My kids go to a Catholic school, and we go to Mass as a family, but I’m not baptised. CanI be baptised? What does it involve?

Yes, you can. It is always a joyful experience to welcome a new Christian into the family. When a person is baptised, they are making public their desire to follow Christ, and becoming a Christian. Essentially, they are saying they want to follow Jesus Christ and discover his purpose for their life and they want to do it with other Christians as part of the Catholic Church.

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For some, the first step is to participate in a course or activity that offers space to ask questions of faith and encounter Christ, for others it might be to have regular conversations with someone who can do something similar.· Often the first time someone encounters Christ it causes an awakening of faith or conversion.This is an ideal time to take steps to become a Catholic. That process (called “Christian Initiation”)involves opportunities to explore and understand what it means to be a Christian, leading up to you being baptised and continuing after that.· This process should be an enjoyable time for adults to feel more part of the Church, ask questions about Catholicism, share their understanding (if they want), be aided in prayer and experience support from parishioners and your parish priest.

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If you choose to be baptised, that involves a simple ceremony (“rite”) usually within Mass in which you, with the support of others, state that you want to be baptised, make a declaration of faith, are anointed with oil and have water poured over your head as the priest says your name and “I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.”