I have just had the pleasure of baptizing Isabelle Charlotte Thompson in the Extraordinary Form. She is just about four weeks old - within the time-frame preferred by the Church.
The old ceremony is a delightful one; it takes no chances with the devil, exorcising Satan and all his evil spawn on several occasions; the baby is addressed and questioned several times - she was not expected to answer for herself, the godparents did that! Most of the prayers are in Latin, but the questions are in English (all those present had little booklets which I had made by copying pages from The Small Ritual). Everyone seemd to enjoy the proceedings, and Baby Isabelle hardly made a sound.
In the above photo (I think the cameraman must have been a bit nervous and did not allow the picture to 'settle'), Amanda, the mother is on the right and the father, Gordon, is next to me.
May her life be a happy and holy one!
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