Vera, soon to be baptized: ‘I will finally seal my love with God’

“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” These are the words that thousands of catechumens around the world are preparing to hear on Easter night when they are baptized. Throughout Lent, Aleteia is sharing with you the stories of some of these men and women, who are happy to become children of God. Read all of the testimonies here.

She discovered God … in primary school! Vera, 26, lives in Cherbourg (France) and works in human resources. She will receive baptism on April 19th at the church of Notre-Dame du Vœu. 

Raised by parents who were very distant from religion, she didn’t discover God within her family, but through the Catholic school she attended.

“I was a curious child and I listened and I attended catechism classes with great attention. I’ve always been convinced that there was something greater than us.”

As a teenager, the idea of baptism was on her mind. Then, as she admits, “time passed and so did the desire.”

A meeting was to change her life when she was 21. That’s when she got to know Romain, now her husband, who comes from a practicing Catholic family. After a few years, “he asked me to marry him, and expressed his wish that it could be done in church,” the young woman tells us. “I was in favor, but more out of love than out of conviction.”

However, Vera likes to get to the bottom of things, and thought about it regularly over the following months. She finally said to herself, “There’s no way I’m getting married in church without understanding the meaning of it!”

One thing led to another, and her reflection deepened. She met a priest who offered her a quick appointment and invited her to join an Alpha course that started the following week. “The stars were aligned,” she says with a smile.

This course was a real revelation for the young woman. She was surprised by the variety of people present, far from the clichés and stereotypes:

There were very different people in the course, and that created a real richness within our group. They welcomed me and we all got along. During the course, I truly felt like I belonged. It was the first time that had happened to me. I didn’t feel judged: we could talk freely. It’s strange because in everyday life, I wouldn’t necessarily have approached these people.

Little by little, her outlook changed. ”I learned to be more caring and to turn to people I would naturally have tended to distrust. I was slapped in the face and realized that I had to stop judging at first sight.”

She mentions a person in the group who seemed fragile and on the margins of society. ”We were at the same table and I discovered a personality that I hadn’t imagined, someone who wasn’t as alone as I thought. She certainly had more people around her than I did, in the end. It made me feel funny.”

Her gaze softens, as when she mentions a former classmate. The latter’s multiple faults annoyed her a lot, but today she recognizes, “She’s as loved by God as I am and we’re on an equal footing. Everyone has their own story and people have the right to be who they are’.

As the meetings and testimonies went by, a new attraction for God was born in her:

I understood the power of God’s love in people’s lives. I said to myself, “If everyone is entitled to it, why not me?” What I missed as a child was knowing that God watches over us and that I’m not alone. I have this image of God holding an open door for each of us, and it’s up to each person to choose whether or not to go through it. I felt the desire to open my heart to God and I told myself that in order to seal this union, I had to be baptized. I had the impression that I was still missing something, that I wasn’t totally committed.

The end of the Alpha course coincided with the start of the marriage preparation period. “I then understood what it was to choose to love someone. You can fall in love, but choosing to love someone until the end is something else entirely,” she says.

This time of preparation nourishes her relationship with God: “God loves us unconditionally and the Bible asks us to love in turn. It’s not always easy in everyday life,” says the young woman with a smile. “But you have to trust in him and it’s reassuring to know that you’re not alone in your relationship.”

Vera

Vera and Romain married on September 24, 2024, and she’s currently expecting their first child. “My in-laws like to joke that he’ll be baptized twice!” she says happily: once in his mother’s womb, and again at his “real” baptism.

She has wonderful memories of entering the church. “The whole congregation was inside while I was outside. I knocked and entered with the procession. What a thrill to be carried along by the whole crowd with the organ behind: It was too beautiful!”

April 19 will be the date of her baptism but also the anniversary of the death of her mother-in-law, who passed away several years ago. Her husband has told her a lot about her and she admits to feeling as if she knows her.

She sees this coincidence of dates as a sign and the promise that this woman she never knew on earth will watch over them from above. For the moment, Vera is preparing to receive the long-awaited baptism: “It will finally seal this love with God and that’s no small thing!”

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