to be baptised again?

[Espii]

I was baptised as a baby, honestly, I was quite angry at this a few years ago, i wasn't given a choice. I stopped going to church, i stopped praying. I feel kind of empty, like something's missing, I feel like if I get baptised, this time of my own choice, and start going to church and being one with God again, I might be able to feel something.
I also want to get married in a catholic church so thats a big thing for me
I don't know what to do. I will be doing this on my own and I'm a bit scared, scared I won't really feel part of it after trying to be in the congregation.
I just want to weigh up my options really, i don't really know. AIBU to be baptised again?

I've never heard of any Catholic making their confirmation before their communion. Must be very rare.

Limbo was never doctrine - it was something theorised by Augustine - and it's not the same as Purgatory. It was supposed to be a happy place for people who died before Christ or otherwise died as good people without the chance to be Christian.

My daughter will be making her confirmation before her first holy communion next year but that's because the new archbishop wants to do all the confirmations so its the first year they have done confirmation first. In previous years the priest did both at the same time.

If you Google "confirmation before communion" you'll find lots of links to dioceses doing exactly that.

Baptism, however, always comes first.

In the Eastern Rite Catholic churches, all three are done in infancy, with confirmation before first communion. Infants receive communion. (It's possible because the Eastern Rites - like the Orthodox Church give the Sacrament with the Body and Blood together, served from a spoon.) Confirmation in infancy was common in the Latin/Western Church up into the Middle Ages.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_(Catholic_Church)#Age_for_Confirmation

espii people are querying as you said you intend to go to an anglican church -is that right? they won't be able to properly advise you on how the nearest catholic churches work so you'd be better off heading straight there.

OP, I loved my confirmation class! I did get baptised on the same evening as my confirmation, but I hadn't been baptised as a baby. I'm glad it was my choice, but I think that's what confirmation is about... showing the world your love, faith and trust in God.

As everyone says, you can't be baptised twice in the Catholic Church.

Confirmation sounds like your best bet - talk to your priest. Don't see being baptised as a baby as having something taken away from you. It was a gift your parents gave you. I intend to have my baby baptised as soon as I've recovered from giving birth (and not because I'm scared it'll end up in limbo).

At our CoE church (high) you cannot take communion unless you have been confirmed. Know this because I've just completed my adult confirmation course. Once we've been confirmed then we can take our first communion.

My husband is Catholic and I cannot take communion in his church, even once I get confirmed.

Presumably your partner is supportive of your faith, because if you want to get married in Catholic church you'll both need to do the wedding preparation course together. I also signed a document agreeing to bring up any children as Catholics.

Theologically speaking, one can be baptised only once, as once baptism is performed, 'original sin' is washed away for evermore. To have it 'done' again implies that it isn't effective, and that isn't doctrinally sound.
In the Creed in our Church (C of E) we say, "...I acknowledge ONE baptism for the forgiveness of sins..."
Others have said consult the local priest, which is the best way forward as you'll get it from the horse's mouth so to speak. (no disrespect intended to the priest!)
I think it's lovely that you feel drawn to church in this way. I'm sure you will receive great joy and solace from your faith.

But at my (high) CofE church, Oriunda, you can: entry to communion is from y2 - but the confirmation class is for older children (or separately for adults). But these are children who are already active in a faith; perhaps if you've had a 'break', it makes sense psychologically to wait for confirmation. In my confirmation group, however, a lot of people had taken communion at one time or another, for a variety of reasons. In my case, it was that I attended a very intimate candlelit service in which the wafer was passed round the circle on a plate and it would have felt wrong - to be missing the point - not to take it.

I've been led to believe (by senior clergy) that I could take communion in the Catholic church, if I wanted (it was during discussion of a trip to Italy, I shan't be specific) as a Catholic baptisee. I wouldn't want to - I have issues with the state of grace, for starters - but from my reading, I'm not sure this is an entirely sound perspective (not, obviously, suggesting that I know better than these particular theologians...)

I think it's lovely that you feel drawn to church in this way. I'm sure you will receive great joy and solace from your faith.

Btw - this is a nice point.

Please don't flame me, this is a genuine question. Why do you need to go to church to speak with God?

I'm really not sure what I believe in, but I'm really not comfortable with the idea of organised religion, being told that I can't join in because I've done something somewhere else or not done something, ot that once i have done it, I'm 'theirs for good' (sorry, this probably doesn't make much sense)

Op I wish you all the best and hope you find what you need.

I think Spadequeen makes a good point but it does not necessarily answer the questions of OP. It might make another interesting thread though. The family of God is vast 'the church' and it is non-denominational. I have been involved with lots of different types of churches over the years and would just attend the nearest one that I felt comfortable and welcomed in. It is currently our local Anglican church but woe betide anyone who accuses me of being an Anglican. I identify myself as a Christian,someone who tries to follow Christ. It is good to be committed to a local fellowship of some description but things like membership worry me slightly,particularly if you feel it restricts you to one type of church. The best way Christians can 'shine a light' in the world is to love each other and others around us,not get all denominational and terratorial. No-one needs to go to chirch to speak with God and most peoples conversations with God are everyday ones but we are encouraged in the Bible to meet with other Christians to worship God and encourage each other.We are family after all.Good to get together.Sorry OP to hijack thread!

I think Spadequeen makes a good point but it does not necessarily answer the questions of OP. It might make another interesting thread though. The family of God is vast 'the church' and it is non-denominational. I have been involved with lots of different types of churches over the years and would just attend the nearest one that I felt comfortable and welcomed in. It is currently our local Anglican church but woe betide anyone who accuses me of being an Anglican. I identify myself as a Christian,someone who tries to follow Christ. It is good to be committed to a local fellowship of some description but things like membership worry me slightly,particularly if you feel it restricts you to one type of church. The best way Christians can 'shine a light' in the world is to love each other and others around us,not get all denominational and terratorial. No-one needs to go to chirch to speak with God and most peoples conversations with God are everyday ones but we are encouraged in the Bible to meet with other Christians to worship God and encourage each other.We are family after all.Good to get together.Sorry OP to hijack thread!

What a lovely post and one I agree with completely.

We've also attended lots of different churches and have been non churchgoers for a number of years now. We are still Christians however. The reasons are complicated and probably not helpful on this thread.

I'm always a bit shocked by the hurdles organised religion sometimes puts in place before people can partake in something as fundamental as communion. If they are believers then it isn't up to any organisation to ban them. It's another one of the hateful "shoulds" of church that make me so wary.

I used to feel angry about my own Baptism, OP - because it meant absolutely nothing to my parents and was just done because it was the expected thing. I felt I'd been cheated of a proper, meaningful baptism.

When I was confirmed as an adult, the Priest made me feel a lot better about it when he reminded me that my baptism was every bit as meaningful to God as anybody else's.

My children have been baptised as babies - but I see it as promises we have made to raise them as Catholics - they will make those promises for themselves at Confirmation if they choose to.

I was Confirmed / received into the Catholic Church as an adult after doing the preparation, which lasted around a year and was really great - spent some time discussing the teachings of the church with others also preparing to enter the church - hopefully your church will have something similar where you might be able to explore the idea of Confirmation further?

Some more Evangelical churches do a service in which you can renew your baptismal vows - my friend did this. I think that more formal Anglican churches would go for confirmation. Any Christian baptism is recognised by both the Catholic and Anglican churches so they don't re-baptise.

Broken, as a Catholic baptisee of course you can take communion in any Catholic church. I'm an Anglican, so cannot.

I really sympathise with those feelings OP, I felt similarly resentful of my infant baptism when I was in my 20s. However, the catholic and CofE church will only ever rebaptise if it can be proved that the original baptism was theologically invalid (e.g if it was done in the name of the Mother, the Son and the Universal Spirit rather than the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). If it can't be proved that the original baptism was invalid but it is suspected, there is a liturgy for "conditional baptism" which inserts the words "if you have not been baptised before". But both these churches will consider your infant baptism entirely valid.

A nonconformist church, especially one that practices adult-only baptism, may well believe that your infant baptism was invalid and would be happy to baptise you if you join them as a member.

Personally I never went through with a rebaptism although I did find a church that would, but then I had to move to another city before it could be arranged. Many years later I changed my mind after a really moving sermon on the subject of baptism that I couldn't possibly reproduce here which helped me to understand and accept the validity of an infant baptism I have no memory of.

Oriunda: well, this is what I'm given to understand - but I find it a bewildering concept, actually. Being baptised as a Catholic at a time when (obviously, being a baby) you have little understanding - but later choosing to be part of another church, with a different understanding of the Eucharist (how different depends on how high or low it is), seems to fail to fulfil some Catholic requirements to be communicant. And not just about being in a state of grace, which I had always been led to believe was achieved through confession and penance.