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Everyone has a desire to pray, unless it is stifled by false teaching. Almighty God sees and hears everything that is said or done by people on earth. He loves everyone; yet those who have freely chosen to repent and to believe in His Son and to share His life through Baptism can be confident that God hears them because they already live 'in Christ', as if enclosed in a great flame of Divine charity which has reached out across the Abyss which separates earth from Heaven. Children of God should be confident in prayer.

A Christian in a state of grace is intimately united with the Triune God. By Baptism, all sin is washed away from the soul, the person is made a member of the Church; Baptism brings the life of God to shine within the soul through the presence there of the Blessed Trinity: called the Divine Indwelling. No longer need people go to a special Temple in order to pray - though we have churches for our public worship as the Body of Christ: consecrated places where Christ is Really Present, in the tabernacle, in the Blessed Sacrament.

A person who knowingly refuses Baptism and all that it means cannot be saved, because his refusal stems from a refusal to believe what God's only Son has said: that whoever repents and is Baptised will be saved, but that whoever refuses to believe is already condemned.

The person who is Baptised is able to receive Confirmation too, and the Holy Eucharist; and so, being fully initiated into the Church, and remaining in a state of grace - it is to be hoped - that person is on a sure road to Heaven as he or she fulfils everyday duties and tries to discern God's plan for his or her life.

It is a marvel of grace, that the Blessed Trinity is present within the soul of a Baptised person. That person shares God's life, and power, and joy and peace. Yet God's presence is light as well as life. There is nothing worse than to extinguish that light, by deliberate mortal sin. If we die in such a state, we are doomed to an Eternity without God.

Christ told His followers: "Ask the Lord of the Harvest to send labourers to the Harvest". He did not say: "It doesn't matter if people don't hear about the Kingdom, or never hear about the importance of Baptism". Dialogue, today, with people of various religions must never be seen as a substitute for Evangelisation and Mission, which Christ always wants His people to undertake.

At every Mass, we can remember our spiritual Communion, through Christ, with those Catholics who languish in jails, in countries in which the faithful are despised and persecuted. What a marvel is our union with others, in the 'Communion of Saints', stemming from our Baptism, and how powerfully we can help one another, through Christ, by our prayers.

The Church is like a city with St. Peter's basilica at the centre. There are demons outside the city, attacking people, as they cry out for mercy. Yet there are angels guarding the city and its inhabitants. The Church is guaranteed God's help and protection, through the power of the sacraments, the wise guidance of the Angels, the frequent blessing by the Clergy, and the prayers of the Baptised.

Few of us sufficiently appreciate our good fortune. To be baptised, and purified, and a member of the Church, is to be guaranteed a hearing, when we pray. It's as if each of us is held in Christ's arms, as He says to the Father: 'She is Mine. Hear her. Do as she asks!' The state of such a person is more secure that the state of a person who does not know Christ but calls out in prayer, uncertain that he is heard.

Through faith in Christ, the Baptised person can call out to the Father, confident that her prayers are heard and answered. Because of her obedience to Christ, the Son of God, Who intercedes for her, it's as if she is held in Christ's arms, as Christ vouches for her, before Heaven, because she is a 'child of God' - unlike people who don't know Him, or who have refused to believe in Him.

A person who refuses Baptism refuses to be made a member of the Body, for whose members Christ prays: Christ who is the Son of God, God-made-man, and Head of the Church, as He prays for all members, and perpetually intercedes for them. It is a dreadful thing, to refuse to allow Christ to pray for one's Salvation! This is a much-neglected truth.

Some theologians are reluctant to accept Christ's claim to be the only Saviour. It's as if they are willing to explore a dark cave in the hope that it will lead to a cave-system that will stretch as far as the bright land beyond the mountains, when there is only one way over. Similarly, there is only one Route to heaven: Christ Himself - visible, safe, and well-known - which begins in Baptism.

What Christ told us is true, that there is only one Way to Heaven: His Way, which is like a road we travel safely when we have received his life in Baptism and have been freed from sin. If people are not willing to revere Christian Tradition they are not acting as true children of God, for example, Christians who are searching for another Way.

Christ is deeply touched when we thank Him for the spiritual benefits He has brought, as well as for everyday helps. He is glad if we appreciate our Baptism, and other sacraments, and if we remember to celebrate the anniversaries of such events.

We receive the free gift of Divine Life in Baptism. That is the start of our journey with and through Christ towards Heaven; but we choose at each moment whether to persevere. Some people do so, but some seem to throw the gifts away, and they will be lost, unless they repent.

By our Baptism we leap over a wall, it seems, that separates the holy from the unholy, no longer being stained by original sin. But the city beyond the wall represents earthly life, through which we should travel without being enslaved by sin. Heaven lies ahead, for the faithful, hence the importance of good preaching, as the clergy urge people not to grow weary, and never to betray Christ. Only the holy can enter Heaven.

We learned that God's presence was experienced long ago amidst thunder and fire, on Sinai. People today who live in serious sin and are afraid of God, feel as though He is a God of terror and fire. All who have been purified in Baptism - or, later, in Reconciliation - can realise that God is love: a tender love, in which He enfolds those who trust in Him and strive to do His Will. Their souls are at peace.

No mother should fear for the future of her departed baby. God the Father loves every person He has created, including the very tiny and innocent infants who die unbaptised because they died through abortion, or miscarriage, or after birth but before Baptism could be administered - or when it was denied them by unbelieving parents. He cannot allow the innocent to suffer after death, for He is just; and so in some way they live eternally in His loving care: as if having fallen at death into a comfortable nursery cot.

No unbaptised baby will suffer after death. All the innocent babies who die by abortion, or in miscarriages, or in infancy, fall into the care of God. Though not praising God in glory with the Saints, they are held in God's love, in peace. It's as if they have fallen into a comfortable cot, held out in the loving hands of Jesus.

None of us should think that a Baptism is merely an excuse for a ceremonial gathering. A real change is effected by the sacrament of Baptism, by which a person is freed from sin, made a child of God and a member of the Church, and receives the very life of God within his or her soul. The indwelling Trinity makes the soul glorious with Divine Glory; this is a light that can only be extinguished by serious sin.