Where are the lines?

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perpetualseeker

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I am a cradle Catholic who strayed from the faith and am on my way back home. I am striving to understand all the things I did as a matter of motion and took for granted in my youth. One of those things is the concepts of sin and reconsiliation. Is there a place that lists and explains the different sins? As I was examining my concience today before confession I was trying to think of all the things I had done in the past week and I realized that I don’t even know what all the sins are. Could I have committed sins and not known? Probably

Logically it would stand to reason then that since I am capable of understanding that I have a lack of knowledge in this area I am also obligated to gain knowledge of the sins I may be ommitting. Herin lies part of my problem, understanding what the sins are.

The second part of the problem is in understanding where the lines are drawn between sin and mere behavior. For example, there was a lot of halloween candy around our house. I ate more than I probably should have. Does that mean I am guilty of gluttony? Or is gluttony much more extreme? How does one know where the lines are? How do I know that in attempting to differentiate I am not just being overly scrupulous, which is also a sin, is it not? :confused:
 
Thanks for the information but what is this exactly? “- Simony (buying or selling spiritual things)”

Does this mean blessed objects?

" Excessive tattoos "
What is considered excessive?
 
It is unlawful to exchange ecclesiastical benefices by private authority, to accept any payment whatever for holy oils, to sell blessed rosaries or crucifixes.

I make and sell rosaries. Once they are blessed, I give them away but do not sell them.

I have a rosary which was blessed by JPII. If he is proclaimed a saint it becomes a relic and, if I was greedy, I could sell it on e-bay.

OR…

If a priest asks for/demands money to say a Mass for someone.

That is simony.

OTOH a priest may be offered a ‘stipend’ as a contribution to his support. That is perfectly legitimate.
 
Eileen_T said:
It is unlawful to exchange ecclesiastical benefices by private authority, to accept any payment whatever for holy oils, to sell blessed rosaries or crucifixes.

I make and sell rosaries. Once they are blessed, I give them away but do not sell them.

I have a rosary which was blessed by JPII. If he is proclaimed a saint it becomes a relic and, if I was greedy, I could sell it on e-bay.

OR…

If a priest asks for/demands money to say a Mass for someone.

That is simony.

OTOH a priest may be offered a ‘stipend’ as a contribution to his support. That is perfectly legitimate.
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Actually you can sell an object that has been blessed but you cannot charge more because of the blessing.
For example, if you buy a Rosary for USD 10 and have it blessed and decide to sell the Rosary you cannot sell it for USD 12 because it is blessed.
 
Thanks thistle, but I still wouldn’t sell a blessed object, relic etc… it just wouldn’t feel right to me.
 
perpetualseeker said:
Thanks for the information but what is this exactly? “- Simony (buying or selling spiritual things)”

Does this mean blessed objects?

" Excessive tattoos "
What is considered excessive?
Click to expand...
Reference the passage in the Book of Acs in which Simon the Sorceror offered payment to Peter the Apostile, asking Peter to give him the ability to lay hands on anyone and cause them to receive the Holy Spirit.
Simon was trying to buy a spiritual gift. *That *is the sin of Simony.
 
perpetualseeker said:
The second part of the problem is in understanding where the lines are drawn between sin and mere behavior. For example, there was a lot of halloween candy around our house. I ate more than I probably should have. Does that mean I am guilty of gluttony? Or is gluttony much more extreme? How does one know where the lines are? How do I know that in attempting to differentiate I am not just being overly scrupulous, which is also a sin, is it not? :confused:
Click to expand...
Hi! I actually asked a priest about this just yesterday. He said that in cases like the one you mention, a venial sin of gluttony might have been committed. But in order to gluttony to be a mortal sin, it must be very extreme, like loving food more than God or being very uncharitable to your neighbor for the sake of food.

Also, in general, if you’re confused over whether something was a mortal sin and you don’t commonly hear it referred to as a mortal sin, it probably isn’t. I think this is a pretty good list.

You may know this already… but for a sin to be mortal, you must have known beforehand that it was grave matter and decided to do it anyhow. If you find you after the fact that something you did was grave matter, don’t attempt to judge whether or not you are guilty of mortal sin, but go to confession anyhow and explain to the priest what occurred. Sometimes he may tell you that because of certain contributing factors your culpability was limited. But mortal or not, you’ll be absolved and that feels sooo much better!

As for those little venial sins we commit without thought, frequent confession is awesome for battling these sins and increasing in holiness and humility. When you go to confession without having committed any mortal sins, you only need to confess a few symbolic venial sins. This gives you the opportunity to work on a few at a time. As you grow in holiness, your conscience will become more keen and you will realize, little by little, what all those hidden sins were, and the Lord will help you dig them out by their roots.
 
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