Is it really that easy?

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jesusmademe

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A faithful Catholic who go to confession frequently is a Catholic who frequently commits mortal sin it would seem but…couldn’t it be that the person did not actually have a correct understanding of the distinction between mortal and venial sins. Is it really that easy to discern if an act was a mortal or venial sin?
I really do have a hard time diacerning whether an act was a mortal or venial sin. I’ve been trying to understand this but it is hard. If I were to become a Catholic I would have to understand what actions I commited that would send me to hell. Examen of conscience is bassically discerment of which acts I commited that would send me to hell. I dont really agree on the extrene focus on acts commited. I havent really figured this out yet so it will take a lobg time before I can become a Catholic. I know I am a sinner but I just dont see sins as act. I see sin more like a process. The Church tells me this is very easy to figure out but I guess I am stupid (although I have a normal IQ). So a mortal is supposed to something that happened at one particular point in time. All the other times venial sins was commited. I dont really agree on this. This is my biggest issue with becoming a Catholic.
 
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A mortal sin is 1. grave matter committed with 2. full knowledge and 3. full consent.

Say a married man meets a woman and chases her until he gets her to start an affair with him and then carries on the affair.

Grave matter-- yes
Full knowledge-- yes
Full consent-- yes

Stealing a penny? Not grave matter

Stealing millions? Grave matter

Now, if a man who believed his wife to be dead, perhaps she was even declared dead, were to remarry, that would involve lack of full knowledge.

Hope this helps!
 
Does not help at all!!!
Just the same thibg that people tell me all the time. It is very unhelpful.
So let’s assume that from Thursday 5:45-6:00 pm the married man commited a venial and at the other times he just commited venial sins. Is this what we are to believe?
 
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I’m so sorry. What part(s) are you having trouble with?

Also, I am confused by your first sentence in your original post. I thought you might be giving an example, but now I think maybe you think every Catholic who confesses frequently is falling frequently into mortal sin (which is not the case at all!).
 
jesusmademe said:
I would have to understand what actions I commited that would send me to hell.
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That is what is called “imperfect contrition” and it is where we all begin in our spiritual life.

Just like our physical life, we grow and get to a point where we hate sin because it means we have rejected God whom we love above all else. Where we would not do the sin even if heaven and hell were not involved. That is called “perfect contrition.”

No one expects perfection in the first day, first year, first decade of spiritual life. The important thing is to start from imperfect contrition “God, I am sorry because I don’t want to go to hell!!” and keep growing.
 
So a mortal is supposed to something that happened at one particular point in time. All the other times venial sins were commited. I dont really agree on this. This is my biggest issue with becoming a Catholic.
 
jesusmademe said:
So a mortal is supposed to something that happened at one particular point in time. All the other times venial sins were commited. I dont really agree on this. This is my biggest issue with becoming a Catholic.
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No, both mortal and venial sins are particular acts. When you do something wrong, that is at minimum a venial sin. If the act was grave matter and you did it deliberately and knowing it is immoral then it is a mortal sin.
 
A sin is something you said or thought or did that is contrary to God’s law.

That sin is made mortal if it is serious, you know it is sin and you do it anyway.

If you do the same sin 100 times, knowing it is a serious sin and doing it anyway you commit 100 mortal sins.

If you committed the serious sin 99 times and did not know it was a sin, then, did it one time after learning it IS a serious sin, then you committed 99 venial sins and 1 mortal sin.
 
So if I commited an act (that is grave matter) eg at 4:45-4:50 pm last Monday I am supposed to examen my self and see if I commited a mortal sin at that point in time? So at an exact point in time eg 5 min that day the mortal sin was commited. 5 minutes before only venial sins was commited, right?
 
Hello,
The first thing to point out is that Catholics who go to Confession frequently don’t necessarily frequently have mortal sins on their souls. Many of the saints went to confession every other day. Pope Pius XII said, “For a constant and speedy advancement in the path of virtue, we highly recommend the pious practice of frequent confession, introduced by the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; for by this means we grow in a true knowledge of ourselves and in Christian humility, bad habits are uprooted, spiritual negligence and apathy are prevented, the conscience is purified and the will strengthened, salutary spiritual direction is obtained, and grace is increased by the efficacy of the sacrament itself.”
Frequent confession helps us to obtain the mercy God pours forth on us as sinners. We are able to receive his grace, see things black and white and not be anesthetized by our sinfulness. He gives us the grace to turn our hearts and gaze back upon Him, and strengthen our will to not fall into tendencies toward sins like the seven capital sins. I heard it once like going into a beautiful old castle. When you go inside it is dark and there is no light coming in the windows. You wipe the thick dirt off the windows and sun begins to stream in. As the light streams through the windows you are able to see the little marks and bits of dirt and you want to keep cleaning it so that it becomes more clean. In similarity with many saints and people who frequent confession, God allows the light to shine on us and we are able to see what we have done clearly more and more, trying to erase every smudge and draw ourselves closer to our Lord. I think that it is a very beautiful metaphor.🙂
I think that we don’t need to get too caught up in “scrupulosity” -if you will- trying to figure out if sins are mortal or venial sins. Further, we shouldn’t be focusing necessarily on what we did that will “send us to Hell.” Think of it more as, “I have done this, which I know has offended God.” When you do an Examination of Conscience you can think of moments where you said “God I know what you want me to do, but I want to do what I want do.” Or just, “Would Jesus have done this or how would he have acted in that moment or another?” Of course, as always, we must always try our best to understand grave and mortal sins and venial sins.
 
jesusmademe said:
So if I commited an act (that is grave matter) eg at 4:45-4:50 pm last Monday I am supposed to examen my self and see if I commited a mortal sin at that point in time? So at an exact point in time eg 5 min that day the mortal sin was commited. 5 minutes before only venial sins was commited, right?
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I’m having trouble following your thought process here. Every night it’s recommended you do an examination of consience. Did you swear? Were you rude to someone? Did you commit adultery? If you did something you know is gravely wrong, then ask yourself whether you did so deliberately and knowledgeably.
 
Well, yes, because we commit acts in time. We are human.

However, there is usually a turning away from God that occurs beforehand. A spouse does not usually just go out and commit adultery; there is usually a lead-up: resentments developed, pridefulness nurtured, etc.

In the same way, the actual commission of a mortal sin usually takes place after the sinner has already drifted from God. Someone who is close to God does not usually suddenly commit a mortal sin.

OTOH, one can also fall into a state of mortal sin through one’s thoughts, just as Christ said.

But overall, it does not matter. We do not have to parse each and every one of our sins to see if it was mortal or venial? We just confess all our sins and then we are free.

All our sins are forgiven when we go to Confession even if we, through human limitations, forget to mention them. (If we deliberately and knowingly leave out a mortal sin, that’s a problem. If we merely forget or don’t confess it because we don’t know it’s a sin or a serious sin, no problem! God forgives us all our sins.
 
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You understand exactly what I am talking about. Mortal sin is a process. I do not really see it as just a specific act but more like process. I would have to confess the whole process since the mortal sin was not just in a particular act that was commited for eg 5 minutes. The whole process must be confessed.
What does the Church say about this?
 
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The Church does not get that “granular”. We confess our sins.

Priests will tell you:

Be brief
Be bold
Be gone

When you begin talking about details and circumstances, that helps you lose sight of the sin.

Simply state it “I lied five times” or “I stole $20 dollars” or “I committed the sin of masturbation daily for the last 25 years” or “I had lustful thoughts every day last week”. Make it as brief as you can, the priest will ask for more details if he needs them. I’ve never ever every had a priest ask for more detail than “Against the 4th Commandment I have sinned twice, against the 8th I have sinned daily”
 
jesusmademe said:
A faithful Catholic who go to confession frequently is a Catholic who frequently commits mortal sin it would seem but…couldn’t it be that the person did not actually have a correct understanding of the distinction between mortal and venial sins. Is it really that easy to discern if an act was a mortal or venial sin?
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St Pope John Paul II went to Confession every week.

I don’t think he did it because he was always filled with mortal sin, nor knew the difference between mortal and venial sins.

🙂
God Bless
 
So “I read spiritual books every morning for the last week not in order to become a saint but in order to show how holy I am” would be alright to say in the booth?
 
For something to be mortal sin, it has to be a grave matter,you have to have known it was wrong and give your full consent. A mortal sin completely destroys your relationship with God, while a venial sin puts you farther away from God. Mortal and venial sins are acts and they can happen at any particular time. When confessing your sins, just be concise and to the point, that is what the church teaches and any priest will tell you this. I started with imperfect confession, I just said to God that I was sorry because I didn’t want to go to hell. Eventually, I began to hate my sins.
 
jesusmademe said:
You understand exactly what I am talking about. Mortal sin is a process. I do not really see it as just a specific act but more like process. I would have to confess the whole process since the mortal sin was not just in a particular act that was commited for eg 5 minutes. The whole process must be confessed.
What does the Church say about this?
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It took me a long time to understand what you were getting at with “it’s mortal at one moment in time, and then all other sins are venial,” but your response to Annie and her adultery example got me there, I think.

So let’s say I went through this process as a married man: I meet another woman at work, flirt with her for a few months, spend a few more months sharing too much with her and getting emotional attached, and then finally cheat with her. I think your sticking point is that you think a Catholic would confess just the adultery and not the lead-up process.

While that’s probably true (but varies by individual), it’s not because there’s a time distinction between mortal and venial sins. It’s just that, by the time you hit the adultery step in that process, it’s obvious it’s mortal and the lead-up can be pretty much assumed by the priest.

But let’s change the scenario for a better illustration: I meet another woman at work, flirt with her for a few months, spend a few more months sharing too much personal intimacy with her and getting emotional attached, and then realize the mistake I am making and stop the whole thing, returning to a professional and appropriate work relationship.

Did I commit a mortal sin? Maybe. At what point during that 4-month process did it cross over from venial to mortal? It’s hard to say, but we don’t really have to know. I’d simply confess the whole thing because the process was sinful: either venial or mortal.
 
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It would be good to confess that (if it happened!), but it would, in and of itself, probably be a venial sin.

A lot of Catholics go to Confession frequently not because they frequently sin mortally but because the sacrament imparts grace to help fight against your bad habits, and thus to get closer to God.
 
This is where I get confused, as I have heard that you have to know it was mortal and that you don’t
 
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