The force of habit & confession

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valoriuslobo

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Hello

I was told in confession that if a certain mortal sin is habitual but still consitutes grave matter, it is effectively commuted to a venial sin. The priest said if several weeks went by without committing the sin, it would return to being mortal. That being said, if I committed this sin again in a short period of time, would I have to confess it before receiving the Eucharist?

Thank you for your insight. I’m planning on going to Mass tomorrow a.m. but we don’t have confessions beforehand and so I need advice before going in regards to receiving communion tomorrow or not…
 
As I understand it, in order for a sin to be mortal, it must be committed with full and conscious knowledge. The force of habit may mitigate your free will to commit the sin, rendering it venial. Whatever the sin, keep going to confession. It will give you the strength to overcome. I think it has less to do with the time interval than the reasons behind it.

As far as Mass tomorrow, use your best judgment and a well-formed conscience to make that determination. If you have doubts, don’t present yourself for the Eucharist.
 
valoriuslobo said:
Hello

I was told in confession that if a certain mortal sin is habitual but still consitutes grave matter, it is effectively commuted to a venial sin. The priest said if several weeks went by without committing the sin, it would return to being mortal. That being said, if I committed this sin again in a short period of time, would I have to confess it before receiving the Eucharist?

Thank you for your insight. I’m planning on going to Mass tomorrow a.m. but we don’t have confessions beforehand and so I need advice before going in regards to receiving communion tomorrow or not…
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I tell you: that is a big, but very big confusion.
If you go to mass tomorrow and have time to go to confession, go.
If not, just say in the beginning of the mass: “MyLord, I have sinned against you; pardon me through the merits of Jesus Crist your Son. I love YOU!”
The, go to Communion with a peace of mind. That is what I do. I remember Jesus saying: “I came for the sinners for the just do not need conversion!”. I raised my hand up and said:“That’s for me!”. I need Him, He came for me. And i do not let escape any communion, for He is the Bread of Life.
 
Pfaffenhoffen said:
I tell you: that is a big, but very big confusion.
If you go to mass tomorrow and have time to go to confession, go.
If not, just say in the beginning of the mass: “MyLord, I have sinned against you; pardon me through the merits of Jesus Crist your Son. I love YOU!”
The, go to Communion with a peace of mind. That is what I do. I remember Jesus saying: “I came for the sinners for the just do not need conversion!”. I raised my hand up and said:“That’s for me!”. I need Him, He came for me. And i do not let escape any communion, for He is the Bread of Life.
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This isn’t Catholic.

If you are unsure about the state of your soul, do not take Communion. Offer a Spiritual Communion and make a confession at the next availability. To take Communion while in the state of mortal sin only adds another sin. It is sacrilegious to receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin.
 
valoriuslobo said:
Hello

I was told in confession that if a certain mortal sin is habitual but still consitutes grave matter, it is effectively commuted to a venial sin. The priest said if several weeks went by without committing the sin, it would return to being mortal. That being said, if I committed this sin again in a short period of time, would I have to confess it before receiving the Eucharist?

Thank you for your insight. I’m planning on going to Mass tomorrow a.m. but we don’t have confessions beforehand and so I need advice before going in regards to receiving communion tomorrow or not…
Click to expand...
I won’t comment on the confession and communion issue, but I do question the psychology of the “several weeks”. I have heard it said that one can break a habit by avoiding it for, variously, three days, seven days, a month. On the other hand we have the experience of twelve step programs, such as AA, which say that once an addict, always an addict. I suspect that the truth is that there is no general rule.
 
kmuestwin said:
This isn’t Catholic.

If you are unsure about the state of your soul, do not take Communion. Offer a Spiritual Communion and make a confession at the next availability. To take Communion while in the state of mortal sin only adds another sin. It is sacrilegious to receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin.
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If you are unsure, go to Jesus and take the communion.
Now, if your ask forgiveness to jesus, and you are at mass, he will not forgive?. No, wait till you find a priest.
In Africa, I think every Catholic goes to hell. when you have to walk 8 hours to reach the priest once a year…
I think the best would be like the old Kings in europe. they had a private confessor. Each sin was confessed with ligthning speed.
To say that you ask God forgivese through the Blood of Jesus Christ and that He will not firgive it is too much.
 
None of this sounds like the Catholic Church I know but I’m probably behind the times?

If you have mortal sin on your soul you don’t take Holy Communion.

If you can somehow commute your mortal sins to venial because they are ‘habitual’, I’d say that nobody would be committing mortal sins. That can’t be. But if you understood your confessor correctly I’m sure he didn’t mean that you could take Holy Communion with that habitual sin on your soul unconfessed.

I have too many faults but that’s where confession comes into it. The more we overcome sin (only possible with our Lord’s help), the more we set out to try, the more we show Him how much we love Him.
 
Pfaffenhoffen said:
If you are unsure, go to Jesus and take the communion.
Now, if your ask forgiveness to jesus, and you are at mass, he will not forgive?. No, wait till you find a priest.
In Africa, I think every Catholic goes to hell. when you have to walk 8 hours to reach the priest once a year…
I think the best would be like the old Kings in europe. they had a private confessor. Each sin was confessed with ligthning speed.
To say that you ask God forgivese through the Blood of Jesus Christ and that He will not firgive it is too much.
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This is a bunch of balogna.

If an African is going to Mass, then a priest is present. Confess before Mass or confess after Mass. Do not receive Communion when in a state of mortal sin.
 
kmuestwin said:
This isn’t Catholic.

If you are unsure about the state of your soul, do not take Communion. Offer a Spiritual Communion and make a confession at the next availability. To take Communion while in the state of mortal sin only adds another sin. It is sacrilegious to receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin.
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I have to second this. If you have committed a sin of grave matter then go to confession first. To receive the Eucharist in a state of sin is to profane the precious Body and Blood of Christ. While you may or may not be in that state, it is a good devotional practice to go to confession especially if you’ve done a grave sin.
 
If you are unsure, don’t go. To commit an act without knowing whether or not it is immoral is, in fact, immoral.
 
kmuestwin said:
This is a bunch of balogna.

If an African is going to Mass, then a priest is present. Confess before Mass or confess after Mass. Do not receive Communion when in a state of mortal sin.
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Balogna? Does that exist in Africa?

Before or after the mass in Africa? Boy, you have never been to Africa, you do not want to learn so it is useless to follow this liene. You ar thinking in Africa like a little America with nice cathedrals, air conditioning in some, everybody in nice pews, mass at 10:00 starts at 10:00. Sorry, you do not know Africa. Moreover, interenting confession after mass: in mass, he does not go to communion? Balogna? Sincerely I even do not know what Balogna is but anyhow, you say it is balogna without even bother justifying…

Let me ask one question: you know exactly when you are in mortal sin? And you know for sure that when you say that you are in mortal sin you are really in mortal sin? Saying another way: if you say that you are in mortal sin, are you sure that God considered that what you consider a mortal sin is really, at the eyes of God, a mortal sin?

By the way, I me a girl who said that she commited a mortal sin for she stepped in 2 tiny sticks in the form os a cross…

I must look in the dictionary Balogna… seems italian …
 
Pfaffenhoffen said:
Balogna? Does that exist in Africa?

Before or after the mass in Africa? Boy, you have never been to Africa, you do not want to learn so it is useless to follow this liene. You ar thinking in Africa like a little America with nice cathedrals, air conditioning in some, everybody in nice pews, mass at 10:00 starts at 10:00. Sorry, you do not know Africa. Moreover, interenting confession after mass: in mass, he does not go to communion? Balogna? Sincerely I even do not know what Balogna is but anyhow, you say it is balogna without even bother justifying…

Let me ask one question: you know exactly when you are in mortal sin? And you know for sure that when you say that you are in mortal sin you are really in mortal sin? Saying another way: if you say that you are in mortal sin, are you sure that God considered that what you consider a mortal sin is really, at the eyes of God, a mortal sin?

By the way, I me a girl who said that she commited a mortal sin for she stepped in 2 tiny sticks in the form os a cross…

I must look in the dictionary Balogna… seems italian …
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Whoops! I misspelled bologna.

I meant that what you said is completely untue. “Phoney bologna.”

The Church says that it is a sin to take Communion while in a state of mortal sin. Why would someone want to add more sin by recieving while in a state of sin.

Yes. I do know when I am in a state of sin. I would assume that most people who go to confession regularly know when they commit a mortal sin. That is all a part of the formation of a person’s conscience.

Obviously, this girl is on the scrupulous side of things and should not be considered the norm. Her story isn’t exactly in your favor. She was trying to do her best to obtain the sacraments in the most respectful way possible and her piety should be commended.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us exactly what mortal sin is:
1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”
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1858 Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother."132 The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.
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1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart133 do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
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Also, the 1983 CIC 916 states:
CIC 916. A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession** unless there is a grave reason** and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.
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kmuestwin said:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us exactly what mortal sin is:
1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”
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The following paragraph is…
1860 Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man. **The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. **Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.
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And there is also…
1735 Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.
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It seems to me that the issue here is about how much, having committed an objectively mortal sin, with full knowledge, one can “diagnose” oneself as not having given full consent. Obviously there are clear cases where one should excuse oneself. eg. under the influence of a prescribed medication someone drives a car in their sleep and crashes. However many cases are less clear. Pp John Paul II, in ENCYCLICAL LETTER ECCLESIA DE EUCHARISTIA, states "The judgment of one’s state of grace obviously belongs only to the person involved, since it is a question of examining one’s conscience. " (note: “conscience”, not “behaviour”), but it is not clear how this applies to subjectively determining guilt for an objective sin as, in context, that is not what he is specifically addressing.
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kmuestwin said:
Whoops! I misspelled bologna.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us exactly what mortal sin is:
Also, the 1983 CIC 916 states:
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Sorry, you are lucky.
I cannot see if I commited a mortal sin. I do not have a mortal-sin-meter.
The Church is clear: you must have FULL knowledge, FULL will (english good?) and grave matter.
Those 2 FULL, maybe I am stupid or under-reflexive, but I cannot meter them, whether it is 60%, 80% 99% or 100%.
And guess, I have no time for all those measurements.
But there is some who does calculations fast and powerfully: GOD. I let that businness to Him.
I know I am a sinner, I know that I did things wrong and will ever do the whole of my life, but do not count on me to measure the intensity of the sin. I leave to Him.

For me, I try to do what he asked: preay for forgiveness, go to Confession, to good things in this world, try to think on other’s sin and help them to overcome what they cannot do alone, try the difficult task of forgiving, of not judging others (very diff.) and try to be evryday better than the previous day.

So help me God.
 
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