Remembering Baptismal Anniversaries With Joy, Not Guilt

ALLELUIA!!

Did you celebrate your children’s baptismal anniversary this year?  What about your own?  Families are busier than ever and even though baptismal anniversaries may be an important part of your personal theology, it’s easy to miss the *exact date* every year for each of your kids and/or yourself, your spouse, godchildren…the list goes on.  One way to find a solution is to celebrate baptismal anniversaries within everyday experiences or pick a date and have a ‘family baptismal anniversary day’ for everyone together.  Either way offers the time to be thankful and honor the baptisms of yourself and others that are in your life.

Celebrate your baptismal anniversary with water:

1.  Drink those 8 glasses of water you always hear about in order to celebrate the healthy body that God gave you.  Say a prayer of thankfulness with each one.
2. Take time when washing the dishes to think about and pray for others.  Remember the baptisms you’ve seen or been a part of.  Be conscious of the water and how it moves and works in its gentle way with the mess on these dishes and the skin on your hands, and remember how the spirit can move us in its gentle way as well.
3. Visit a local waterfall or if you are on a camping vacation, make sure to visit a waterfall on your trip.  Get as close as you safely can to the falls to feel the mist on your skin (of course, make sure you’re following the rules of the park).  Take some time to write, take or draw pictures and think about the water cascading over the falls and God’s creation.  Marvel at the power of the water to shape the rock underneath.
4.  Go to a waterpark with your kids.  Instead of screaming “Cannonball”, you can scream “Alleluia” before barreling down the slides.  Why not?
5. Go out in the rain on a rainy day and let yourself splash in puddles – put on your raingear and go crazy.  Be thankful for all the gifts that the rain bestows upon the earth and the animals and people that depend on it. 
6. Go to a children’s museum with kids where there is a water sensory area.  Frolic with them.
7. Think or write about or photograph animals that use water as part of their lives.  Ducks, worms, bugs, frogs, beavers etc.  Say a prayer of thanks for them.
8. Take a long, hot shower or bath and be conscious of the healing properties of the water, for both body and mind.
9. Start with water for a meal to make something wonderful: pasta, iced tea, soup, rice, beans, etc..  Say a prayer of thanks for the nourishment that can be built up with it.
10. 3 words: family Jacuzzi soak!

Celebrating your baptismal anniversary with light

1. Say a prayer of thanks for the sun and its presence.  Think about, how the sun is always overhead in the daytime – even on the cloudiest day.  Even though we may not see it above the clouds its life-giving properties are still there for us.
2. Conserve electricity for the day and turn off lights.  Be thankful that their luminescence is still available at the flip of a switch.  Use candles to light up the dark instead.
3. Notice and appreciate the light you see within others that day – notice and appreciate the light you see within yourself.
4. Buy one of the inexpensive candles from the grocery store in the Mexican food aisle of Mary, Jesus and/or one of the saints and light it to focus your meditation and prayer that day/night.  Use it to symbolize the spirit of God’s presence when you write, read, meditate or pray.
5. Do a flashlight prayer labyrinth with kids – lay down a spiral shape on the floor with painter’s tape and let the kids use a flashlight to follow the pattern in a dark room.  Typically a simple labyrinth can be a spiral in and then back out with a pause at the middle for reflection and meditation.

Don’t make celebrating baptismal anniversaries a to-do list item that you feel guilty about trying to find time for.  Intead, find what resonates and fits in with what you are already doing as a family.  You can always celebrate in the way that you pictured when you or your child first felt the splash if that fits with your family, but it’s not the only way.  God knows and calls each of us by name and it’s up to us how we want to reflect that love and that call in a way that resonates with us and with our families.  There are as many ways to celebrate baptism as there children of God!