Mortal Sins and the Path of Repentance The Reality of Our Sins

Описание: Mortal Sins and the Path of Repentance
The Reality of Our Sins
To begin with, many of us lack a living faith in God. We neglect the Church and do not attend services faithfully every Saturday evening, every Sunday, and on the holy feast days. Yet the Church is the Body of Christ, and Christ Himself is its Head. The Apostolic canons tell us that if anyone deliberately misses three Sundays in a row, that person is cut off from the Church by the Holy Spirit and falls into the power of darkness and the devil. Only through true repentance can the Lord restore us and reunite us with His Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
We do not keep the fasts appointed by the Church. Many eat non-lenten foods on Wednesdays and Fridays, forgetting that Wednesday is the day the Lord was betrayed and Friday the day He was crucified. These are days of mourning, yet we treat them as ordinary. This too is a mortal sin, and again the Holy Spirit withdraws us from the communion of the faithful.
We neglect prayer. We fall asleep without prayer, we rise without prayer, we eat without prayer, and we pass through our days without giving thanks or asking God’s blessing. In this way, we live as though God were absent from our lives.

We marry outside the Church, content with civil ceremonies but not receiving the sacrament of marriage. This is fornication in the eyes of God, and Scripture tells us plainly that “fornicators will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” As the Apostle Paul writes:

“Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God.” (1 Cor. 6:9–10)

Grave and Widespread Sins

Some sins weigh especially heavy on the soul and must be mourned until death. Among the greatest and most common today is abortion. Many say at confession, “I have not killed.” But when asked, “Have you had an abortion?” they answer yes, without realizing this is murder in God’s eyes. To kill a child in the womb or to kill an adult is the same crime before God, for the moment of conception is the moment a soul is received.