Evil triumphs when good men do nothing - Edmund Burke

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Sacraments and Christian prayer - Bl. Pope John Paul II

Instituted by the Saviour, Baptism is the first of the Sacraments; it abolishes 'original sin' and restores 'sanctifying grace' to the soul, introducing those who receive it into the trinitarian life of God and making them 'adoptive children' of the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus, full members of the Christian Church - the Mystical body of Christ - and heirs to the eternal joys of Paradise.  To be born means entering into a specific divine plan: no one comes into the world by accident; on the contrary, everyone has a particular mission to perform, which, of course, we cannot know all about from the start but which will be made completely clear to us one day. So let us be guided by our awareness of being instruments of a God who has created us out of love and wishes to be repaid with love by us.
The sacrament of Confirmation is, as it were, a completing of Baptism, the stage of maturity on the journey to full admittance into the mystery of Christ and to responsible acceptance of one's vocation in the Church. To understand the meaning of this sacrament, we need first of all to reflect on the function of all the Sacraments.

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