St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: On Increasing the Grace of Baptism

 These are the means to increase the grace of baptism to boundless measure, inconceivable and implausible to the human mind in its fallen state:

1. Living by the commandments of the Gospel
2. Contemplating our own fallen nature
3. Contemplating the endless greatness and perfection of God
4. Comparing human nature - worthless in its limitations - with the limitless nature of God
5. Contemplating the consequences of Adam's sin and the consequences of our own sinfulness
6. Sorrowing over our calamitous spiritual state and that of all mankind
7. Enduring all personal troubles patiently.

The increase of the holy spiritual gift given by baptism is just as boundless as the gift given by God from His divine nature is boundless (see 2 Peter 1:4). This cultivation of the gift will overwhelm the entire being of a Christian. When we see this spiritual cultivation in the chosen vessels of God, then the effect of holy baptism on man, expressed by Christ in the parables of the Gospel, becomes completely obvious.

+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from The Refuge: Anchoring the Soul in God, Chapter 11, The Various States of Human Nature in Relation to Good and Evil.