Denver Catholic

In particular, the Eucharist and Confession play essential roles in feeding and restoring your divinized life. When you actively partic- ipate in Mass, offering yourself to the Father with the sacrifice of Jesus, and when you fruit- fully receive the Eucharist, your identit y and your union with Christ's Body are strength- ened. Nourished by his Body and Blood, you become more of who you became in your Baptism. When you sin mortally, freely and know- ingly separating yourself from God with a grave sin, the only gift that remains is the character. Losing all the other graces, you return to the grave, spiritually dead. Through Confession, God brings you through a "second Baptism," resurrecting you again and restoring sanctif y- ing grace and all the gifts of Baptism. "Abide in me, and I in you" (John 15:4). This is your baptismal life. Next time you enter the Church, and you dip your fingers in the holy water font, crossing yourself with the sign of your salvation, call this to mind. You know whose you are, what you have become, what you love and what you can do through the graces given to you at the moment of your Bap- tism into Christ Jesus the Lord. To him be glory forever. " At your Baptism, when you received the theological virtue of charity, you also received the presence of God himself." 10 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2026 | DENVER CATHOLIC A NEW LIFE IN CHRIST If you return to the site of the grave, you can see the astonishing generosity of God's grace. He didn't merely reanimate a body; he resurrected and elevated the whole life from death. So too, through Baptism, you were completely re-created into a divinized human, able to live and act with Jesus; "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). "How do I live this and keep it alive?" The grace given in Baptism is just the beginning; we are infants in the Christian life. There are three primary ways to grow in this grace and reach Heaven: practicing the virtues, petitionary prayer and the sacraments. For simplicity, we consider the sacramental life. Through the other six sacraments, you cooperate with, increase and restore baptismal graces. All the sacraments increase and deepen sanctifying grace when you receive them fruitfully, drawing you deeper and more solidly into every further level of grace. Photo by Ashley Ortiz

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