who's responsible for my holiness?

St Cyril of Jerusalem gives us good advice regarding holiness today in A Year with the Church Fathers. He talks to us about holiness.

As we all know, God is merciful and forgiving. But He doesn't allow us to come into His presence presuming that everything is fine when we're sinful. He does require us to repent of our sins and ask forgiveness. Jesus made it very clear in one of His parables that our relationship to God is very much connected to our relationship with others. If we come into His presence, and remember that someone else has something against us, we should go make it right with them before we worship. He forgives us in the same way that we forgive others.

So it's very important when we come to Him, whether it's in church or in prayer or in Bible reading... in any way that we come into His presence... that we repent of the sins that so easily creep into our lives before we do. He will ALWAYS forgive us when we ask Him to. He never wearies of forgiving our sins. But we do have to ask.

God, thanks for forgiving us. Please help us remember to ask for that forgiveness.