Sacrament of Baptism

The Vatican on the Sacrament of Baptism:

"Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called.⁵⁰ The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism shortly after birth.<sup>51"

In practice, however, the sacrament also benefits the religious public. Recently, the Catholic Church has been making an effort to reintegrate the Sacraments into the Mass and therefore the community (per the American Catholic Dioscese). Witnessing a baptism can have have empathetic effect upon the congregation: they are reminded of viewing God, and the external world, in a child-like state. (The child-like state obviously referring to post-baptism, minus the original sin, power of darkness, etc.)</sup>

Penance

Penance, also know as confession of reconciliation is an act of asking forgiveness from God for sins. In catholic liturgy, God can exercise forgiveness through priesthood. The penance often happen in a confined confession booth where the believer and priest is separated by a screen to keep the identity of the believer a secret. Typically, the believer will kneel side-facing the priest. However, some confession booth has chair for the believer to sit on. Though it is encouraged to have penance as often as possible, time before Advent and Lenten seasons are most common time for believer to have penance. The booth serves as a space for the believer to meditated on their sin and to admit the sin by letting the priest absolve the sin. The darkness and quietness forces the believer to hear, to feel and to fear themselves. It is a space where self-confrontation happened.

Other religion like Muslim or Jainism, penance can happen in a form of fasting. By using meditation to overcome physical desire like hunger and thirst, the believer can focus more on spiritual aspect. In Jainism, fasting to death (Santhara) is a common practise. The fasting help to eliminate desires and purify minds while they prepare for death.