The whole process of "becoming" who we are called to be by God is called conversion. As Christians, we are constantly growing into the persons God intends for us to be. Conversion is not a one-shot deal - conversion happens to us from birth until death. We don't go through this process alone. We do it with others in a community rooted in Christ. In the Catholic Christian community, the initial states of this conversion process are marked in a particular way by special celebrations called the sacraments of initiation - baptism, confirmation, and eucharist.

Excerpted  from Sacraments: A Way of Life (Participant book) by Kieran Sawyer, S.S.N.D., General Editor. Copyright ©1996 by Ave Maria Press, P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. Used with permission of the publisher.