Tears On My Pillow—er, In My Baptismal Font?!

[MamaJunebug]

Ohh-kay. 

To begin with, the disclaimers: I have no problem with things Southern, nor pagan, nor Christian, and I like HGTV’s Home Town better than any other home reno show (I enjoy the hosts of “Love It Or List It” better than Ben & Erin and I want to apprentice at “Barnwood Builders.”  But other than that...).

On Ben or Erin’s instagram, a commenter remarked lovingly and approvingly about how Ben’s mama added her tears to the water in the baptismal font where infant Helen was being baptized.

Really. I have heard of people putting rose petals into the water. I may have heard of folks postponing a baptism for social reasons.

But I was  brought up to regard baptism seriously,  as a sacrament in which God names the one being baptized as God’s child and worthy of free forgiveness.

Granma’s tears in the water? 

Has anybody else heard of this? In a Christian Church? I can see it in a pagan ceremony, makes sense.  It seems sentimental, I’ll concur, and my Southern family wins that heat every time, hands down, so is that it?  

Have you seen it / done it?

If so, can you, would you, could you please explain it to me?

A zillion TIAs & peace. 

[dharmapunk]

Are you sure that it is not just a figure of speech? Like gandma cried (maybe for joy?) and her tears fell into the water?

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Hope grandma doesn’t have pink eye.

[MamaJunebug]

18 hours ago, dharmapunk said:

Are you sure that it is not just a figure of speech? Like gandma cried (maybe for joy?) and her tears fell into the water?

 

That would make a little sense, thank you!,  so I double checked the Instagram and this is the comment from a person who was in attendance:

“It was one of the most beautiful baptisms we’ve ever attended. Your parents both did a wonderful job. Your mama had a lot of people crying when she added her tears to the water. It was such a special touch! So happy for your sweet little family!”

Which led me to google “tears in baptism waters.”  The third hitcwasvthe only salient one IMHO and it quotes the Roman Catholic catechism — something a Church father said about “the waters of baptism” being connected with “the tears of repentance.”

The tear-adding gramma is considered a Methodist pastor so maybe that was her point. Ah, stuff like this makes my head hurt: just baptize the person, already! 

ETA the link from the Vatican, FWIW. And I think I’m gonna back off fangirling the Napiers. A little info goes a long way.  They seem nice and they rehab houses well.  No need to know more!

Link thingy isn’t working for me, so here it is:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P49.HTM