First Steps in Your Journey of Faith and Parish Life: A Baby Journal from Baptism to First Reconciliation

First Steps is a baby journal with a unique, refreshing spiritual focus. It encourages families to cultivate and record a child’s “journey of faith and parish life,” from birth and Baptism all the way to First Reconciliation.

Parents fill the book with photos and answers to questions about the significant events and developments in a child’s first seven years. As they do, they are prompted to consider the child’s significance as the fruit of their love; the meaning of Baptism as the child’s “spiritual birthday”; signs of the child’s spiritual growth, year by year; and the critical role of parish life in raising the child in the Faith.

Created especially for Catholic families, First Steps offers these features you won’t find in other baby journals:

• Prayers for the child and the home, to God, the saints, and the child’s guardian angel

• Thoughtful quotes to ponder from Scripture, the Catechism, and the saints

• Brief saint biographies of special interest to children and family life

• A section designed to strengthen the involvement of the child’s family in the parish

• A final encouragement to the child, in the seventh year, to prepare for First Reconciliation.

Beautifully designed and illustrated, First Steps makes a perfect gift for the birth or Baptism of a child. Its emphasis on parish life makes it especially attractive as a pastoral gift on those occasions. It provides Catholic parents a thoughtful, faith-deepening way to tell the story of how a child came to grow, not just in age, but in grace.

Conor Gallagher earned both his Masters in Philosophy and Juris Doctorate from The Catholic University of America. He began his professional career as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert J. Conrad, Chief Judge of the Western District of North Carolina. He has been an adjunct Professor of Philosophy and Political Philosophy at Belmont Abbey College. He is currently Vice President of Publishing of Saint Benedict Press and TAN Books, and Executive Producer of Catholic Courses. He and his wife Ashley, are the proud parents of nine great children. Conor and his family live in Fort Mill, South Carolina.