Mark of Baptism - Visible?

[sconea]

Can the “mark of baptism” be seen by others…

I ask because I was reading a rather fascinating diary, by a priest from idaho who was on a short sabbatical in palestine…he sent the comments of his diary on his experiences etc to his parish.
Was reading along this rather fascinating story when I almost fell off my chair!!

This is quote from his story…my emphasis

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6)

The basic greeting in both Arabic and Hebrew is “Peace” (Salaam,Shalom). Even the very name of Jerusalem means “City of Peace.”

Peace in fact is the primary topic of discussion in our holy land. Withoutpeace, there is no viable economic life and daily life itself becomes a heavy burden.

In the Middle East, politics and religion are inseperable. People are identified by their religion. I am living in Palestine, which is exclusively Arabic (not counting the massive Israeli so-called “settlements”).

I can not tell by looking if an Arab is Christian or Muslim, but I am told the locals can. One lady told me she can see the mark of baptism on the foreheads of Christians. Regardless, religious identity is more important than ethnicorigin. And ethnicity is of utmost interest…"

ourladyofthelakeidaho.org/pdf/BehindTheWall.pdf

Just wondering if anyone else have ever heard of this phenomenon anywhere??

For any enlightenment…thanks.

 

[MulusChristi]

Baptism imprints a mark, or character, on the soul of the Christian (so do Confirmation and Holy Orders). I would assume that a very spiritually attuned saint might be able to discern these characters.

Saint Pio was said to be able to literally smell mortal sin on a person’s soul. There were cases where he would tell a person that they had a mortal sin on their soul and stank as he urged them to go to confession. St. John Vianney had similar gifts: during confession, he would tell penitents what sins they were forgetting.

That being said, I would suspect that the phenomenon the priest describes is really a natural skill. People in various cultures learn to discern subtle cues which reveal a person’s ethnicity and religious background, just as we can use accents to sometimes place a person’s place of origin. In tribal cultures like the Middle East, such skills can have life and death consequences.

 

[rwoehmke]

In LaHay’s Left Behind series those who have taken Christ as their personal savior can see a mark on the foreheads of others who have done this. Catholics of course were not considerwd Christians in his books so they did not have the mark nor could they see it on others.

I think perhaps there might be very holy people from time to time to whom God might give this ability, but the invisible marks or seals on the souls of those who are baptized, confirmed, or received holy orders are invisible to us who still walk this earth. What one can see after leaving this coil is beyond my present experience.

By the way if you read any of Lehay’s books, and he has more than just the Left Behind Series, you will have to take most of what he says with a very large grain of salt. In fact most of his books would be better left unread.