Question for the New Year

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thereselittleflower

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That's a BIG question!

By being in full communion with the Catholic Church, which means fully embracing Christ and all revealed truth and striving to live that truth, working out one's own salvation in fear and trembling, by denying oneself, taking up one's cross and following Him. . . . . . by progressing in sanctification/theosis . . . .

Probably the simplest answer is to learn what is contained in The Imitation of Christ and striving to live its teachings.
 
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thereselittleflower

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simply...born anew/conversion experience puts you in Christ...
Well, while that is the usual protestant understanding and answer, that is not the Catholic teaching or understanding of how one becomes "in" Christ. :) Since this is OBOB and Catholic teaching guides us in our answers, one is joined to Christ through Baptism, which is the new birth, personal conversion experience aside.

One can become in Christ, but not remain in Christ. To BE in Christ right now, in the present momment, takes more than Conversion and Baptism. It takes daily living in the friendship of God. Mortal sin separates us from God.

Can one who is in mortal sin still BE IN Christ at the same time?
 
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Quaero

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Well not being a catholic myself, but having a strong grounding in the Religion I'll add my 2 cents.

Our School motto was "To be Christ in our world". And I think that is the answer. To be 'in Christ', it goes beyond just communion and baptism, but living daily in the presence of Christ.

Also another exercise we did once was to take that very same phrase "in Christ" and inserting a word to make it read "in Christs presence" etc. I believe the idea was to explore the various ways of being in Christ!

God Bless
 
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benedictaoo

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simply...born anew/conversion experience puts you in Christ...

a conversion experience is not a one time event and bam you are converted. We have so much sin to convert from that we will undergo conversion for the rest of our lives.

To answer the OP. being in Christ is is to unite yourself to the will of God come what may and to pay attention to the Holy Spirit who now is in you leading you and guiding you.
 
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ShannonMcCatholic

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Jesus in John 15 tells about abiding in Him. We abide in Him by following His commandments, and then He tells us specifically that His commandment is that we love one another.

Interestingly that chapter in John also tells us that we're getting pruned either way- if we bear fruit- we're pruned to grow more---if we're not producing fruit, we'll be pruned.
 
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rainbojo

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A paragraph taken from "Mere Christianity" C.S. Lewis. And let me make it quite clear that when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being 'in Christ' or of Christ being 'in them,' this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts -- that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It is not merely the spreading of an idea; it is more like evolution -- biological or superbiological fact. There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.
 
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