10 October 2008

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Earlier this afternoon we had an appointment with the priest who will be baptizing Global Baby later this month.

Before the appointment, GLH was strictly warned to just "keep his mouth shut" and allow me to do the talking. Mostly because we didn't want too many questions about our (lack of) church-going habits in Switzerland.

However, GLH decided to disregard my suggestion. And it was all going fine until we came to the end of the meeting when GLH decided he had a question regarding logistics. (Small bit of background information: the baptism will take place after the 4 pm Mass on a Saturday evening.)

GLH: So, what time should we show up? 5? 5:15?

Priest (with a carefully blank expression): The baptism will take place after the Mass.

After we left the office I asked GLH what he was thinking. Obviously we would all be attending the Mass that takes place before the baptism!

GLH's reply?

"At least I didn't ask my follow-up question. I was going to ask him how long this would take. Would it be 10 minutes? 15 minutes?"

Thank God he didn't ask the follow-up question! Otherwise we might be looking for another priest/church for the baptism...

6 comments:

Pointless Drivel said...

Tell him Mass is worth it. It is refreshing. It relaxing. It helps the cleanse the soul and soothe the mind. Plus, they have snacks toward the end.

swissmiss said...

Good job doing it when GB is an infant - we did Small Boy at 18 months, at which point he was old enough to say "Alllll done!" every time the music stopped (and once or twice when he thought the service was going on too long) and "wawa!! wawa!!" when the pastor came with the baptismal water.

Global Librarian said...

Catholics do tend to do baptisms young.

Plus, logistically doing it sooner made more sense. Waiting until our next visit would likely have been more complicated for a variety of reasons.

And finally, we have an heirloom baptismal gown. It is sized 0-3 months, so waiting would mean we wouldn't be able to use it. Which would be sad.

Kirk said...

We've been saying we need to get Maedchen baptized ever since we got back and still haven't gotten around to it (Lutherans seem to be more relaxed about that sort of thing). Seeing as how she's now a strong-willed 2-year old, I can only imagine how that's going to go over once we get around to it. We took her to church last Sunday and in the middle of the sermon she started saying "GO HOME NOW" at the top of her lungs. And she gets hysterical every night when we wash her hair and water gets in her face.

Anonymous said...

LOL! But now that I know you have an heirloom baptismal gown - PLEASE post pics!! :)

The Big Finn said...

Mrs. TBF was raised as a Catholic. I was raised as a Lutheran. Naturally, we were married in a Catholic church. It was a long time ago, but I seem to recall getting a "let me do all the talking" type of speech before we had to meet with the priest for the first time.