Identifying your Root Sin

  • Thread starter Thread starter misstherese
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

misstherese

Guest
St. Teresa of Avila says that,
“Self knowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it; so long as we are on this earth, nothing matters more to us than humility.”
(St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle)
Click to expand...
Self knowledge can be cultivated through our own realization of God’s goodness and our own baseness; by looking at his purity we shall see our foulness; by meditating upon his humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble. (St. Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle)

Self knowledge is an important factor when it comes to understanding our weaknesses and our frequent failings.

Now we come to the main point of discussion: the identification of your root sin.

Taken from Fr. John Bartunek on Spiritual Direction, there are three categories of root sins.

COMMON MANIFESTATIONS OF PRIDE
  • too high an opinion of myself
  • annoyance with those who contradict me, brooking no contradictions
  • anger if I don’t get my way or am not taken into account
  • easily judgmental, putting others down, gossiping about them
  • slow to recognize my own mistakes, or to see when I hurt others, and inability to seek and give forgiveness
  • rage when others don’t thank me for favors
  • unwillingness to serve, rebellion against what I don’t like
  • impatience, distance, brusqueness in my daily contact with others
  • thinking I am the only one who knows how to do things right, unwillingness to let others help
  • inflated idea of my own intelligence and understanding, dismissing what I do not understand or what others see differently
  • not feeling a need for God, even though I do say prayers
  • nursing grudges, even in small matters
  • never taking orders
  • inflexible in preferences
  • always putting myself and my things first, indifference towards others and their needs, never putting myself out for them
  • centering everything (conversation, choices…) on myself and my likes
  • calculating in my relations with God and with others
COMMON MANIFESTATIONS OF VANITY
  • always seeking admiration and praise, worrying about not getting it
  • excessive concern about physical appearance
  • being guided by the opinions of others rather than principle (this is sometimes called “human respect”)
  • some types of shyness
  • sacrificing principles in order to fit in
  • placing too much a premium on popularity and acceptance
  • easily discouraged at my failures
  • taking pleasure in listening to gossip and hearing about others’ failures
  • always wanting to be the center of attention, at times stretching the truth, or lying outright, or being uncharitable in my words in order to achieve this
COMMON MANIFESTATIONS OF SENSUALITY
  • laziness
  • always the most comfortable, what requires least effort
  • not going the extra mile for others
  • procrastination, last-minute in everything
(continued below)
 
  • shoddiness, complaining, excessively affected by minor discomforts
  • inability to sacrifice
  • not doing my part at home
  • expecting everyone else to serve me always
  • behavior and decisions ruled by my feelings and moods instead of my principles
  • daydreaming a lot with self at center
  • unable to control my thoughts when they attract me, even if they are not good
  • doing only what I enjoy (choice of food, work, etc)
  • uncontrolled and overpowering curiosity, wanting to see and experience everything and every pleasure
  • my senses and impulses overrule what I know is right and wrong
    acting out my feelings (frustrations, desires…) with no regard for my conscience, God or others
  • only working with those I like, being easily hurt
  • fickleness and inconstancy
  • can never finish what I start
I don’t think of all of these as sins necessarily, more like affections toward sin, as St. Francis De Sales puts it. If we don’t manage or weed out the shortcomings or affections toward sins, it’ll be very difficult to gain ground on our journey up on the spiritual ladder.

Sorry I don’t have a question, but I thought this might be helpful to some, so I thought I’d post it. Have a blessed day 🙂
 
Last edited:
It all boils down to selfish ness.
An unhealthy view and focus on SELF
 
It’s hard to discover our predominant fault or ruling passion as its the root of our vices that we are most blinded to and yet from which branch out most of our habitual sins.

It seems that it likely falls under the vice of pride specifically. Practicing the opposite virtue of humility will help root out the vice.

Pride being 1 of the 7 vices encompasses a great majority of our sins, if not all. Is the virtue of humility the key to rooting out ALL ruling passions which appear to stem from pride?

For example, if gluttony is one’s vice, wouldn’t the ultimate vice be pride? Even though temperance is the opposite virtue of gluttony. But to practice humility would be the opposite of fulfilling our heart’s desire to whatever the extent.
 
Last edited:
I also think pride encompasses a wide array of vices. Gluttony is an interesting example. I do think some pridefulness exists in gluttony. The focus on the feeling of pleasure would make it self-focused. Putting your own pleasure above God would, I think, make it prideful.

It can be hard to identify pride in all sinful actions, however. Whatever puts self above God and others falls into prideful territory.
 
It seems Fr. Bartunek has found a detailed way to identify affection for the world (vanity), the flesh (sensuality) and the devil (pride), the age-old big three.

I don’t know that many of us can narrow that down to a single root sin, but would get a lot of mileage out of identifying how each root sin has its tendrils into us.
 
Last edited:
Thank you. I am still trying to work out my root sin and/or the thing it is anchored in. Some of the things in the list, are my works in progress.

A few weeks ago the Holy Spirit gave me a wake up call by nudging a resentment I didn’t know I had into a moment of rage. It was a shock to discover that I hadn’t really forgiven someone, dumped the baggage and moved forwards. As the person is deceased (and God-willing in Purgatory) I can only guess that the Holy Spirit wanted to expose it, to free us for our next steps.
 
misstherese said:
It can be hard to identify pride in all sinful actions, however. Whatever puts self above God and others falls into prideful territory.
Click to expand...
I have not really found a sin that wasn’t ultimately rooted in pride. Even the capital sins are rooted in the sin of pride, even though it happens to be ONE of them. It’s a little confusing that there could be any other root.

Maybe that’s why Our Lord’s words to us is to be “meek and humble”; not “meek and temperate” or “meek and prudent.” What do you think?
 
Thank you for sharing this list.
I totally see myself in more of these examples than I want to admit 😳
 
I was not able to ignore any of the examples for pride! I see I have a lot to work on.

Again, thank you for posting this.
 
@misstherese Very nice,i was looking for signs of pride, some kind of check list,Thank you so much,Do you have such list for 7 deadly sin? it will be helpful to make a through Examinations of Conscience,God Bless

Pride is such a sin, that we are not aware we are proud, satan conceals and blinds us so much.
 
Definitely agree. Humility, as St. Teresa says, is the foundation of the spiritual life and prayer.
 
If pride were a person, perhaps it would be more evil than satan. or is satan pride itself?
 
Pride is of course one dastardly little thing. Humbleness is said to be the first virtue that needs to be cultivated, and for very good reason.
 
The Holy Spirit nudged a resentment into a rage? That is an odd way to put it.
Do you mean withdrew the strength to keep a lid on it? What was the lid doing? Was it a natural try at charity or a natural try at pretending more charity than you had?
(I would think that God willing, the deceased has moved on and is enjoying the Beatific Vision…and perhaps interceding for your freedom.)
 
Last edited:
I believe our root sin for all of us is egotism, pride. If you name anything on the list from St. Therese I believe it can be boiled down pride and egotism which them move to fear…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top