Prayer Responsibilities

[Quaere_Verum]

If you are called to pray & sacrifice for someone, and you fail to do so, and the person falls into mortal sin, are you not partly responsible for that person’s sin?

 

[LilyM]

Not a bit of it - there’s a little thing called free will involved on the part of the sinner him or herself, regardless of what we do on their behalf!

God himself can’t FORCE people not to sin - and he has infinitely more power and influence than anything we can do.

 

[Deidre]

If you are called to pray & sacrifice for someone, and you fail to do so, and the person falls into mortal sin, are you not partly responsible for that person’s sin?

You wouldn’t be responsible for that person’s sin, but depending on the reason you didn’t pray for them when asked to, you may be guilty of a sin yourself. For instance if you didn’t pray for the person because you dislike them and really didn’t care what happened to them, that seems like it would be breaking the command of Love thy neighbor. If you simply forgot and the failure to pray wasn’t intentional that would be a different story!

 

[Quaere_Verum]

I agree, it wouldn’t be my sin. Let’s say my failure to pray or sacrifice was not because of a dislike for the person but because I was just lazy or too caught up in my worldly affairs or because I don’t like sacrificing. Wouldn’t that make it a sin of omission?

 

[Deidre]

I agree, it wouldn’t be my sin. Let’s say my failure to pray or sacrifice was not because of a dislike for the person but because I was just lazy or too caught up in my worldly affairs or because I don’t like sacrificing. Wouldn’t that make it a sin of omission?

It does seem like if we make a conscious choice not to pray for somebody, that would be a sin of omission. I guess that would fall in the “what I have done, and what I have failed to do” category!