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A person who shares God's very life, through Baptism, and lives in a state of grace, can be certain that when she prays to the Father in Christ's name, in the Spirit, He hears and answers. How can He fail to hear the prayer of His own Son? In sharing the life of the Divine Persons, we share in Their loving responses to one another in the Godhead: hence our prayers are granted.

Because of their Baptism, souls have been changed; and those who enter Heaven are 'shielded' from the burning fire of love which is God's nature. Instead of suffering through contact with His holiness, they shine, in joy: as if each is a little flame of love, visible even amidst the surrounding Divine Glory.

From the glory of Heaven, God has made a bridge to earth, through Christ, so that all who believe in Him and are baptised can have a sure hope of reaching Heaven. He is the only bridge, open to all people.

There is only one way to Heaven - Christ Himself. By Baptism, each person enters the 'bridge', the safe way to Heaven. Some people who have not yet found the bridge, but who are making their way towards it, can be helped by God to reach Heaven, but there is no bridge but Christ.

God sees every good effort of human beings to serve Him. Sincere people in many religions reach out towards Heaven, to praise their Creator, however they picture Him, and in the hope of contact with Him. Yet the Catholic Faith is different from other religions in that, at every Mass, Heaven is laid open above us. Christ's power and Christ's intercession allow us to reach the Father, in the Spirit, through baptism and faith and the Sacrifice of the Mass.

The seed of our baptism is meant to grow into a mighty plant and take us to the heights of the spiritual life.

The seed of our baptism is meant to grow into a mighty plant and take us to the heights of the spiritual life, so that at the end of life it is only a short step to Heaven.

Jesus is a Divine Person. Glory is His nature. The glory shining out from Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration was the very glory which shone - to a lesser degree - on the face of Moses. God wants to share that glory with us, through the sacrament of Baptism.

It is right and necessary that we 'children of God' encourage others too to live in union with God through Baptism, and to persevere in love to the end. It is God's wish that when we are purified we enter Heaven as 'fire entering fire'. In God, there will be no more suffering or pain. Christ came down to earth, sharing our life, to offer us a share in His life.

Through our Baptism, we are adopted as God's children. We have a right to be heard in prayer. We can be as confident before God our King as an envoy who addresses a great earthly King saying: "Here are my credentials. I know you will hear me". Christ guarantees we'll be heard.

Through Baptism, a person is brought into a special relationship with Christ. He becomes an adopted child of God, with a greater knowledge of God's wishes, greater confidence in prayer, and greater 'security', through being an heir to Heaven.

Scripture alone? Holy Scripture is a gift from God. How strange it would be to receive this Word, when it is 'delivered' to us, without acknowledging the Church that wrote it and handed it on - and her Tradition, her Eucharist, her teachers, saints and symbols.

It is Christ Who - with the Father and the Holy Spirit - holds me in existence, as He holds the entire world in existence; and therefore I am close to Him through the very fact of my existence as well as being united with Him by Baptism and the gift of His Spirit.

By the Holy Spirit, Christ is present in the baptised person's soul, shining out His love and wisdom, irradiating the soul with Divine joy and goodness.

By the Holy Spirit, Christ is present in the baptised person's soul, shining out His love and wisdom, irradiating the soul with Divine joy and goodness.

By our Baptism, and the indwelling of God, we are given the gift of prayer. When we pray in Jesus' name to the Father we are certain of being heard. It's as if we have a megaphone - but we make a clearer 'sound' if, by penance, we keep it free from dust.

Christ explained the marvel of Baptism, by which the Three Divine Persons come to dwell in glory within the newly-baptised soul who can now have sure, intimate access to God, in his own soul, without his having to travel, as in earlier times, to the Temple.

Before the time of Christ, people had to go to the Temple at Jerusalem to be where God had come down in a special way. But Jesus, by His saving work, and the gift of Baptism, has made possible the entry of God, and the indwelling of God, in His glory, in the soul of the one who has freely accepted Christ and the sacrament.

Baptism is the normal means by which we are made adopted children of God our King, Who then gives us special helps, blessings, intimacy, joys - and the promise of inheriting His Kingdom. Onlookers can hope to benefit from the King's generosity, in some way, but the wisest go to the King's representatives to ask for adoption.

In Baptism a person is made God's own child - 'adopted' - transformed, empowered by the Holy Spirit, made a member of the Church, freed from sin and made an heir or heiress to the Kingdom of Heaven, if faithful to the end.