a post<\/a> <\/strong>on Saturday, and some people were shocked. I was a little apprehensive about it myself \u2014 my wife, \u201cMinister of the Towel and Oils\u201d had misgivings, too. The last time I\u2019d baptized a large group, 12, it was a madhouse.\u00a0 Between the bawling babies and chattering godparents and laughing and thigh-slapping friends and neighbors, I should have used a megaphone instead of a microphone.<\/p>\nThis time, thankfully, it was much saner.<\/p>\n
There was a steady hum throughout much of the ritual \u2014 which, from \u201cWhat name do you give your child\u201d to \u201cGo in peace\u201d took about 45 minutes \u2014 but the throng was largely respectful and appreciative.\u00a0\u00a0 I credit that to my pre-ritual announcement, which laid down the law and went something like this:<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u00a0 We have a large group here this Sunday \u2014 a VERY large group.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to ask a couple things.\u00a0 First, be patient.\u00a0 Second, be respectful.\u00a0 And third, be prayerful.\u00a0 Ladies and gentlemen, I want to remind you: this is not a catering hall or a beer garden.\u00a0 This is a house of God.\u00a0 And we are in the presence of Jesus Christ, in the tabernacle.\u00a0 We are celebrating something here, but it\u2019s a sacrament<\/em> we are celebrating.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a party.\u00a0 Keep the conversation to a minimum. I\u2019m going to ask that you be mindful of where we are and what we are doing.\u00a0 Take all the pictures you want, but stay in one place.\u00a0 Don\u2019t run around like paparazzi chasing Britney Spears.\u00a0 And with some cooperation and common sense, this should go very smoothly.\u00a0 Okay?\u201d<\/p>\nAnd, it did.<\/p>\n
Baptisms, like weddings, tend to draw a lot of people and family members who don\u2019t regularly go to church.\u00a0 They\u2019re happy, sometimes raucous affairs.\u00a0 It can be a challenge to set the right tone and keep things on track.\u00a0 A lot of times, people just don\u2019t know any better.<\/p>\n
But sometimes, a little discipline can only help.<\/p>\n
Now I know why nuns always carried rulers.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That was the tally, roughly, for this Sunday\u2019s baptism, which looked a little like this: I\u2019d mentioned this large group in a post on Saturday, and some people were shocked. I was a little apprehensive about it myself \u2014 my wife, \u201cMinister of the Towel and Oils\u201d had misgivings, too. The last time I\u2019d baptized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,33,46],"tags":[129,11196],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deacons","category-my-world-and-welcome-to-it","category-sacraments","tag-baptism","tag-sacraments"],"yoast_head":"\n
Sunday's baptisms: 15 babies, 30 parents, 200 people<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That was the tally, roughly, for this Sunday's baptism, which looked a little like this: I'd mentioned this large group in a post on Saturday, and some\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sunday's baptisms: 15 babies, 30 parents, 200 people\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That was the tally, roughly, for this Sunday's baptism, which looked a little like this: I'd mentioned this large group in a post on Saturday, and some\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-04T03:48:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T21:47:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/files\/2011\/04\/large_crowd-300x193.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/\",\"name\":\"Sunday's baptisms: 15 babies, 30 parents, 200 people\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-04T03:48:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-30T21:47:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"That was the tally, roughly, for this Sunday's baptism, which looked a little like this: I'd mentioned this large group in a post on Saturday, and some\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sunday's baptisms: 15 babies, 30 parents, 200 people\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sunday's baptisms: 15 babies, 30 parents, 200 people","description":"That was the tally, roughly, for this Sunday's baptism, which looked a little like this: I'd mentioned this large group in a post on Saturday, and some","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sunday's baptisms: 15 babies, 30 parents, 200 people","og_description":"That was the tally, roughly, for this Sunday's baptism, which looked a little like this: I'd mentioned this large group in a post on Saturday, and some","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2011-04-04T03:48:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-30T21:47:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/files\/2011\/04\/large_crowd-300x193.jpg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/","name":"Sunday's baptisms: 15 babies, 30 parents, 200 people","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-04-04T03:48:32+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-30T21:47:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"That was the tally, roughly, for this Sunday's baptism, which looked a little like this: I'd mentioned this large group in a post on Saturday, and some","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/04\/sundays-baptism-15-babies-30-parents-200-people\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sunday's baptisms: 15 babies, 30 parents, 200 people"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/56\/2011\/04\/large_crowd.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n