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Robert_Burns
Guest
Perhaps GOD placed him in your path when the time was right ?
And you have coorperated . I just love storys like yours.
May GOD Bless
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And you have coorperated . I just love storys like yours.
May GOD Bless
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Aramis
Guest
The matter of adultery vs fornication is a big one; they are not the same thing, tho many consider them such.
Fornication is outside of marriage; neither partner is married, period.
Adultery is either one, or both, being married, and not to each other. By Catholic understandings, this includes as well polygamists and polyandrists, since only one of the marriages can be valid.
Adultery is obviously more of a sin; it’s in the decalogue, fornication is not. Adultery was a stoning offense, fornication was punished by marriage in most cases. Adultery breaks a sacramental promise, fornication merely appropriates acts related to the bond created in that same sacrament.
Likewise, it is possible to not violate the decalogue instructions on the sabbath without going to church; it is likewise possible for non-attendance to be a non-sin (see Canon Law…), but it is entirely too easy to go too far. Missing liturgy without cause is a sin; failing to keep the sabbath holy is a mortal sin (by the definitions in canon law, at least, since it violates the decalogue). Doing both at the same time is definitely Soul Roast time.
Most people, however, have no concept of personal sin anymore. Many Catholics lack it, as well.
People forget that even venial sins are a problem.
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Melchior_1
Guest
At this risk of getting into semantics, one may perceive fornication to be adultery in the sense you are cheating on your future spouse by performing the act.
I agree with you that some people underestimate venial sins. The little things can certainly add up!
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ConstantineTG
Guest
A priest told me and a group once that the intimate act of marriage is reserved for the husband and wife. Having sex with someone not your spouse is lying with your body. So it doesn’t matter if you’re married and having sex with someone else, or unmarried and having sex. The fact is that you only have sex with your spouse, anything else is a lie.
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Thoughtfulone
Guest
Geez Loiuse. I am the person quoted as saying that people who commit sexual sins and the like do not go to Hell and I stand by that. Now let me clarify that.
When we die, in that last instant between life and death, I believe that we all have one last chance at true contrition and I believe that 99.9% of us take that chance. Such is the mercy of God. I believe that Hell is the destination of those who hate God, who do NOT want to be in Heaven or who are so far gone that they cannot bring themselves to be contrite, even though they know they are on the way to Hell and even with that last second of instantaneous clarity that we are given at that moment.
In this way, I think most people (yes, those who have committed sexual sins, those who do not honor the Sabbath, etc.) suddenly recognize their errors and submit to the will and Love of God.
I did not say that these sins don’t matter. Of course they do. I just don’t think that they are so horrible so as to turn us completely away from God and His mercy for all time. Most of these people are still good at heart and do love God and when faced with their final moments, will choose Heaven over Hell and good over evil.
The Church teaches that a final act of perfect contrition is enough to cleanse the soul of mortal sin. Nothing I have said here is anti-catholic.
When we die, in that last instant between life and death, I believe that we all have one last chance at true contrition and I believe that 99.9% of us take that chance. Such is the mercy of God. I believe that Hell is the destination of those who hate God, who do NOT want to be in Heaven or who are so far gone that they cannot bring themselves to be contrite, even though they know they are on the way to Hell and even with that last second of instantaneous clarity that we are given at that moment.
In this way, I think most people (yes, those who have committed sexual sins, those who do not honor the Sabbath, etc.) suddenly recognize their errors and submit to the will and Love of God.
I did not say that these sins don’t matter. Of course they do. I just don’t think that they are so horrible so as to turn us completely away from God and His mercy for all time. Most of these people are still good at heart and do love God and when faced with their final moments, will choose Heaven over Hell and good over evil.
The Church teaches that a final act of perfect contrition is enough to cleanse the soul of mortal sin. Nothing I have said here is anti-catholic.
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OraLabora
Guest
Hopefully you’ll get the chance to say it before the impact.
I wouldn’t count on it though.
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Vico
Guest
The Apostles were surrounded by immorality on all sides. Keep in mind how many martyrs there have been! So today as then, for many are not of God.
We are all influenced by a tendency to sin, but hellbound because of choosing not to repent: to keep the commandments. John 14, Jesus said:
[15] If you love me, keep my commandments. [16] And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever.
Saint John quoted Jesus (John 8):
[34] Jesus answered them: Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. [35] Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever. [36] If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. … [43] Why do you not know my speech? Because you cannot hear my word. [44] You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. … [47] He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.
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Thoughtfulone
Guest
An act of perfect contrition is a feeling, not a prayer and can happen in less than an instant. God doesn’t keep people out of Heaven because they died instantly in a plane crash as opposed to having a long, lingering death brought about by cancer and therefore would have been given time to think about their demise and have the Last Rites performed.
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bkayw
Guest
*"When we die, in that last instant between life and death, **I believe *that we all have one last chance at true contrition and I believe that 99.9% of us take that chance. "
You believe you have one last chance to repent.
You believe…
Matthew 18 & Mark 9
Jesus said, "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.
You believe you have one last chance to repent.
You believe…
Matthew 18 & Mark 9
Jesus said, "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire.
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OraLabora
Guest
There is a funny story about a plane accident in the Azores, when an Air Transat A330 suffered a broken fuel line, ran out of fuel, and had to glide the last 100 miles to an emergency landing. The passengers were informed to prepare for a ditching at sea.
After the plane miraculously and safely landed at the airfield there (although blowing out all tires in the hard landing and emergency braking), a woman was seen giving her husband particular hell. It seems that in a moment of contrition as they were gliding earthwards, he decided to confess to his wife that he was having an affair… with her sister. What he hadn’t counted on was surviving the accident. I guess he truly was in hell on earth after that.
All joking aside, the feeling you may know in your last moments may just be overpowering fear, and not contrition.
One should never count on having the opportunity at the last moment. He will come like a thief in the night.
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Thoughtfulone
Guest
I don’t count on it, which is why I do my very best to stay on that narrow path, but I hold out great hope for those who don’t (and for myself when I stumble or haven’t been to confession!) and I think that God will show them mercy and give them the graces needed for perfect contrition at their hour of death.
I see nothing wrong with this and in fact, I think it is the charitable thing to hope for.
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PAboy57
Guest
This contagious disease is rapidly spreading throughout our ranks and giving our brothers and sisters death sentences!The ethics of relativism.
“Your sin is o.k., My sin is o.k.”
“I don’t think people go to Hell because of sexual sins or alcoholism or not going to church on Sundays.”
Follow the commandments as they are – they we good enough for Jesus!
Ignore these “cafeteria” catholics!!!
May God have mercy on us all. Amen.
J
jimcav
Guest
While none of us can say with any certainty who will and who won’t go to Hell, I do think it is safe to say that the sins mentioned will guarantee us a much longer and unpleasant stay in purgatory than had we led a more moral, Godly life.
Like Hell, purgatory seems to be another forgotten and ignored teaching of the Church…
Like Hell, purgatory seems to be another forgotten and ignored teaching of the Church…
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archangel04
Guest
You may get that final chance, but if you spent most of your life never wanting to know and love God, most likely you are going to missed that chance. If we don’t learn to love God in this life, we will not be able to do so in eternity. Our Blessed Mother at Fatima told us that most people end up in hell because of sins of the flesh.
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Shin
Guest
‘. . . the sin of impurity produces obstinacy of the will. “Once fallen into the snare of the devil, one cannot so easily escape it,” says St. Jerome. And according to St. Thomas, there is no sin in which the devil takes so much delight as in impurity; because the flesh is strongly inclined to that vice, and he that falls into it can be rescued from it only with difficulty. Hence the vice of incontinence has been called by Clement of Alexandria “a malady without remedy;” and by Tertullian, “an incurable vice.” Hence St. Cyprian calls it the mother of impenitence. “It is impossible,” says Peter de Blois, for him that submits to the domination of the flesh to conquer carnal temptations." Father Biderman relates of a young man, who was in the habit of relapsing into this sin, that at the hour of death he confessed his sins with many tears and died, leaving strong grounds to hope for his salvation. But on the following day his confessor, while saying Mass, felt some one pulling the chasuble; turning round he saw a dark cloud, which sent forth scintillations of fire, and heard a voice saying that was the soul of the young man that had died; that though he had been absolved from his sins, he was again tempted, yielded to a bad thought, and was damned.’
'The spiritual masters point out many remedies for the vice of impurity; but the principal and the most necessary are the flight of occasions, and prayer. As to the first means, St. Philip Neri used to say that in this warfare cowards, that is, they that avoid dangerous occasions, gain the victory. Let a man use all other possible means, unless he flies away he is lost. He that loveth danger shall perish in it.
As to the second means, it is necessary to know that we have not strength to resist temptations of the flesh. This strength must be the gift of God. But God grants it to those only that pray and ask for it. The only defence against this temptation, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, is prayer.’
‘But as that unhappy soul, for the sake of her impurities, forgets God, so shall he forget her, and permit her to remain abandoned in her darkness. Because, says the Lord, thou hast forgotten Me, and hast cast Me off behind thy body, bear thou also thy wickedness and thy fornications. St. Peter Damian says, “They throw the Lord behind their bodies that obey the voice of their passions.” Father Cataneo relates that a sinner who had contracted a habit of impurity, when admonished by a friend to abandon his evil ways, unless he wished to be damned, answered: “Friend, I may indeed go to hell for this habit.” He certainly went to that place of torment, for he was suddenly struck dead.’
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church
‘Our Lord said nothing impure should enter into His kingdom. Indeed, how could a soul that has rolled itself in this filth go to appear before so pure and so holy a God? We are all like little mirrors, in which God contemplates Himself. How can you expect that God should recognize His likeness in an impure soul?’
‘As I have often told you, there is nothing so vile as the impure soul. There was once a saint who had asked the good God to show him one; and he saw the poor soul like a dead beast that has been dragged through the streets in the hot sun for a week.’
‘Alas, my friend. We cannot be together in Heaven unless we have begun to live so in this world. Death makes no change in that. As the tree falls, so shall it lie.’
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars
‘Would you regard as valid the confession of someone who accuses himself of sins of impurity and still holds to the occasion of them?’
St. Leonard of Port Maurice
‘It is said above that the consent to the delectation of a mortal sin is a mortal sin, and not solely the consent to an act. And so, as fornication is a mortal sin, and much more other species of luxury *, it consequent that consent to the delectation of such a sin is a mortal sin, and not solely the consent to an act. And so, when kisses and caresses and such are done for such delectation, it is consequent that they are mortal sins. And only in this way they are lustful. Hence, this way, because they are lustful, they are mortal sins.’
St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which **I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. **
Galatians 5:19-21
Therefore I also will deal with them in my wrath: my eye shall not spare them, neither will I shew mercy: and when they shall cry to my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.
Ezechiel 8:18
‘To abstain from sinful actions is not sufficient for the fulfillment of God’s law. The very desire of what is forbidden is evil.’
St. John Baptist de la Salle*
'The spiritual masters point out many remedies for the vice of impurity; but the principal and the most necessary are the flight of occasions, and prayer. As to the first means, St. Philip Neri used to say that in this warfare cowards, that is, they that avoid dangerous occasions, gain the victory. Let a man use all other possible means, unless he flies away he is lost. He that loveth danger shall perish in it.
As to the second means, it is necessary to know that we have not strength to resist temptations of the flesh. This strength must be the gift of God. But God grants it to those only that pray and ask for it. The only defence against this temptation, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, is prayer.’
‘But as that unhappy soul, for the sake of her impurities, forgets God, so shall he forget her, and permit her to remain abandoned in her darkness. Because, says the Lord, thou hast forgotten Me, and hast cast Me off behind thy body, bear thou also thy wickedness and thy fornications. St. Peter Damian says, “They throw the Lord behind their bodies that obey the voice of their passions.” Father Cataneo relates that a sinner who had contracted a habit of impurity, when admonished by a friend to abandon his evil ways, unless he wished to be damned, answered: “Friend, I may indeed go to hell for this habit.” He certainly went to that place of torment, for he was suddenly struck dead.’
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church
‘Our Lord said nothing impure should enter into His kingdom. Indeed, how could a soul that has rolled itself in this filth go to appear before so pure and so holy a God? We are all like little mirrors, in which God contemplates Himself. How can you expect that God should recognize His likeness in an impure soul?’
‘As I have often told you, there is nothing so vile as the impure soul. There was once a saint who had asked the good God to show him one; and he saw the poor soul like a dead beast that has been dragged through the streets in the hot sun for a week.’
‘Alas, my friend. We cannot be together in Heaven unless we have begun to live so in this world. Death makes no change in that. As the tree falls, so shall it lie.’
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars
‘Would you regard as valid the confession of someone who accuses himself of sins of impurity and still holds to the occasion of them?’
St. Leonard of Port Maurice
‘It is said above that the consent to the delectation of a mortal sin is a mortal sin, and not solely the consent to an act. And so, as fornication is a mortal sin, and much more other species of luxury *, it consequent that consent to the delectation of such a sin is a mortal sin, and not solely the consent to an act. And so, when kisses and caresses and such are done for such delectation, it is consequent that they are mortal sins. And only in this way they are lustful. Hence, this way, because they are lustful, they are mortal sins.’
St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which **I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. **
Galatians 5:19-21
Therefore I also will deal with them in my wrath: my eye shall not spare them, neither will I shew mercy: and when they shall cry to my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.
Ezechiel 8:18
‘To abstain from sinful actions is not sufficient for the fulfillment of God’s law. The very desire of what is forbidden is evil.’
St. John Baptist de la Salle*
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Thoughtfulone
Guest
So because this man, even though he was absolved of all sin, supposedly entertained an evil thought, he is burning in hell forever. I’m sorry, I just can’t believe that.
This, I think, must refer to habitual sins for the most part. Quarrels? So if my husband and I have an argument, I am going to hell? The same with drunkenness. If we go out to celebrate something and get tipsy, we go to hell? These must refer to making a habit of these things, constant intentional quarrelling, habitual drunkenness to the point of impairing your judgement and committing other sins sins, etc. Otherwise, nobody who has ever been married would make it into Heaven…
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Robert_Burns
Guest
Agreed and to those people who say otherwise in addition why then did St Paul say this if no one is going to Hell for Sexual Sins?
1 Cor 6 :
9 Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
10 Nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.
11 And such some of you were: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of our God.
12 All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
13 The meat for the belly, and the belly for the meats: but God shall destroy both it and them: but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14 Now God hath both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up also by his power.
15 Know you not, that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I, then, taking the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.
16 Or know you not, that he who adheres to a harlot, is made one body? *For they shall be (saith he) two in one flesh.
17 But he who adheres to the Lord is one spirit.
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rwoehmke
Guest
It is so nice to have such an optimistic attitude/belief. It borders, in my opinion, on the sin of presumption. There are many folk sayings like,“Live by the sword, die by the sword.” etc. etc. I firmly believe that as one lives, so one will die. Not being in the habit of repentance will make it very unlikely to happen at the moment of death. The ideal is to live as if death is a breath away. Living in unrepentant, habitual mortal sin hardly comes any where near that ideal. Looking back on over 70 years, I would say life is very short and is very serious business and then comes the judgement. Doing ones best to avoid sin leaves plenty of room for legitimate enjoyment.Don’t delude yourself. As the saying goes,“God is not mocked.”
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Robert_Burns
Guest
I love the wisdom in this post. And I totally agree with you. How many of us try to only do the minimum and hope to get away with as much as we can get away with and still expect to be saved because GOD is good. I dont think the question of whether GOD is good is ever at issue. Just because GOD is good - are we to take full advantage of that goodness? Or are we to appreciate it by doing as he has commanded ? I think the latter.
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Vico
Guest
Feeling alone is not sufficient for perfect contrition; besides sorrow there must be metanoia a firm purpose of not sinning in the future, that the soul is more important than what is had through sin. But this can also happen quickly, with one thought of firm resolution.
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