We recently dramatized the baptism of two “babies” in 5/6 Religion class. We had spent over a week reading about the sacrament and studying it in class. We had two sets of “parents”, godparents and, of course, babies. Two dolls were volunteered by their owners and the students picked names for their children.

     The parents were selected by a random drawing and random matching from a boy’s list and a girl’s list. One of the follow-up questions after the Baptism concerned what advice the students would give to parents who are having difficulties in their marriage. The answers were shocking! Their responses were very diagnostic for me to see what they are learning from the secular culture about quitting.

     In a decade or so, most of these 5th and 6th Graders will be getting married and having children. I pray that what they learn at Good Shepherd about the sanctity of marriage and family life will stick with them. Maybe I’ll get to baptize their “real” babies!

Written By: Fr. Lance W. Harlow

Date Published: January 1, 2024