Today–seven days after my birthday–is my baptism day! It’s when I was born again, when I became a new creation, a child of God in actuality (a son in the Son). Bl. Mother Teresa and Saints like St. Louis de Montfort celebrated and encouraged the celebration of baptism days–because the day that you were baptized into Christ Jesus is worth celebrating!

What’s more, it’s the Feastday of St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr. A great hero of the early Church, he was a disciple of the Apostle St. John and was ordained the 2nd bishop of Antioch (present day Antakya, Turkey) by St. Peter himself!

Before St. Ignatius was thrown to the lions in Rome, he wrote to the Christians there:

I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.

Pray for me St. Ignatius, on this day of my baptism, that i may be worthy of the promises of Christ!