Is it possible to never comit mortal sin?

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Well, I think you answered your own question with that link you provided (a very good one as well, thank you for that!).

Technically, all is possible, especially with God, but we are all born imperfect and with original sin upon us. Sinning, maybe even especially mortally, allows us to really see and experience God’s presence and lack thereof. When you sin mortally, you feel separated from God’s grace, and it isn’t until this separation that you can truly admire and notice how gracious God is when He is within you.

I suppose making an oath or vow to live from this day forward from now on without mortally sinning ever again would be a little more realistic, but still it is within our nature to deny that it would be something that anyone besides the most Holy would be able to do. That link you provided gave a very good breakdown of how we can sometimes be committing mortal sin (granted, we don’t know it at the time but it still counts as sin to an extent) in something as simple as not praying as often as we usually do, doubting God, not giving priority Him, being late or distracted in Church, having impure thoughts and actions (such as masturbation etc). If you could honestly say you’ve never done just any of these I listed I’d be encouraged by your Holiness.

As another poster pointed out, try not to focus too much on what you shouldn’t do, but rather what you should be doing. It is easy to sin, but it is easier to not do good. Our life is bound to be filled with sin. My priest once said that even the most righteous of us can sin up to 7 times a day! Are you spending too much time at work? We all have at least once. Are you only saving the money you need and giving the rest to the poor? I doubt it, we all like to save up money for ourselves and our worldly desires, even the most poor and simple of us would rather buy ourselves a good cloak than buy 2 basic ones and give to one in need. We are all sinners, at least in this modern day and age (which God understands as well, temptation is a lot higher and easier to fall into today than it was in Biblical times, so our mercy and judgement is adjusted accordingly).

Focus your life more and how you can make up for those sins. Not just by confession, but by doing good. Giving to charity, denying yourself earthly pleasures, fasting, praying for yourself and others, showing love to people etc. Think of it as a balancing game; one day we’l be judged on our life by God. There are bound to be sins piled onto the scale, no doubt. Our aim is to make sure we do good more than we sin, so the good side tips the scale in our favor 😛

God is always merciful.

God Bless.
 
Your question (more correctly some of the answers) comes very close to bringing up the heresy called Pelagianism in which original sin is denied and the thought is that theoretically we could “be good enough” which in turn would allow us into heaven due to our own works and not needing Christ. Here’s a little more information.

Pelagianism (5th Century)
Pelagius denied that we inherit original sin from Adam’s sin in the Garden and claimed that we become sinful only through the bad example of the sinful community into which we are born. Conversely, he denied that we inherit righteousness as a result of Christ’s death on the cross and said that we become personally righteous by instruction and imitation in the Christian community, following the example of Christ. Pelagius stated that man is born morally neutral and can achieve heaven under his own powers. According to him, God’s grace is not truly necessary, but merely makes easier an otherwise difficult task. (catholic.com/tracts/the-great-heresies)

Great question.
 
With God’s grace it’s very possible to not commit a mortal sin until one dies, and is expected when one goes to Confession as a condition of valid absolution. That’s the part that says, “I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to confess my sins, do penance, and to amend my life” in the Act of Contrition. Contrary to popular belief, the cessation of all sin (not just mortal sins) is the very beginning of the spiritual life.

As long as there is blood pulsating through our vein, we will always be tempted to sin. That is why this life is referred to as a valley of tears. We must not give in to temptation. The only way to do that is through grace and elbow grease.
 
There is a patron saint of boys who never committed a mortal sin, but off hand I don’t recall his name. He kept asking his confessor is he was going to spend time in purgatory because he didn’t want to do this. He wanted all his eternity to be with Jesus and no where else. His confessor assured him that he probably would not spend time there and if he did it would not be much.
He spent hours absorbed in prayer in chapel.

Maybe someone will remember his name, the patron of boys.
 
It is related that St. Dominic Savio and St. Alphonsus de Liguori both retained their Baptismal innocence. Curiously St. Thérèse of Lisieux cites in her autobiography an opinion that repentant souls love God more than those who have not sinned mortally:
I had often heard it said, both in retreats and elsewhere, that He is more deeply loved by repentant souls than by those who have not lost their baptismal innocence. Ah! If I could but give the lie to those words. . . .
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St. Therese of Lisieux did, according to her autobiography. I’d say the goal is to do what God asks us to do. That includes not sinning, but there’s more to it than that.
 
pwlj_christ87 said:
Hello all, i have a question that ive been pondering today, I am 25 years old and is it possible to never comit a mortal sin until I die? Since mortal sin requires the three elements in order for it to be a sin, i often turn away from sin when I come to grisps that it is a grave offence which is a good thing I think. I am struggling with temptation lately, but I am extremely fearful when I am not in a state of grace, i almost need to go to church right away without possibility of getting into an accident… i thin im a relatively good person abiding in christ, i still sometimes feel no good,

but ya, is it possible for me to never comit a mortal sin until i die??is this the goal?
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Yes, I believe some Saints have accomplished this through imitation of Christ and His & Our Mother Mary.

Many Blessings to All,
BP
 
Bookcat said:
Yes certainly it is possible never to commit a mortal sin.
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You don’t know how happy I am to read this. I trust your judgement, Bookcat, and your posts about when thoughts become sins have been so very helpful to me in the past. I’ve committed a lot of mortal sins in my life, and when I come face to face with Jesus, I can imagine myself falling to his feet and drying my tears with my hair like the sinful woman in the Gospel of Luke. Since my reversion experience a year and a half ago, I have become scrupulous, and I can imagine nothing worse than committing a mortal sin and being separated from my Lord. Every morning and night I say three Hail Mary’s and pray, “Oh my Mother, preserve me from mortal sin during this day/night.” To read posts that say you’re practically bound to commit mortal sin is very disheartening for someone like me, and makes me envision that we’re all dangling by a thread over a large precipice. Of course we are all capable of committing mortal sin. But according to St. Thomas Aquinas, “Although grace is lost by one act of mortal sin, it is not easily lost, because it is not easy for someone who has grace to do such an act, on account of his inclination to the opposite action, that it is difficult for a just man to do unjust deeds.” I often read this just to reassure myself that it’s possible to remain in a state of Grace.
 
pwlj_christ87 said:
Hello all, i have a question that ive been pondering today, I am 25 years old and is it possible to never comit a mortal sin until I die? Since mortal sin requires the three elements in order for it to be a sin, i often turn away from sin when I come to grisps that it is a grave offence which is a good thing I think. I am struggling with temptation lately, but I am extremely fearful when I am not in a state of grace, i almost need to go to church right away without possibility of getting into an accident… i thin im a relatively good person abiding in christ, i still sometimes feel no good,

but ya, is it possible for me to never comit a mortal sin until i die??is this the goal?
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pwlj_christ87,

This sort of post always makes me wonder if a person is suffering from scrupulosity. Usually, people who don’t suffer from scrupulosity don’t usually have to ask these questions. If you have OCD or scrupulosity, then you are much advised to seek guidance from your spiritual director and to look up the resources about scrupulosity given in topics on this message board.

There is one thing that I have learned concerning OCD. Sometimes, we can be so distracted about thinking we have committed a certain “imaginary” mortal sin, that we can miss other smaller sins that we have done. Keep that in mind.
 
Veronica97 said:
You don’t know how happy I am to read this. I trust your judgement, Bookcat, and your posts about when thoughts become sins have been so very helpful to me in the past. I’ve committed a lot of mortal sins in my life, and when I come face to face with Jesus, I can imagine myself falling to his feet and drying my tears with my hair like the sinful woman in the Gospel of Luke. Since my reversion experience a year and a half ago, I have become scrupulous, and I can imagine nothing worse than committing a mortal sin and being separated from my Lord. Every morning and night I say three Hail Mary’s and pray, “Oh my Mother, preserve me from mortal sin during this day/night.” To read posts that say you’re practically bound to commit mortal sin is very disheartening for someone like me, and makes me envision that we’re all dangling by a thread over a large precipice. Of course we are all capable of committing mortal sin. But according to St. Thomas Aquinas, “Although grace is lost by one act of mortal sin, it is not easily lost, because it is not easy for someone who has grace to do such an act, on account of his inclination to the opposite action, that it is difficult for a just man to do unjust deeds.” I often read this just to reassure myself that it’s possible to remain in a state of Grace.
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Veronica - - - Look more closely at Bookcat’s response. He is saying that it IS possible to never commit a mortal sin.

Scrupulosity is a blight in our faith and I am sorry that you suffer from it.

The attitude that we are all dangling over a precipice illustrates very well the misconceptions that some people have in these matters.
The god described by such an image - dangling someone over a precipice by a string - is a god that needs to be rejected for that is not the god we worship.
The god described in such an image is not the God of 1 John 4:8 where we are told that God is Love.

The God that we worship is far away from that precipice. He does all that he can to coax us away from there. The rules he gives us are the rules our parents would give a small child - “stay in the yard” or “do not cross the street without an adult”…they are rules to keep us away from the precipice.
Furthermore - many of these rules - these lines - are set well away from the precipice. So that even if we were to forget and “cross the line” we would still have time to see our error and run back to Him.

Stepping away from this image - - - Those who stand in fear of God with images such as you describe are at the beginning of the journey. Fear of punishment is very often the initial motivator. But to remain there,in fear, is to invite despair - and loss of faith.
David in one of the psalms says, “I Lift up my eyes to the hills from whence my help comes”.
Lift up your eyes to the hills to Calvary and to God and to His loving arms and His big lap and know that our salvation does not lie in our being perfect, but in our struggle to be the best that we can be.
Our Loving Father only wants His children to be all that they can be.

Peace
James
 
JRKH said:
Veronica - - - Look more closely at Bookcat’s response. He is saying that it IS possible to never commit a mortal sin.

Scrupulosity is a blight in our faith and I am sorry that you suffer from it.

The attitude that we are all dangling over a precipice illustrates very well the misconceptions that some people have in these matters.
The god described by such an image - dangling someone over a precipice by a string - is a god that needs to be rejected for that is not the god we worship.
The god described in such an image is not the God of 1 John 4:8 where we are told that God is Love.

The God that we worship is far away from that precipice. He does all that he can to coax us away from there. The rules he gives us are the rules our parents would give a small child - “stay in the yard” or “do not cross the street without an adult”…they are rules to keep us away from the precipice.
Furthermore - many of these rules - these lines - are set well away from the precipice. So that even if we were to forget and “cross the line” we would still have time to see our error and run back to Him.

Stepping away from this image - - - Those who stand in fear of God with images such as you describe are at the beginning of the journey. Fear of punishment is very often the initial motivator. But to remain there,in fear, is to invite despair - and loss of faith.
David in one of the psalms says, “I Lift up my eyes to the hills from whence my help comes”.
Lift up your eyes to the hills to Calvary and to God and to His loving arms and His big lap and know that our salvation does not lie in our being perfect, but in our struggle to be the best that we can be.
Our Loving Father only wants His children to be all that they can be.

Peace
James
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This is beautifully stated!😉
 
I’m sure it’s possible, though that would be one extraordinary life. Like our Savior said, the way is narrow and hard that leads to the gate of heaven. But the way is broad and easy that leads away from God.
 
ROMANS 3

10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
 
psalm 14

2 The Lord looks down from heaven
on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.
 
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