January 9, 2026 
by M. Regina Cram
We’d been Catholic for about six months when I heard an unusual homily. The priest noted the importance of birthday celebrations in our culture, but went on to suggest that celebrating our baptism day is even more important. That’s the day we’re freed from Original Sin and become part of the Body of Christ.
When I got home, I looked up the baptism dates for each family member. Our kids were unimpressed.
Two months later, the baptism date rolled around for our 11-year-old. When we sat down to dinner, lo, a small, old-fashioned glass bottle of root beer rested at her place at the table. You need to understand that we never, ever had soda in the house, so its presence got her attention. It got everyone’s attention. Celebrating her baptism was that important.
A few weeks later, we marked the 6-year-old’s baptism date, and again, a glass bottle of root beer magically appeared at her place at the dinner table. She got the message. Why root beer? Because in our home, root beer was synonymous with celebration.
The years passed, and we continued to celebrate baptism dates with a glass bottle of root beer at dinner. It had to be glass. Change was unthinkable.
Eventually, our oldest child headed off to college. His baptism date was shortly after Parents Weekend, so I enlisted the aid of his roommate to deliver the soda on the appropriate day. Thus began a new phase of life.
The next challenge was not so simple. One year, two of our children spent the semester abroad. Their university, Franciscan University of Steubenville, has a campus in the foothills of the Austrian Alps. Both kids’ baptism dates occurred while they were across the Atlantic.
My first thought was that it would be ludicrous to ship root beer to Europe – and possibly illegal.
Then I thought further. We pay for what’s important to us. In our family, nurturing our kids’ faith is of supreme importance.
Thus, on a warm September day, I made my way to the small Post Office near our home. I’d packaged a glass bottle of root beer with enough bubble wrap to cover the state of Rhode Island. I spoke with the Postmaster, who was fascinated that I was mailing a package whose postage cost more than the value of the contents.
It was crazy, I admitted, but I knew my kids would understand the message: baptism frees us from Original Sin and brings us into the Body of Christ. What could be more important than joining the Body of Christ?
Six weeks later, I visited the Post Office with another well-wrapped root beer. The postmaster remembered my previous visit; in fact, it had made such an impression that she’d tracked down her own baptism date.
And so it was that two Connecticut kids in Austria celebrated their entry into the Body of Christ with bottles of American root beer.
We pay for that which is important to us.
M. Regina Cram is a published author and a parishioner of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish.
