Celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism takes place within the context of the parish community at the Sunday morning Liturgical celebrations at 11:00AM. All newborns and young children are welcomed into the Church with the entire community worshipping together.
For newborns and young children, the Church requires attendance at an instruction and information session with the parents and the Godparents. The one-hour session is held on the Saturday one week prior to the scheduled baptism. Parents MUST provide a copy of the child’s birth certificate in advance.
Under Canon Law 868(1), “there must be a founded hope that the infant
will be brought up in the Catholic religion.”
Please contact the Parish Center for further information and scheduling the celebration of this Sacrament for your child(ren) by calling 201-945-6329 or by sending an email to: holyrosary@aol.com.
Godparents
A Godparent is someone who bears witness to a child’s christening and later is willing to help in their catechesis, as well as their lifelong spiritual formation.
In order to be a sponsor for Baptism, Church Canon Law requires that: (1) the sponsor must be at least 16 years of age; (2) have received the Sacraments of Baptism, Holy Eucharist and Confirmation, and (3) be a practicing Catholic who is registered in a Catholic parish. This means attendance at Mass each week and regular reception of the Sacraments of Eucharist and Penance. Godparents must provide a letter or certificate from their parish attesting to this. Persons who do not attend Mass and receive the Sacraments cannot be Godparents because — as stated above — “under Canon Law 868(1), there must be a founded hope that the infant will be brought up in the Catholic religion.”
A Godparent letter or certificate is provided only to parishioners who have been active and contributing members of the parish for at least three months prior to requesting a certificate.
7 Reasons to Get Your Baby Baptized
1. Your child will officially be a Child of God.
“The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.
2. Your child will receive the Baptismal grace and freed from original sin.
“The fruit of Baptism, or baptismal grace, is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact the person baptized is incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ.”
3. Your child will be a part of the Church community.
“Baptism, therefore, constitutes the sacramental bond of unity existing among all who through it are reborn.”
4. Your child will share in the priesthood of Christ.
The baptized have become “living stones” to be “built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” By Baptism they share in the priesthood of Christ, in his prophetic and royal mission. They are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that [they] may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called [them] out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
5. Your child will have an “indelible spiritual mark.”
“Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, the person baptized is configured to Christ. Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism from bearing the fruits of salvation.83 Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated.
The baptismal seal enables and commits Christians to serve God by a vital participation in the holy liturgy of the Church and to exercise their baptismal priesthood by the witness of holy lives and practical charity.“
6. Your child will be marked by the Holy Spirit with the seal of the Lord.
“The Holy Spirit has marked us with the seal of the Lord (“Dominicus character”) “for the day of redemption.”86 “Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life.”87 The faithful Christian who has “kept the seal” until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life “marked with the sign of faith,”88 with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God – the consummation of faith – and in the hope of resurrection.”
7. Your child will receive the graces necessary to:
“The Most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace, the grace of justification:
– enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him through the theological virtues;
– giving them the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit;
– allowing them to grow in goodness through the moral virtues.”
Church of the Holy Rosary, Edgewater, NJ 