• ·         Baptism is the primary sacrament of the Catholic Church
• ·         Baptism enables us to make a response to God's love, either through the faith of parents and godparents or personally as an adult believer.
• ·         Through baptism we become members of Christ's Church, and are united to the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.
• ·         To seek Baptism for either yourself or for your child is a very exciting thing. Baptism celebrates a new beginning as a member of Christ's body, the Church.
• ·         When we come for Baptism we are saying "yes" to God's love and desire for us to belong to the community of God's people.
• ·         To seek Baptism for a child is to say that you want to give them the gift of being part of God's family and to have God involved in their life.

Things You Need to Know

Ø  Before organizing a Baptism you will need to think about who you want to have as sponsors or godparents.

Ø   Godparents of children have a very great responsibility. During the service they make a promise to God that the child will be brought up as a Christian.

Ø  Make sure that they are aware of this before allowing them to accept the privilege of being your child's godparent.

Ø  To be a godparent or sponsor a person must have themselves been baptised. If they are not baptised you may like to invite them to consider baptism for themselves.

Ø  Baptism includes images and symbols that express our faith people, water, font, oil and light.

Ø   The Church baptises both children and adults. Baptism may be conferred after the main mass on all Sundays.

Ø  The parents and God parents are expected to visit the parish priest well ahead of time. They need to make their confession on days before baptism of the child. Friends and relatives may be insisted to make the sacrament a solemn one.

Ø  Due to the high demand for Baptism at the Cathedral, arrangements usually need to be made at least one month in advance.

Eucharist

So Jesus said to them, "Amen, Amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven my Father gives you the true bread from heaven…I am the living bread that came down from heaven whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (John 6:32, 51)

ü  The Eucharist, the living and real presence of Jesus Christ, nourishes our parish family, makes it healthy, makes it function in a loving, sacrificial spirit of unity with the entire Roman Catholic Church, making us an ever more fitting dwelling-place for the triune God.

ü  The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated Monday – Saturday at St. Michael’s Cathedral at 6.15 a.m, 6.30 p.m, except Monday where the Mass is at SungamCemetry at 6.30 p.m. On Sundays mass is celebrated at 5.15 a.m, 6.30 a.m, 8.00 a.m, 5.30 p.m.

Sacramental Preparation

ü  The celebration of the First Communion is an exciting event in the life of a Christian and it is held normally once in a year at parish level. The community here at St. Michael’s Cathedral welcomes your child as he/she joins us in receiving our Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

ü   First Holy Communion is a family celebration soif faithful wishes it can also be celebrated during special masses excluding parish mass.

ü  Please contact the Parish Priests’ office for information on sacramental preparation.

ü  Excluding attending Sunday catechism without fail, in addition to one month of immediate preparation commonly held once in a year at parish level.