How long do Catholics normally go without committing mortal sin?

[Lea101]

I think she was just referring to attempting to rationalize one’s behaviour by trying to feign ignorance.

Yup, that’s what I meant.

When Does Gossip Become a Mortal Sin? | Catholic Answers Q&A

I guess this can clear things up. I think we tend to trick ourselves by pretending our intentions aren’t thaaaat evil, that we aren’t trying to ruin someone’s reputation but we ‘just have to let them know what kind of person she is’…and so on. I do believe it is important to check yourself instead of having some sort of pride at times.

My main point is that it’s definitely easy to get into hell than heaven, and you don’t have to be some sort of Hitler to commit a mortal sin. The temptation is always there, basically. But the thing is, confession is always there as well.

Ik this doesn’t really help with OP, lol. But this is just my perspective. This is/was my struggle as well. Ignorance is bliss and sometimes I wish I never took my faith seriously enough to look things up, lol!

 

[LateranBasilica]

A 92yo woman today told me she is a great sinner. Her answer would be something like 5 minutes.
This woman survived Europe and WWII, refugee camps etc and through it maintained a great faith in God. This woman is one of the holiest I know, yet refutes that, and says she is a great sinner.

There is a lesson in there for the rest of us.

 

[Greenfields]

Lord Jesus Christ son of the living God have mercy on me a great sinner.
A good rule of thumb ,if in doubt go to confession

 

[Brendea]

I think all of us can and do sin from time to time however it’s not easy to mortally sin one doesn’t accidentally mortally sin. It can be as simple as gossiping behind ones back, telling a little white lie, Not always liking your neighbour especially when they have a party with loud music that goes on into the wee hours of the morning or as Mr 6 says not always being the best version of your self or being the best friend that you can be.
( thank goodness Mr 6 is to young to go to confession I’ve told him at this young age while he’s to young to go to confession he can just ask God for forgiveness during his nightly prayers.)

 

[Tis_Bearself]

This woman is one of the holiest I know, yet refutes that, and says she is a great sinner.

There is a lesson in there for the rest of us.

I’ll freely tell you I’m a great sinner too, including today and every day.
But “great sinner” does not mean you are committing a mortal sin every 5 minutes. A mortal sin is a sin that destroys your relationship with God, not a garden variety sin. The average holy person I know goes to weekday Mass pretty regularly; most of these people would tell you they are sinners, but if they were committing mortal sin every day then Father would have to be hearing confessions before every weekday Mass or else very few people there would be able to receive.

It’s important that we realize we can be great sinners while not being MORTAL sinners. If someone thinks Catholics are all committing a mortal sin every 5 minutes, that to me suggests a scrupulousity issue.

 

[ZMystiCat]

I wonder if that’s really a ‘peaceful’ situation. We as Catholics are supposed to have the fruits of the Spirit, one of which is peace.

Most of us are at peace, knowing that God wouldn’t give us up or let us be torn away from Him. It is entirely up to our free will and, in the moment, we probably aren’t making plans to commit mortal sin against Him. Even if we’re struggling with a particularly grave sin, we’re probably not intending to embrace it until the time comes when we get tempted.

Ultimately, the only one that would give me concern is myself, but I also know I don’t have intentions to sin. Heck, that’s part of our prayer at confession - to resolve to avoid sin and the near occasion of it. At the same time, I’m aware that God is actively offering grace to help me avoid such grave sin. That gives me peace, even if there’s something I’m struggling with.

And that isn’t even counting confession. Even if we don’t want to rely on it to stay in a state of grace, the fact that it offers a certainty of forgiveness to those of us who have been justified is very comforting.

Romans 5:1 seems to portray this state of peace as a present reality for the believer after having been justified by faith, and not something merely to be obtained after the particular judgment.

That’s what problematizes Catholic soteriology.

This is an incredibly Protestant take on the passage that may not be consistent with how the passage has been understood historically or what Paul was discussing in the first place.

First of all, the translation may be suggesting something entirely different than what Paul meant. As the NABRE footnote says, “…a number of manuscripts, versions, and church Fathers read ‘Let us have peace.’” While many translations, such as the NABRE, take the stance of already-having peace, there’s never been an absolute consensus on how it should read.

Second, contextually, Paul may be reference “peace” as a contrast to the Judaizer heresy, which is what much of Romans up until that point was addressing. The Judaizer heresy required Gentile believers to be circumcised so that they could become “Jewish” as a “rite of passage” to becoming Christian. He could have been saying that they already had peace, since the circumcision was unnecessary. He does not, however, guarantee permanent peace, though the following verses suggests that it is possible with much work.

But even without all that, the only way I can imagine a Catholic doesn’t have peace is if they are overly scrupulous, failing to understand Catholic theology, and/or aren’t really living the Catholic faith. Those are personal failings that create problems even when adhering to Protestant takes on soteriology. And trust me, I’ve met many Protestants who struggle with knowing if they’re saved or not and was there for a while myself when I was Protestant.

It’s about deliberately sinning, not unconscious sinning.

Well, we’ve all deliberately sinned before, but that doesn’t mean we’re still doing it.

 

[TheLittleLady]

How are we Catholics to have peace when it is very likely we could be in mortal sin (and at enmity with God) at any point this month (or year)?

Today I choose not to sin against God. In this hour, in this moment, I choose to love God and obey Him.

I plan to obey God for the rest of my life.

One does not accidentally “fall into” mortal sin. It is a choice we make with our free will.

 

[TheLittleLady]

@catholicray, I cited Romans 3:10-18. Paul literally says that all of us are guilty of turning from God. I don’t know how that could possibly be an interpretation.

Then what do we do with the Virgin Mary, she never sinned. Therefore “all” must mean something else.

We know that St Paul was using “all” in the way I tell my husband “you forget your go bag every time we leave the house” or “all of this country is filled with hatred”.

It is hyperbolic language, it is a manner of speaking.

 

[SergiusPaulus]

Don’t you think the Virgin Mary is an obvious exception, along with babies in the womb and Jesus Christ?

 

[TheLittleLady]

My point is that there are exceptions. There are people who are born, baptized, Confirmed and they never commit a grave sin.

There are people who commit a big bunch of sins, lead sinful lives then they reach a point in their spiritual growth where the mere thought of sinning against God is unthinkable.

Others fall many times each day.

We are all along this spectrum somewhere.

Scripture is clear “be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect”. That goal would not have been set if it were impossible.

 

[oliver109]

We know that it is possible to avoid mortal sin, the question is why would God allow someone to die in the state of M sin after leading a generally good life(though one where the person never fully repented and sometimes committed mortal sins) though you will probably tell me that person was not good because they sometimes sinned mortally. The fact is that I feel sorry for someone like that and so should you.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

the question is why would God allow someone to die in the state of M sin after leading a generally good life

How do you know God would “allow” this? Do you not think that a loving, merciful God would provide some means for a generally good person who’d lived a generally good life to have a chance to repent at the last minute? We don’t know what God does and we should not assume either for the better or for the worse. We should focus on preparing ourselves and PRAYING for other people.

 

[oliver109]

Agreed with what you said there, I hope and trust in Gods mercy and strive to do the right thing, I want to see more of the mercy part and less of the part about punishment taught in the church today as it makes people anxious when they are told that they can end up in Hell because they die after committing a mortal sin even though they generally lived a decent life.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I don’t know where you live, oliver, but in the USA at the normal OF Masses, if the priests talked about sin and punishment any less than they do now, it would never be mentioned. It is barely mentioned as is and many people just don’t believe that anyone who is basically a decent person ever sins or that God would ever punish anybody. We have to remember that God’s justice is tempered with mercy, but the justice element is still present. We’re going to be judged and it’s not going to be pretty. We hope in God’s mercy.

 

[oliver109]

That is interesting what you mention about America, I have always thought of America as a more judgemental society looking at their long prison sentences and homeless problems but it is obviously not the case where the church is involved. I live in the UK and I have heard a lot more preaching about Hell as of late, I never heard it when I was growing up in my early teens(I’m 26 now) and before leading me to believe that one should not worry about Hell unless they are making others lives a total misery but over the last 10 years it has seemed to become more common.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Certain groups of US Protestants, particularly some Baptists, Evangelicals and other fundamentalists, tend to talk about Hell a lot and be very judgmental. The Catholic Church in USA post-Vatican II has shied away from that. For a long time we didn’t even say the St. Michael Prayer anywhere because it mentioned Hell and the Devil and the popular teaching was that it might scare people, especially children. Fortunately people have become more reasonable so we now say that prayer again and priests talk about sin a little bit…but usually only a little bit.

If you go to a Mass in USA and the priest is talking about sin and going to Hell, then there is a 95-99 percent chance he is a traditionalist even if the Mass is ordinary form. I have had this happen about once in the past year. It was a Mercedarian priest who was wearing a biretta. Occasionally you will also hear about sin and hell a bit from priests who have immigrated to USA from some other country like Mexico or Poland. US-born priests rarely speak of it. It’s all about God’s love and mercy from them.

 

[oliver109]

I go to a traditionalist church and of course Hell is mentioned frequently, even the non traditionalist church I sometimes go to has priests who mention Hell sometimes in homilies and how easy it is to end up there. I think the diocese I am in has an archbishop who is trying to steer away from the more liberal post Vatican ii days of the 70s-90s where the main feature of homilies I believe was more about Gods mercy than his judgements.

 

[prayerrider]

Good on you! Keep going there, and trust that those priests will tell you straight up if a sin is mortal or not, if you ask them.
Sounds like a good Archbishop. I pray for more like him!

 

[LateranBasilica]

It’s important that we realize we can be great sinners while not being MORTAL sinners. If someone thinks Catholics are all committing a mortal sin every 5 minutes, that to me suggests a scrupulousity issue.

Its not ’ if someone’ It is the testimony of a very holy, very humble old woman who has seen more than her fair share of the evils of life.

I can assure you there are no issues with scruples there, However, there is a great deal of humility and life experience in times that were extremely challenging and perilous.

As an aside, one of our greatest modern saints Saint Pope John Paul II also attended confession on an almost daily basis. It is not up to us to determine or judge what is or is not a mortal sin, it is up to the Priest in charge of our eternal soul.

The average holy person

There are no average holy people

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Its not ’ if someone’ It is the testimony of a very holy, very humble old woman who has seen more than her fair share of the evils of life.

I can assure you there are no issues with scruples there, However, there is a great deal of humility and life experience in times that were extremely challenging and perilous.

As an aside, one of our greatest modern saints Saint Pope John Paul II also attended confession on an almost daily basis. It is not up to us to determine or judge what is or is not a mortal sin, it is up to the Priest in charge of our eternal soul.

Tis_Bearself:

The average holy person

I disagree. There are plenty of average holy people. We are unaware of many of them as they do not announce themselves.

While I am aware that several recent Popes have confessed daily, if one of us on here tried to go to confession daily, we would likely get a talk from the priest about possible scruples and, assuming we we were not coming into confession with an actual grave sin daily (for example, daily masturbation due to a porn habit), probably be told we should not confess so often and given a schedule on which to confess.

Your friend may be a very holy person who means well, but if she seriously thinks that most Catholics cannot go 5 minutes without committing a mortal sin, i don’t think that is a sign of her holiness. I think she has a mistaken or wrong impression of what “mortal sin” is. Presumably she herself has figured out how to avoid committing a “mortal sin” every 5 minutes or she would have to have a priest coming in daily if not twice a day to make sure she is absolved in case she, at her advanced age, died in a state of mortal sin. If she is able to avoid mortal sins over a period of time, many other people are also able to do so - and in my opinion, they do manage to do so.

In any event, her “testimony” is her opinion only and it’s rather presumptuous of her, no matter how holy she is, to act like she knows other people’s sins. Unless she’s the next Padre Pio or St. John Vianney, she doesn’t.