Peccadillo

“ There is a retribution that follows us even to the grave; sin is punished with sin,—the first fault lays fire to the train of our vices, and in their explosions we are further stained,—punished, destroyed. That sin! and what has come of it? Where is the gain to balance it? Cajoled by the demon that seduced me, cheated and flung aside—suspected, degraded, demoralized—a wanderer, a villain, a cur—the friend of rogues, and myself their fittest fellow—Heaven is strong, and justice oppressive.—Munda cor meum ac labia mea! ”

“ Your sin is a light one; mine is flagrant, shameful, horrible. Now I am less worthy of you than ever. It is I who ask you now to leave this place. Go; do penance. God will pardon you. Go; a priest will give you absolution. Once cleansed from sin, carry out your purpose, and become a minister of the Most High. Then, through the holiness of your life, through your ceaseless labors, not only will you efface from your soul the last traces of this fall, but you will obtain for me, when you have pardoned me the evil I have done you, the pardon of Heaven also. ”

“ And the sinner, abandoned in an abyss of sins, will despise admonitions, excommunications, divine grace, chastisement, and hell: he will make a jest of his own damnation. ” The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of sin, contemneth. ”

“ The first step is the symbol of confession, the second of contrition, the third of satisfaction; the threshold of adamant may perhaps signify the authority of the Church.
[2] Three times, in penitence for sins in thought, in word, and in deed.
[3] The seven P’s stand for the seven so-called mortal sins,—Peccati, not specific acts, but the evil dispositions of the soul from which all evil deeds spring,—pride, envy, anger, sloth (accidia) , avarice, gluttony, and lust. After justification these dispositions which already have been overcome, must be utterly removed from the soul. ”

“ After citing from the Bible several cases of kings exhibiting penance for sins, Ambrose continues: 11. I have written this, not to confound you, but that the examples of kings may stir you up to put away this sin from your kingdom, for you will put it away by humbling your soul before God. You are a man, temptation has come to you; conquer it. Sin is not done away but by tears and penitence. Neither angel can do it, nor archangel. The Lord himself, [pg 391] who alone can say “I am with you,” if we have sinned, does not forgive any but those who do penance. ”

“ To be asked to approve myself the instrument of that poor creature’s ruin! to applaud the wicked deed and crown the doer of it with my gratitude! Would you murder also for my sake—smear the feet you profess to worship with a fellow-creature’s blood? O, go from me, go from me, Monsieur! you are horrible in my sight. We take the burden of our sin—will atone for it as heaven wills. Better a hundred cruel witnesses than one advocate like you. ”

“ You have been a great sinner in your youth; and God has punished you by making your sins the very instrument of your punishment. Yet has He not preserved you through the centuries that you might repent? Banish all thoughts of the demon who still tempts you in the shape of a woman; repent and commend your soul to God, that I may absolve you."
"Repent!" said the dying man, fixing upon the priest's face his great black eyes, which flamed up again as with the fierce fires of his youth ”

“ All vice, in all its multiplied forms, will be condemned. With the wicked there shall be weeping and wailing forever. They must be cast into a furnace of fire. They will be rendered as miserable as they have made themselves sinful. The more vile the more miserable. The greater their turpitude of heart and the more their sins of life, the heavier will be their condemnation. All things that offend, and that work iniquity shall be gathered out of the kingdom of Christ. The angels will be honoured with the office of making the final separation. ”

“ True penitents have learned to call sin shame; even the beloved sin which has been as an idol to them, which they have been most pleased with and proud of, even that they shall call a scandalous thing, shall put contempt upon it and be ashamed of it. [2.] True penitents have learned to call sin death and ruin, and to charge upon it all the mischiefs they suffer: "It has devoured all those good things which our fathers laboured for and left to us; we have found from our youth that our idolatry has been the destruction of our prosperity." ”

“ Aziel, you have sinned indeed, and must bear the appointed punishment of your sin. Yet hear a message of mercy spoken through my lips: Because you have sinned through love and pity, your offence is not unto death. ”

“ If we have not a sincere sorrow for our sins, if we do not entirely renounce our criminal attachments, we are impostors, and not penitents. Prayers, alms, fasting, and macerations of the flesh, are but the outsides of repentance, the hatred of sin is its very spirit and essence.
[Implore God’s mercy for haring hitherto led a life so opposite to the Gospel; and beg of him the grace to live for the future as the first Christians did, in the constant practice of penance.] ”

“ III. How many obligations you are under to a God so patient, who has so long waited for you to do penance. Beware, lest His patience, which you have abused so often, be changed into fury. Therefore, beg pardon for what is past, and reform your conduct for the future.
Mortal Sin— II. The Person Offended.
I. The greater the dignity of the person offended, the greater is the offence; it is a greater crime to wound a father or a prince than any indifferent person. Reflect deeply, then, who it is that you have so often provoked by your sins. ”

“ Infinite is the Almighty’s mercy, and the Penitent shall meet his forgiveness. My crimes are monstrous, but I will not despair of pardon: Haply, when they have received due chastisement....”
“Chastisement? Was Purgatory meant for guilt like yours? Hope you that your offences shall be bought off by prayers of superstitious dotards and droning Monks? Ambrosio, be wise! Mine you must be: You are doomed to flames, but may shun them for the present. Sign this parchment: I will bear you from hence, and you may pass your remaining years in bliss and liberty. ”

“ That all their sins should be pardoned to them, and should not be mentioned against them. "Though they be as red as scarlet and crimson, though you lie under the guilt of blood, yet, upon your repentance, even that shall be forgiven you, and you shall appear in the sight of God as white as snow." Note, The greatest sinners, if they truly repent, shall have their sins forgiven them, and so have their consciences pacified and purified. ”

“ Behold, then, the miserable state of those who give scandal by their bad example, who utter immodest words before their companions, in the presence of young females, and even of innocent children, who, in consequence of hearing those words, commit a thousand sins. Considering how the angel-guardians of those little ones weep at seeing them in the state of sin, and how they call for vengeance from God against the sacrilegious tongues that have scandalized them. A great chastisement awaits all who ridicule those who practise virtue. ”

“ POINT II. Study to understand the evil of your sins, considering:
1. Every species of sin has its own peculiar vileness; for instance, lying is so odious that its very name is offensive, stealing is still worse, so that one caught in a theft is disgraced for life, gluttony is disgraceful, pride is odious to God and man, envy is mean, profanity is provoking to the great and holy God, deceit is despicable, vanity is ridiculous, impurity lowers a man beneath the brute, etc.
2. Every sin is an insult to God. When a person insults his equal, he incurs his displeasure and deserves punishment ”

“ But the words passeth by transgression, signify that inasmuch as we confess our failings, and cover them with the fruit of our good works, they are referred to the author of our fault, and the instigator of our sin. For what else does he who confesses his fault do but prove himself to have been beguiled by the craft and malice of that spiritual wickedness which is his adversary? ”

“ Blicks, in the old house in Blue Anchor Yard, and reflect that since that happy time I have recklessly plunged in sin, and stolen goods and watches, studs, rings, and jewellery, become, indeed, a common thief, I tremble with remorse, and fly to prayer—Psalm v. Oh what sinners we are! Let me hope that now I, by God's blessing placed beyond temptation, will live safely, and that some day I even may, by the will of the Lord Jesus, find mercy for my sins. Some kind of madness has method in it, but madness of sin holds us without escape. ”

“ To no man in these days, could there be a doubt even for a moment—however great the sin of swearing such an oath! No one in these days, knowing and repenting of the crime, would hesitate a moment, or fancy himself bound, because he had committed one vile sin in pledging himself thus to guilt, to rush on deeper yet into the perpetration of wickedness. ”

“ The true spirit of penance shows the sinner the multitude and grievousness of his sins in their true colours, excites a horror and detestation of them, and a proper sense of his own demerits for being guilty of them, and renders him willing to undergo any sufferings as a just punishment. ”

“ And where is the great difficulty in obeying this wise, this generous, this noble precept? If revenge be, as a certain divine, not greatly to his honour, calls it, the most luscious morsel the devil ever dropt into the mouth of a sinner, it must be allowed at least to cost us often extremely dear. It is a dainty, if indeed it be one, which we come at with great inquietude, with great difficulty, and with great danger. ”

“ Sin will hinder from glorying in the cross of Christ. Omitting little truths against light may harden the conscience, as well as committing the greatest sin against light. If thou hast been taken out of the belly of hell into Christ's bosom, and made to sit among princes in the household of God-Oh! how should thou live as a pattern of mercy! ”

“ Don't you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can't defile him, 7:19 because it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, thus making all foods clean?" 7:20 He said, "That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. 7:21 For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, 7:22 covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man." ”

“ Receive from a sick man what he can give you. Oh me, oh me, have mercy on so many souls that perish! Do not consider the scandal which occurred in this city, in which surely the devils of hell busied themselves, to hinder the peace and quiet of souls and bodies: but Divine Goodness saw to it that no great harm came from the great evil, but your sons pacified themselves, and now ask of you the oil of mercy. ”

“ But what will the sinner answer Jesus Christ? Perhaps he will take courage to entreat His mercy, at that time when he will first of all have to render to Him an account of the contempt which he has shown for the mercies granted to him? S. Augustine inquires, What will the sinner do, whither will he fly, when he beholds the Judge, Who will be very wrathful, sitting above him; underneath him, hell already open; on the one side the sins which will accuse him; oh the other, the devils ready to execute the sentence ”

“ True penitents cast away their idols as filthy rags (ch. xxx. 22) , odious in their sight; here they acknowledge even their righteousness to be so in God's sight if he should deal with them in strict justice. Our best duties are so defective, and so far short of the rule, that they are as rags, and so full of sin and corruption cleaving to them that they are as filthy rags. When we would do good evil is present with us; and the iniquity of our holy things would be our ruin if we were under the law. ”

“ For the same who is Instructor is judge, and judges those who disobey Him; and the loving Word will not pass over their transgression in silence. He reproves, that they may repent. For “the Lord willeth the repentance of the sinner rather than his death.” [272] And let us as babes, hearing of the sins of others, keep from similar transgressions, through dread of the threatening, that we may not have to undergo like sufferings. What, then, was the sin which they committed? “For in their wrath they slew men, and in their impetuosity they hamstrung bulls. Cursed be their anger.” ”

“ To this sin belongs the sin of them that for pence have the devil summoned, and make enchantments, and cause to look into a sword or into the nail of the thumb, in order to overtake thieves or for other things. And of them also that cause or obtain by charms or by witchcraft or by evil, whatever it be, that folk that are in wedlock together hate one another, or cannot have fellowship the one with the other in wedlock; or that folk, that are not in wedlock, love one another foolishly and in sin. ”

“ The moment we so act, are we and our crime abominable in the sight of the All Holy. "Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity;" [4] and to the Lord "the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike." [5] Our sin instantly merits eternal punishment: [Pg 6] "If the just man turns himself away from his justice, and do iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man useth to work, shall he live? ”

“ The apostle, however, supposed that this demon was the same which was driven out from that woman.
76. And the demon said, "I beseech thee, suffer me to go and to dwell where thou wishest, and command me for that purpose, then I shall not fear him who has power over me. For as thou hast come to preach, so have I come to destroy. As he who sent thee punishes thee for not fulfilling his will, so, unless I do the will of him who has sent me, I am sent before the time and appointed season into my nature (exist no more as an individual) . ”

“ The guilt of sin is like the pain of the biting of a fiery serpent; the power of corruption is like the venom diffused thereby. The devil is the old serpent, subtle at first (Gen. iii. 1) , but ever since fiery, and his temptations fiery darts, his assaults terrifying, his victories destroying. Ask awakened consciences, ask damned sinners, and they will tell you, how charming soever the allurements of sin are, at the last it bites like a serpent, Prov. xxiii. 30-32. God's wrath against us for sin is as those fiery serpents which God sent among the people, to punish them for their murmurings. ”