Ingrid, soon to be baptized: ‘It’s never too late!’

“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.

In 1974, the vast majority of children born in Spain were baptized. However, Ingrid didn’t receive the first sacrament of Christian initiation as an infant. Her parents thought it best to allow her to decide as an adult whether she wanted to be part of the Catholic Church or not. And she has decided she does, 50 years later!

Ingrid will join the Catholic Church on April 19, 2025, at the Easter Vigil in the cathedral of Solsona (Spain). Her father will be her godfather. “They were the ones who chose that I could decide when I was an adult, and now they’re participating in my entrance [into the Church],” she explains to Aleteia.

Ingrid is brimming with joy: “I'm happier than ever. I'm where I should be. I'm finally doing it right,” she exclaims radiantly. But she becomes serious when she admits, “I’m very sorry that so many children aren’t baptized nowadays. I think they’re going to miss it.”

“To those who have children, I say: baptize them! You don't know how much good you're going to do them. Give it to them from the start; make it something they can hold on to, live, and know,“ she continues.

“They didn't make it easy for me. They didn’t have any bad intentions, but it's really a part that you always feel is missing,” she says.

Ingrid was born in Barcelona. Although neither she nor her sister were baptized, her parents—Catholic but not practicing—did enroll them in a Catholic school. Thus, she received a religious education, but she always felt a little apart from her classmates, who made their First Communion and participated at Mass.

As an adult, she moved to a mountain village called Bagà. There she began to share some moments with the Christian community, and felt the need to return to her roots and take up her relationship with the Church again.

“I could feel that something was missing, that there was something that I hadn't developed properly,” she recalls.

So she went to the village parish to find out more. The priest, Fr. Gaspar Comellas, welcomed her into the catechumenate. Convinced that it’s never too late, she began her two-year preparation to receive the three sacraments of Christian initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.

Ingrid did her catechesis with the children who were preparing for First Communion in the village. Last year there were four, and this year there were five children, aged between six and seven.

“It has been very enriching. As I was unable to live this experience when I was their age, it’s like having rediscovered that love that I didn’t experience, through their questions that are so innocent, so sincere,” he says with a smile.

And after those sessions with the children, together with the parish priest she worked through the Spanish Episcopal Conference’s book specially written for catechumens.

“We’ve been delving into the creed, the Lord's Prayer, into what the simplest things mean, such as what heaven, hell, and sin are,” she explains. ”The priest has been a cornerstone in my process.”

In these two years, Ingrid has rediscovered the Bible and listened to the priest's explanations, and she’s also gotten to know the Holy Spirit.

“The spiritual part, that energy of putting yourself in your place, of seeing that you aren’t the most important thing, that there’s something else... It’s very liberating and reassuring!” she exclaims. “It has given me tremendous calm, and it has comforted me a lot.”

“I’ll miss those moments when the process is over,” she continues, “because they’ve enriched me. They’ve made me rediscover things that had been explained to me as a child, with a redoubled enthusiasm because I need to understand the reason for everything.”

After her baptism, Ingrid wants to continue to be active at the parish by helping out in church maintenance, participating in a Gospel study group, and of course, going to Mass.

“You get hooked; you feel part of something that goes beyond you,” she explains. “This feeling experienced individually leads nowhere. You have to share it.”

Her husband, who hasn’t received any Christian formation, accompanies her to Mass and also helps with some tasks at the parish.

In the catechumenate, Ingrid explains, “you have to, perhaps, shed a little of the layers of the outside world, focus, think about what’s important, the fact that you’re here for a reason.”

Being a Christian, she continues, “is living life according to the Gospel, according to the directives of the Bible, and everything else is superficial... When it clicks for you, you feel a tremendous liberation.”

“It's very moving. You've been waiting for many years and it's very special,” she says. “The only good thing about being able to live it now is that I'm very aware and it's very exciting.”

This conversation draws her attention to St. Augustine of Hippo, who became a Christian after a disorderly life, because “not everyone is automatically granted to be Catholic.”

But “the fact that you’re older doesn’t mean that you should stop trying to find it and live it,” she stresses. “Sometimes there’s the idea that Christian life involves many restrictions, a lot of sacrifice to follow it to the letter, but it’s the other way around: you’re liberated, you feel much more fulfilled, more complete,” she says.

“It doesn't matter if you’re 70 years old; it’s never too late to find the Lord,” she says. “And when you’re older you experience it in a different way. You enjoy it even more because you feel welcomed even if you haven’t followed the usual path, and that’s very comforting.”

“It's as if you were written off, but they take you back, Jesus makes you his own,” she adds. ”You have to want to, but it's never too late for the Lord. I could’ve said, ‘It doesn't matter now, if I haven't done it until now…’ well, no: do it!”