St Clement Parish issued the following announcement on Sept. 6

“Do you know the date of your Baptism? It was the greatest day of your life! Baptism is the primary sacrament which leads us into relationship with God through Jesus Christ; we are spiritually born again, as we die to the old, unredeemed self and rise in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Baptism literally changes our identity; we become an adopted son or daughter of the Father. God loves us so, that who Jesus is by nature, i.e. the Son, is generously shared with us in the waters of Baptism. Our sonship or daughtership in the Father is called the divine filiation. 

Through Baptism, Christ welcomes us into the Church, His Mystical Body; from the Church, we hear God’s saving Word, we share in the sacraments, we receive moral direction and enjoy the prayers of the saints in the sacred communion of Christ’s Bride. The Church is our Mother, our family, our home—the sacred place where we become the missionary disciples, the saints that God calls us to be. Like any good mother, the Church births, feeds, heals, forgives, directs, and loves us unto eternal life. It all begins in Baptism. In this first sacrament, we are washed clean of original sin. We are born into a fallen world, warped and misshaped by generations of sin, selfishness, and wrong moral choices. Moreover, we experience that fallen nature within us; left to our own devices, we will often choose naturally for selfishness over God and others. 

Christ saves us from all of that—the unredeemed self—as He picks us up and puts us on the path of salvation, grace, and holiness. Originally the final anointing of Baptism, the sacrament of Confirmation has evolved over the centuries as a completion of the first sacrament and a full reception of the Holy Spirit. Our participation in the grace of Pentecost, Confirmation powerfully equips us to go forth as missionary disciples to live out the Great Commission of witnessing to Jesus and His saving Gospel. These two sacraments are fundamental, joining us to Christ and the Church and grounding our very being in the universal call to holiness and our life as participation in the Blessed Trinity.”

Original source can be found here.