1.31.2009

Catholic Beliefs About Sin: The Seven Deadly Sins PLUS The NEW Seven Deadly Sins

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Hello Dear Friends,

A few days ago, I posted on Catholic's belief in living a virtuous life. And as we all know, we are imperfect human beings born with the original sin of our first parents. Despite our Baptism, we continue to sin and offend our Lord each and every day. We just do! Even St. Paul said that he does what he knows he should not do . . . it's the power of evil and of the flesh. There are some people who don't even know what is considered sin against God . . . so here are some basics. Thankfully, Catholics have a special Sacrament, a treasure of the Catholic Church, that we have that will help us return to a better state of grace with God. Catholics also believe that before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, we must have repented our sins to a priest. Catholics are not to be in a state of mortal sin when receiving Holy Communion.

Not only are we to obey The Ten Commandments (which include the serious sins that we should avoid, such as "Thou Shalt Not Kill"), these are considered to be mimimum requirements for our salvation.
The Catholic Church believes that sin is any willful thought, desire, word, action or ommission forbidden by the law of God.


THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

PRIDE: Unrestrained appreciation of our own worth.
GREED: Immoderate desire for earthly goods.
LUST: Desiring for impure pleasures.
ANGER: Inordinate desire for revenge.
GLUTTONY: Unrestrained use of food and drink.
ENVY: Sorrow over another's good fortune.
SLOTH: Laxity in keeping the Faith and the practice of virtue, due to the effort involved.


Each of the 7 deadly sins have virtue that act as remedies against the deadly sins and helps us conquer them. Therefore we should do everything that we can to make the virtues an integral part of our life.

Pride is conquered by Humility and Modesty
Envy is overcome by Kindness and Charity
Lust is conquered by Chastity and Purity
Wrath is avoided by Patience and Meekness
Gluttony is overcome by Abstinence and Moderation
Greed is conquered by Generosity
Sloth is avoided by Diligence and Zeal


THE FOUR SINS CRYING TO HEAVEN FOR VENGEANCE

Willful murder (including abortion)
The sin of Sodom.
Oppression of the poor.
Defrauding laborers of their wages.



THE SIX SINS AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT

Presumption of God's mercy.
Despair.
Impugning the known truth.
Envy at another's spiritual good.
Obstinacy in sin.
Final impenitence.


NINE WAYS OF BEING ACCESSORY TO ANOTHER'S SIN

By counsel.
By command.
By consent.
By provocation.
By praise or flattery.
By concealment.
By partaking.
By silence.
By defense of the ill done


And here are the NEWLY declared Seven Deadly Sins recently proclaimed by Pope Benedict:

These sins makes Catholics consider more seriously than before the results and consequences of their actions on a GLOBAL scale, as our world has become globalized in interaction and connectivity, and as a result there is a global communal impact of our sins. These newly added sins do not eliminate the original seven deadly sins (made famous by Dante in the Purgatorial sufferings of the Divine Comeday) , but rather adds to them. These new sins are:

Genetic modification
Human experimentations
Polluting the environment
Social injustice
Causing poverty
Financial gluttony
Taking drugs

Acknowledgment and avoidance of committing these new deadly sins calls us to consider the communal effect of our sins on others in humanity. The recognition of these sins clearly demonstrates the development of our beautiful Catholic faith as we, Her sheep, practice and spread our Catholic spiritual, moral, and ethical principles into a society, global in scope, with global implications and consequences. One goal of Catholicism is unity and the return of all of our fallen away brothers and sisters; therefore, the avoidance of these sins will help us prevent further division among the world's peoples.

I don't know about you, my friends, but I think that today is a perfect day to conduct an examination of conscience and get to Confession!

Blessings,
~Bella











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