earliest days of the Church have been understood to refer to baptism. St. Peter taught that “baptism…now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21), and St. Paul wrote that God “saved us…by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). So, when I was baptized 41 years ago, I was “born again” the Bible way!

I was four months old when I was baptized. The Methodist congregation our family attended shared the same belief in infant baptism that is practiced in the Catholic Church. In fact, most non-Catholic groups also practice infant baptism – Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed/Presbyterian, Anglican/Episcopal, Methodist and more. Infant baptism is not followed by some Protestant groups, in particular those that stem from the Anabaptist movement that came later in Reformation history.

Interested in learning why we baptize infants? Here are two helpful articles from Catholic Answers and Steve Ray (in addition to his blog post, which is about baptism in general, read the PDF of his article on infant baptism which he links to in one of the comments).

I’ve been reading Francis de Sales’ The Catholic Controversy for some time now. Actually, I found it so interesting that I immediately started re-reading it. What a cool book!

Francis de Sales was a young priest, who at the age of 27 – only about a year after his ordination – took on a daunting mission: to re-evangelize the Chablais region of France that had fully converted to Calvinism. He came to discover that the people there did not want to hear him preach, so he began writing pamphlets or tracts, which he posted on walls and slipped under doors. The technique worked. After four years, almost the entire region of 72,000 people had returned to the Catholic Church.

The tracts have been collected in a single volume and titled The Catholic Controversy. TAN Books has republished the 1886 translation. I highly recommend it, whether you are a Catholic wanting to learn more about your faith or a Protestant trying to understand why the Catholic Church didn’t go along with the so-called “reforms” of the 16th century.

I think that if I’d read this book years ago, I would have likely converted in my teens rather than in my late thirties.

Today’s email from Townhall.com has a great message:

We Need to Hear the Message of Christmas
—Albert Mohler

Christmas comes as many Americans seem anxious and all-too-aware of challenges that face us all. Economic uncertainty, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a constant barrage of news create a strange context for Christmas.

Then again, maybe this is very much like the first Christmas. When Jesus came, the world hardly noticed. It was filled with anxiety and very few, it seemed, were thinking about what God was then doing as Christ was born in Bethlehem’s manger.

Christmas is a gift. This season of celebration interrupts our lives and reminds us that our anxieties and uncertainties do not have the last word. Instead, “the hopes and fears of all the years” are put in their place by the coming of the Christ.

We need to hear the message of the angels again–unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Just who were the “Magi” that visited the Christ child? After years of pondering, I wanted to share two interesting, yet widely unknown, facts about these men.

It is often said that the magi were “wise men”, but did you know what their occupations were? Well let me tell you, the stories say, “they came from afar,” and since we know that “a far” here in the South refers to a fire, then clearly the magi were professional firemen.

And how did they get to Bethlehem? Artists have typically depicted them riding camels, but actually they drove a Honda. You see, the tales say, “they came in one Accord.” This also provides additional proof that they were from the Orient.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! :-)

Looking for information about St. Nicholas, the 4th Century Bishop of Myra and original Santa Claus? Look no further than the St. Nicholas Center website. On top of the interesting historical information, there are several crafts for the kiddies: coloring, cards, and even instructions on how to turn chocolate Santas into the real St. Nicholas. Cute!

I decided to “Pope My Ride” recently with a sticker I bought at The Catholic Shoppe at Belmont Abbey College. It reads “One Holy Catholic Apostolic” and features the papal crest: sure to be a magnet for fundamentalist literature being placed under my windshield wiper at some point in the future.

This was my first visit to Belmont Abbey, and it was somewhat spur of the moment. I was driving between Winston-Salem and Atlanta this past Thursday. It was a dreary, rainy day, and I felt like taking a break just past Charlotte. I knew that Belmont Abbey was in the area (thanks to all of the “Got Monks?” ads I’ve seen and Patrick Madrid’s frequent plugs on his radio show), so I decided to stop, stretch my legs, and check out the campus. In spite of the rain, the campus was quite pleasant and the manager in The Catholic Shoppe very friendly. Hopefully, I’ll be able to visit again…in better weather!

The current edition of The Georgia Bulletin celebrates the 25th anniversary of Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s ordination as a bishop (Dec. 13, 1983). The issue also has a nice biographical timeline, listing his birthday as Dec. 7, 1947…Happy Birthday, Archbishop!

Have you ever noticed that many — perhaps most — angels in artwork are female? Why is this?

In the Bible, only three angels are mentioned by name and they are all masculine names: Raphael (Tobit 3:17, Tobit 5:4 and elsewhere in that book), Gabriel (Daniel 8:6, Daniel 9:21, Luke 1:19, 26) and Michael (Jude 9, Revelation 12:7). Even angels who aren’t named are referred to using the male pronoun “he,” such as in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:1ff. and in the account of the empty tomb in Matthew 28:2-4.

So I have to wonder what inspired artists through the ages to paint or sculpt female angels so frequently, almost to the exclusion of male angels.

Anyone with answers or speculations out there, let me know your thoughts.

Yesterday was the start of Advent, the beginning of the Catholic liturgical year (at least for us Westerners). So, tell everyone Happy New Year this week. Sure, you’ll get strange looks, but that can make life interesting.