What Do Catholics Believe Is The Way To Heaven?

[Guest curious]

i'm just wondering what catholics believe is the way to heaven and why. i've asked catholic friends of mine, and i always get a "works" answer, like, "well i try to be a good person, go to church, and pray," and stuff. i don't understand why this is, when Jesus said that "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me," and "for by grace are ye saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast." I have yet to meet a practicing catholic, who when asked about their salvation, says anything about a relationship w/ Christ. can somebody help me out? i'm tryin to learn more about catholicism

[Carson Weber]

Curious,

Great question!

The Way to Heaven is Jesus Christ who is God's eternal Son. The Son of God became man, offered himself on our behalf through his suffering and death, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. To get to Heaven, we need to be reborn as children of God out of the Old Covenant (the natural family of Adam) and into the New Covenant (the supernatural family of Jesus, the New Adam). Catholics have a term for this life that we have when we are reborn as children of God: [i]sanctifying grace[/i].

Only by Jesus' merits can we receive salvation (i.e., [i]sanctifying grace[/i]), and we need to receive Jesus' life (the Life of the Blessed Trinity: God) in order to be "saved."

We get "sanctifying grace" (that is, the gift of God's indwelling life in the soul that sanctifies the soul, making the Christian holy) in baptism, and we grow in this grace through a life of faith, hope, and love.

Here's a testimony that may be of help to you:

[url="http://www.catholicoutlook.com/mystory.html"]http://www.catholicoutlook.com/mystory.html[/url]