Mortal and Venial

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Oft times I feel as though I am an outsider looking in on this beautiful and true religion. I was born Catholic but failed to appreciate and embrace that gift. By the Lord’s grace, I am back. Please help me remember. What are the mortal sins? The venial? Do the two intersect at times or is there a distinct line? I am almost afraid to read your answers.
 
Father John Corapi has some great discussions about sin in his talks. He teaches out of the Catechism of The Catholic Church. Mortal sin is deadly and causes separation from God. Briefly, to be Mortal, it must be a serious sin, you must be aware that it is, and then you must do it. I believe you can read the Cathechism on line. Reading about God’s “Grace” might also calm your fears.

Jesus came into this world for sinners.
 
I see that you have been given some excellent advice on defining “Mortal Sin”.

I have turned to the "Catechism of The Catholic Church” to obtain a definition of “Venial Sin” for you:

CCC1862 One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent.

I hope this helps.

God Bless.
 
This may help some…

Are all of our sins—past, present, and future—forgiven once and for all when we become Christians? Not according to the Bible or the early Church Fathers. Scripture nowhere states that our future sins are forgiven; instead, it teaches us to pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).

The means by which God forgives sins after baptism is confession: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). **Minor or venial sins can be confessed directly to God, but for grave or mortal sins, which crush the spiritual life out of the soul, God has instituted a different means for obtaining forgiveness—the sacrament known popularly as confession, penance, or reconciliation. **
This sacrament is rooted in the mission God gave to Christ in his capacity as the Son of man on earth to go and forgive sins (cf. Matt. 9:6). Thus, the crowds who witnessed this new power “glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Matt. 9:8; note the plural “men”). After his resurrection, Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers, telling them, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:21–23).

Since it is not possible to confess all of our many daily faults, **we know that sacramental reconciliation is required only for grave or mortal sins—but it is required, or Christ would not have commanded it. **
Over time, the forms in which the sacrament has been administered have changed. In the early Church, publicly known sins (such as apostasy) were often confessed openly in church, though private confession to a priest was always an option for privately committed sins. Still, confession was not just something done in silence to God alone, but something done “in church,” as the Didache (A.D. 70) indicates.

Penances also tended to be performed before rather than after absolution, and they were much more strict than those of today (ten years’ penance for abortion, for example, was common in the early Church).

But the basics of the sacrament have always been there, as the following quotations reveal. Of special significance is their recognition that confession and absolution must be received by a sinner before receiving Holy Communion, for “[w]hoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27).

i ripped this off … err, borrowed this from the Catholic Answers site… it might help some… 👍
 
Also:

**1395 **By the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sins. The more we share the life of Christ and progress in his friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by mortal sin. The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins - that is proper to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church.

Best thing to know about sin… is how to guard against it!!

Peace,
Scott
 
This is a link to a very extensive examination of conscience written by an extremely orthodox priest at St. Agnes parish in St. Paul MN… he goes into almost too much detail in terms of sins and the degrees of sins. :whacky:

catholicparents.org/oxcart/examination.html

It might help you begin to figure out for yourself when something you have done is mortal vs. venial.

+veritas+
 
Catholic Parents Online has a wonderful, detailed examination of conscience for adults at their site. There are also links on that page to exams for children.

You’ve been given good advice about mortal and venial sin. There is no “official” dividing line, like if you steal something worth $99 it’s a venial sin, but at $100 it becomes mortal. But you must use common sense - it’s clearly a mortal sin, for example, to steal a costly gold monstrance from a church for the purpose of desecrating it, and clearly a venial sin to steal a Bic pen from the bank. In between those things, you have to use good judgement. And, if you read the Catechism, you may be surprised to find that it’s no sin at all to take something that no reasonable person would object to giving you, even without their consent, for example, food for yourself and your children if you cannot obtain it any other way.

The most important thing to remember, for your peace of mind, is that you cannot unknowingly commit a sin. If you do something without knowing it is wrong and find out later that it was a mortal sin, you are not guilty. If you do it again, after you learn about it, however, you are indeed responsible. God’s not sitting there with traps set for you, ready to get you as if it were a game.

There is, however, one hard and fast rule. That is that everything pertaining to the use of the sexual faculty is indeed grave matter. That means that if you do the wrong thing with full knowledge and free consent of the will, it’s a mortal sin every time, and this includes thoughts. There are things that diminish your culpability (responsibility), like habit or fear which diminish your freedom to consent. If you are forced to do a sinful act, you are not giving your full consent, and you cannot therefore commit a mortal sin. If you are not fully conscious, you cannot commit a mortal sin. But if you struggle with sexual issues, it is very wise to bring them all to confession so that you can be forgiven “as God sees you guilty” and receive good advice from the priest about overcoming your problem.

What you need to do now is form your conscience, learning what the Church teaches about right and wrong, and conform your behavior to that. It won’t happen all at once, but God is so glad to see you trying that He’ll give you all the help you need and shower you with His love on the way. Welcome back!

Betsy
 
+veritas+:
This is a link to a very extensive examination of conscience written by an extremely orthodox priest at St. Agnes parish in St. Paul MN… he goes into almost too much detail in terms of sins and the degrees of sins. :whacky:

catholicparents.org/oxcart/examination.html

It might help you begin to figure out for yourself when something you have done is mortal vs. venial.

+veritas+
Click to expand...
I like this examination of conscience as well. I know what you mean by “almost too much detail” but actually I like it too (as I think you do). It’s nice to have everything spelled out in black and white like this.
 
To make a sin mortal these three things are necessary:
  1. The thought, desire, word, action, or omission must be seriously wrong or considered seriously wrong.
  2. The sinner must be mindful of the serious wrong.
  3. The sinner must fully consent to it.
 
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