You’re probably not. And that’s fine.
Nobody feels ready to become Orthodox. If you did, you’d be the first catechumen in two thousand years who thought they had their spiritual life together enough to enter the Church. The fact that you don’t feel ready is actually a good sign. It means you understand what you’re getting into.
But here’s the thing. Readiness isn’t about feeling prepared. It’s not about having your prayer life perfected or your temper under control or your Bible knowledge up to some imaginary standard. If the Church waited for people to be spiritually mature before baptizing them, nobody would ever get baptized. The whole point of the sacraments is that they’re for sick people who need healing.
Think about it this way. When you go to the doctor, you don’t wait until you’re healthy. You go because you’re sick and you need medicine. Baptism and chrismation are medicine. The Eucharist is medicine. You don’t earn them by getting better first. You receive them so you can get better.
What readiness actually means
Your priest isn’t looking for perfection when he decides you’re ready. He’s looking for a few concrete things. Do you believe what the Church teaches? Have you been coming to services? Have you made a confession? Do you have a sponsor who can help you after you’re received? Are you willing to keep trying to live as an Orthodox Christian, even when it’s hard?
That’s it. That’s the list.
You don’t have to have conquered your passions. You don’t have to understand the filioque controversy or be able to explain the difference between essence and energies. You don’t even have to feel particularly holy. You just have to want to be part of the Church and be willing to let the Church form you.
St. Theophan the Recluse once wrote that the spiritual life is about direction, not perfection. Are you pointed toward Christ? Are you trying? That’s what matters. The rest takes a lifetime, and the Church knows that.
The difference between humility and fear
There’s a difference between healthy humility and the kind of fear that keeps you standing outside the Church indefinitely. Healthy humility says, “I’m a sinner and I need God’s mercy.” That’s true, and it’s exactly why you should be baptized. Fear says, “I’m too much of a mess for God to want me.” That’s a lie.
Sometimes what feels like humility is actually pride in disguise. It’s the voice that says you have to fix yourself before God can work with you, that your effort matters more than His grace. That’s backwards. God doesn’t wait for you to become worthy. He makes you worthy.
If your priest says you’re ready and you still feel unready, tell him that. Have that conversation. But don’t assume your feelings are a better guide than his pastoral judgment. He’s received hundreds of people into the Church. He knows what readiness looks like, and he knows it doesn’t look like confidence. It usually looks like someone who’s scared and excited and not sure they can do this but willing to try anyway.
What happens after
Here’s something nobody tells catechumens enough. You won’t feel different the day after your baptism. You’ll still be you. You’ll still struggle with the same things you struggled with before. The difference is that now you’re struggling as a member of the Body of Christ, with the grace of the sacraments and the prayers of the Church and a community around you.
I’ve known people who delayed their reception for years because they didn’t feel ready. Some of them eventually came in and wished they’d done it sooner. Some of them are still waiting, still trying to get their lives in order first, still thinking that next year they’ll finally be prepared. They won’t be. None of us are.
Down here in Southeast Texas, we understand that you don’t wait for perfect conditions to do important things. Hurricane season comes every year whether you’re ready or not. Your roof might leak and your fence might need fixing and you might not have enough sandbags, but when the storm comes, you deal with it. The spiritual life is like that. You start where you are, with what you have, and you trust God to cover the rest.
Your priest will set a date when he thinks you’re ready. When that day comes, show up. Bring your sponsor. Say the prayers. Renounce the devil and confess the faith. Get baptized. Receive chrismation. Take communion for the first time. Then come back next Sunday and do it again. That’s how you become Orthodox. Not by feeling ready, but by walking through the door the Church opens for you and letting the Holy Spirit do the work you can’t do yourself.
