Using the Lords name in vain

[brshooter]

Sorry everyone. Another question regarding taking the Lords name in vain. I tend to be a bit scrupulous (maybe more than a bit) and have been searching for an answer, but just can’t find it.

On Sunday, I used the the Holy name of Jesus casually. I feel horrible about it. We had literally just gotten home from Mass and I was preparing breakfast. Something spilled and I uttered the name of Jesus as a reaction. I don’t know where it came from. There was no intent to do so, it was a reaction. Almost like hitting your finger with a hammer. It just popped out.

I asked our Lord to forgive me for using his name casually and said an act of contrition. This is a commandment I try to be very conscience of.

I know it is of grave matter to use the Lords name in vain. Where I get a bit confused is the condition that it was done “Willfully” and with “Full Consent”. I am not trying to justify my action in any way. I know I did wrong and will confess this but was this a mortal sin or venial sin?

I came to the Catholic Church this past Easter. I have really made an effort to live my life in a way that the our Lord would approve of. I fail at times like all of us do. I am just prone to over thinking things and letting my mind get the best of me.

Thanks for any replies.
Bill

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most mysterious and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the most holy Sacrament of the altar.

The Golden Arrow was revealed by Our Lord Jesus Christ to a Carmelite nun of Tours in 1843 as a reparation for blasphemy.

Jesus said: “This Golden Arrow will wound My Heart delightfully, and heal the wounds inflicted by blasphemy.”

 

[Sam_Maloney]

This is what they mean to me, may not be textbook:

‘Willfully’ means you *meant *to do it, it didn’t just slip out.

‘With full consent’ means you were in full posession of your faculties. Mental duress or pain would be factors that mitigate against full consent.

In the circumstance you describe, I don’t think you fulfill the requirement for ‘willful’. It’s more like a habit that needs to be broken. ‘Full consent’ is a little tougher in this case: if you’d burned yourself, that would definetly mean you didn’t have full consent, but I’m not sure that mere anger or dissapointment qualifies, especially since I myself have a bad habit of allowing my anger to build up out of proportion to what’s going on.

 

[DixitDominus]

Saying using God’s name as an exclamation of surprise, anger or fear is only per se venially sinful. An erroneous conscience, however, can make it mortally sinful.

 

[brshooter]

Thanks for the replies.