Examination of Conscience - Venial and Mortal?

[babochka]

I honestly never worry about whether a sin is venial or mortal. (As an Eastern Catholic, we don’t tend to draw that sharp distinction, anyway.) If there is a sin that is bothering my conscience, I bring it to confession and I don’t unduly delay. It helps to have a regular schedule for confession, whether it is monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, etc. Every once in a while, something will so trouble my conscience that I try to make it to confession before I would ordinarily have gone, by my schedule.

IMO there are far fewer mortal sins committed than a lot of good Catholics think. Therefore, I believe if you commit a mortal sin you will know it. Confess those plus any venial sin that you commit often and you can’t seem to get control of. Don’t worry about the small stuff. It will all be forgiven whether mentioned or not. Concentrate on being sorry for offending God and a firm purpose of amendment to not sin again. God bless.

I agree with this. I was told by a confessor many years ago that the normal state for a Christian is a state of Grace. Frequent the sacraments and have faith that they are working in your life to keep you in a state of Grace. If you have a well-formed and healthy conscience, you will know if you have committed a mortal sin. If you don’t have a well-formed and healthy conscience, frequent confession can help with that.

 

[Joe_5859]

Uh oh, what did you do now?

Honestly, though, I didn’t really notice a pattern. It just seemed to me like you’re a relatively new convert with some honest questions about things.

 

[somecanadian]

HAHA! I should have come here sooner honestly. 7 years and I haven’t been examining this more closely, just been stumbling through all confused and befuddled. I have been studying the faith, I swear! But my studies have focused on things like Church history and theology of the Eucharist. Haha.