Was this sin moral or venial?

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Madia

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Hello,

I am a bit scrupulous and was wondering if the sin I committed in the past week was venial or moral.

I wiped my Bible off with a cleaning product which did some minor damage to it. It also caused the ribbon bookmark to become frayed. I tried to pull it off and did some further damage to the spine. I threw the thread of the ribbon that came off in the trash but later took it out (although some may be left in there).

The Bible itself wasn’t blessed but I don’t think that matters since the Bible itself is a Holy object. My intention wasn’t to desecrate the Bible but simply to clean it and remove the ribbon bookmark that became frayed.

I myself don’t feel this is a mortal sin but still do feel wrong about it. I confessed it earlier in confession but just said I did minor damage to my Bible by using a cleaning product on it and nothing about the ribbon.

Should I just forget it and recieve communion tomorrow or reconfess it?

Thanks
 
Hello,

I’m a recent convert to the Catholic Faith and to my knowledge what happened would not be a sin because it wasn’t done on purpose.
 
i have to say that you made an awesome typo in the title of this thread. i actually laughed out loud.
 
Well, if the ribbon was blessed, you might have to burn it or something… not sure. In any event, you committed no sin unless you were deliberately desecrating the Bible, which you were not. So forget about it.
 
you committed no sin. you did not deliberately commit a sinful act, grave or less serious. you did a good action that had and accidental unfortunate, but very minor effect. drop it, it this kind of stuff bothers you a lot please get spiritual counselling about scrupulosity.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I didn’t notice the typo and don’t think I can fix it.

The Bible wasn’t blessed although I’m still not sure what to do with the ribbon. I just set it aside to be properly desposed of with some other blessed items which are either worn or no longer being used.

For those without scrupulosity, the fear (for me at least) is of losing your soul. Even if I’m 99.99% sure something isn’t a mortal sin, the .01% still bothers me because it represents a .01% chance in my mind that I’ll lose my eternal soul. I know I should just follow the tenth commandment with those with scrupulosity: “***You shall put your total trust in Jesus Christ, knowing that he loves you as only God can love, and that he will never allow you to lose your soul. *” **but it’s not easy when the doubt’s still there.

Spiritual councelling may help but my scrupulosity is just one part of my OCD which I imagine would need to be treated as a whole. Unfortunatley, I can’t afford the therapy needed (cognitive behavioral therapy) to correct it although I have been able to make some progress on my own. Luckily, it’s not as bad as many people have it and it’s more of an annoyance than something that controls my life. I’m grateful to God for that.
 
ooh im glad you said you had ocd in that last post because i was about to say you sure seem like you do. (in a way that probly would have offended :P)

woops
 
Even if I’m 99.99% sure something isn’t a mortal sin, the .01% still bothers me because it represents a .01% chance in my mind that I’ll lose my eternal soul.

I used to think like that. What helps to relieve such things is looking at it objectively: If someone you knew did this same thing, would you be at all worried about their eternal soul? If the answer is “no”, then no need to worry about it just because you did it.
 
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Madia:
The Bible itself wasn’t blessed but I don’t think that matters since the Bible itself is a Holy object.
Click to expand...
Bibles don’t need to be blessed.
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Madia:
My intention wasn’t to desecrate the Bible but simply to clean it and remove the ribbon bookmark that became frayed.
Click to expand...
Mortal sin must meet 3 elements:
  1. Knowledge - You know the “act” is a sin
  2. Free Will - You freely decide to commit the sin with the Knowledge that it is a sin.
  3. Grave Matter - The act is some grave disorder in regard to God, our neighbour, ourselves, or society.
Since your intent was not to harm the Bible, it is not a mortal sin. Had you known that the Bible would be damaged; and knowing this, you freely did it anyway with the intent of being disrespectful toward God and the Bible, it would be a mortal sin.
 
yep, scrupulosity is hard. i’m not sure that i don’t get into it too, sometimes:o we’ll be praying for you.
 
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