Receiving sacraments is a joyous thing in the Catholic Church. They are vehicles of grace. Through the sacraments, we freely accept this grace, allowing us to believe fully in Him, live in His ways, and learn to love like Him.
We receive grace first in baptism. We receive sanctifying grace, opening our soul to God's love and creating a union between our soul and God. The other sacraments increase this sanctifying grace (reconciliation restores it!).
As I have mentioned before, why would you want to wait to receive Christ's grace (or for your child to?) 1250 "The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth."
I share these thoughts as it has been difficult to schedule a baptism close to the birth of our son. We had hoped to have our son baptized on our priest's last weekend at our church (before he moves parishes). It was disheartening to hear that he would be "too busy" for a baptism. Wouldn't it be a wonderful way to leave your parish by joining one more member? Unfortunately, sacraments are not always easy to receive at our parish, even if you are regularly practicing members and have completed the necessary classes/paperwork. With no priest for most of the summer, we have no other options for our son's first month of life. I hope no one else has to be told their church is too busy for baptism. Our son will be baptized, just maybe not within his first weeks of life as we had so hoped.
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