Seven Capital Sins

February 23, 2013

The Sins of a Holy Priest

Fr. John Hardon talking with Pope John Paul, II

Fr. John Hardon talking with Pope John Paul, II

February 1, 2013

Sloth – Failure To Do God’s Work

Do you know the first words of Jesus Christ that were recorded in the Bible?  His mother asked Him why He had not told her where He had been for three days, and the twelve-year-old Son of God responded, “How is it that you sought Me?  Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”  (Luke 2:49)

January 18, 2013

The Destructive Triangle – Covetousness, Avarice, and Greed

As you know, two of the Ten Commandments deal with covetousness: “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife,” and “Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s goods.”  Covetousness is defined as an inordinately strong desire for possessing someone or something.  In his book Victory Over Vice, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said:

January 3, 2013

Gluttony – The Spirit Is Willing, but the Flesh Is Weak

For years we have been hearing about how the obesity epidemic in America is primarily caused by trans fats, fast food, and drinks that contain large amounts of sugar.  We are treated as though we are mindless sheep who have no will-power and are under the spell of an evil force that influences us to continually consume what will ultimately fatten us up and kill us.

December 20, 2012

Envy – The Viral Passion

Hell came into existence because of the pride and envy of Lucifer and his followers. Lucifer envied God’s perfection and authority over him. He also envied the happiness of our first parents and did everything in his power to alienate them from God.

December 9, 2012

A Culture of Football, Guns, & Sin

If you’re a sports fan or if you pay attention to national events, you know about the National Football League (NFL) Kansas City Chiefs’ linebacker who shot and killed his girlfriend last week and then committed suicide.  The football player was Jovan Belcher.  What caught my attention was the immediate rush to judgment by journalists and commentators in the sports and news media, most of whom wanted to place the blame on. the “gun culture” and the “violent game of football.”

December 7, 2012

Lust – The All-Consuming Passion

After pride, lust is the vice that the devil prefers to use to lure people away from God.  Lust blinds the mind of a person, and since it is the mind that enlightens the will, once blinded, it no longer has the ability to lead the will away from the irrational urges of the body.  Lust is an undiscerning passion that acts on fantasies, thoughts, and desires.  Lust always leads to irrational, reckless, ruinous, and self-destructive behavior.

November 29, 2012

Anger – The Father of all Sins

If pride is the mother of all sins, anger is the father.  While all sins are born from pride, those same sins are often supported by anger.  Pride nurtures sin, and anger defends it.

November 18, 2012

Predominant Tendencies and Primary Faults

We were all born with a strong tendency toward pride, the mother of all sins.  Because of our fallen human nature, we were also born with a tendency toward each of the other root passions of lust, anger, avarice, envy, gluttony, and sloth; furthermore, as a result of the individual unique traits that each of us were born with, combined with the environment we grew up in and our life experiences, we each entered adolescence, and later adulthood, with a predominant tendency toward one of the other six root passions.