To Begin A Christian Life, Seek Grace

"The minute grace descends and joins itself to your will is the minute when the Christian life is born in you––powerful, firm, and greatly fruitful."
Sant Theophan the Recluse

Where dose this grace come from?  According to Saint Theophan it come from the Mysteries of the Church, the Sacraments.

Saint Theophan says,
The acquisition of grace and the sanctification by  its means of our nature is performed in the Mysteries.  Here we offer of God's action, or present to God our own worthless nature; and He, by His action, transforms it.  It was pleasing to God, in order to strike down our proud mind, to hide His power at the very beginning of true life beneath the covering of simple materiality.  How this happens we no not understand, but the experience of all Christianity testifies that it does not happen otherwise.

The very beginning of a Christian Life involves the Mysteries of Baptism and Repentance.

He also says,
Baptism is the first Mystery (Sacrament) in Christianity; it makes a Christian person worthy to be vouched the gifts of grace through other Mysteries also.


Baptism is not just a ritual to free us of past sins, but one that introduces us to God's Church,  uniting us with His body, allowing ourselves to be made capable of receiving His grace.  Do not be trapped by legalistic type of thinking where you only see laws of goodness, break them, and then seek restitution.  God is merciful and will forgive us if we do remain humble and repentant, but what we need most is His grace working from within our hearts.  Seek this with all your effort.  Participate fully in the Sacramental life of His Church.