A gentle nudge
By Brandi Skidmore
Special to The Commercial
It was Pentecost that day. We drove to town for Mass. The parish was set back from the road in a neighborhood. It seemed to be perhaps a mission parish, lacking even the beauty of the modern parishes.
There were several women who were veiled. Perhaps they are visitors like me. Or perhaps, they are the parish’s bastions of tradition, like I’ve been in the past. In the simplicity of that parish, Jesus came down to feed me with his own Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Thanks be to God!
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After lunch, the beach. What a joy to watch my children running around, exuberant and wild in the surf. Feral with joy. Shouts of “Mama, watch!” and “Did you see?”
On the way back to the house, rushing, thinking of needs — mine, theirs, immediate, delayed — I stepped over a patch of shells. My mind must have registered before my eyes because I found myself taking a step back.
There! In the sugar white sand, camouflaged, a perfectly white scallop shell, small enough to fit on the tip of my finger, a baptismal shell for a fairy.
A gift, its wings still attached but its twin misplaced. From God, certainly. Eyes opened by my guardian angel, perhaps. I can’t help but think about the previous day’s shell, beautiful but broken. Eye-catching but disappointing. This shell was none of that. It was hidden, content to sit in its place, to be found by me rushing by. And to sit on the borrowed bedside table, reminding me of my Baptism. I don’t remember it, just the pictures. And the candle. It was decorated with fake lily-of-the-valley, my birth flower and Our Lady’s tears.
There is something there, the salt and the water, the tiny baptismal scallop, the gratitude for all God has done for me. Some reminder is… just there, beyond the horizon but I can catch its glimmer. Almost.
Maybe it’s the reminder that Father gave me about living out my Baptism in the power of the Holy Spirit, with the authority given to me by God. Maybe. Maybe it’s just a gentle nudge. A tap on the shoulder and a smile.
“Baptism is God’s most beautiful and magnificent gift… . We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and most precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty; Baptism because sin is buried in the water; anointing for it is priestly and royal as are those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing since it veils our shame; bath because it washes; and seal as it is our guard and the sign of God’s Lordship,” St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 40, 3-4: PG 36, 361C.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly connects Pentecost and Baptism in section 1226: “From the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy Baptism. Indeed St. Peter declares to the crowd astounded by his preaching: ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’,”(Acts 2:38).
The apostles and their collaborators offer Baptism to anyone who believed in Jesus: Jews, the Godfearing, pagans. Always, Baptism is seen as connected with faith: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household,” St. Paul declared to his jailer in Philippi. And the narrative continues, the jailer “was baptized at once, with all his family,” (Acts 16:31-33.).
For more on the teaching of the Catholic Church on Baptism, please refer to Catechism of the Catholic Church, numbers 1212-1284.
Hope, peace and grace to you.
Brandi Skidmore can be found writing at slowbecoming.substack.com. Skidmore, now of Indiana, is the former vice president of the Ladies Altar Society at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church at Lake Village, Ark.
Editor’s note: Pastors, ministers or other writers interested in writing for this section may submit articles for consideration to shope@adgnewsroom.com. Writers should have connections to Southeast Arkansas. Please include your name, phone number and the name and location of your church or ministry.