{"id":3605,"date":"2009-11-01T18:54:04","date_gmt":"2009-11-01T18:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/11\/baptism-by-the-numbers.html"},"modified":"2009-11-01T18:54:04","modified_gmt":"2009-11-01T18:54:04","slug":"baptism-by-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/11\/baptism-by-the-numbers.html","title":{"rendered":"Baptism by the numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/baby_baptism_1368526c.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"baby_baptism_1368526c.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/212\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/11\/baby_baptism_1368526c-thumb-300x187-9054.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"187\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"text-align: center;margin: 0 auto 20px\" \/><\/a><\/span><br \/>\nThis was baptism Sunday for the deacon.  I rotate baptisms with two priests, so I do them four times a year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This was by far the loudest, biggest mob I&#8217;ve encountered.  Let me break it down for you.&nbsp;\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of babies: 11&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of guests: 250 (give or take)&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of babies teething, who cried the entire time: 1&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of other babies who decided to join in: 10&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of people with cameras who blocked the aisle: 4<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of parents who walked their babies around church during ceremony: 3&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of times I had to yell: &#8220;Excuse me!  Let&#8217;s continue!&#8221;: 3&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of times I was ignored: 3&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of times I had to check to see if my mic was working: 4&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Number of parents annoyed that they had to remove baby&#8217;s bonnet: 2<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Length of ceremony: 40 minutes&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Amount collected in donations: $825&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Grace received from sacrament: priceless.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>My favorite quote of the afternoon, from our sacristan: &#8220;Now I know why some animals eat their young.&#8221;\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was baptism Sunday for the deacon. I rotate baptisms with two priests, so I do them four times a year.&nbsp; This was by far the loudest, biggest mob I&#8217;ve encountered. Let me break it down for you.&nbsp; Number of babies: 11&nbsp; Number of guests: 250 (give or take)&nbsp; Number of babies teething, who cried&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sacraments"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Baptism by the numbers - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/11\/baptism-by-the-numbers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Baptism by the numbers - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This was baptism Sunday for the deacon. I rotate baptisms with two priests, so I do them four times a year.&nbsp; This was by far the loudest, biggest mob I&#8217;ve encountered. Let me break it down for you.&nbsp; Number of babies: 11&nbsp; Number of guests: 250 (give or take)&nbsp; Number of babies teething, who cried&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/11\/baptism-by-the-numbers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-01T18:54:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2009\/11\/baby_baptism_1368526c-thumb-300x187-9054.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Baptism by the numbers - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/11\/baptism-by-the-numbers.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Baptism by the numbers - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"This was baptism Sunday for the deacon. 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