On Venial Sin

First Point - There are few who do not at first abhor wickedness. We do not fall into sin suddenly. Despite the corruption that original sin has left in our hearts, and the disorder it has caused in our souls, there is still left a certain sense of right-living that makes us always condemn great crimes in others, and, by inspiring a certain horror in us, makes us fear to commit these same crimes. But when we become familiar with venial sin, we begin to lose our horror of mortal sin, and court the danger that once we feared. So, little by little, we come to commit mortal sin without reluctance and even with pleasure.

Second Point - Venial sin is not a direct road leading away from our last end; it is rather a byway or circuitous road. By obliging us to go out of our course, it finally causes us to lose our way. Venial sin is not a breaking away from God, but rather a lukewarmness on our part, which finally leads up to it. In accustoming ourselves to neglect God, as we do by venial sin, we finally come to despise God and His holy law. When our love is strong it does not suddenly turn to hatred; but when our love is weak it easily yields to indifference. One voluntary distraction during prayer appears to be of no account; yet it is often the occasion of an evil thought, a wicked desire, a desire for mortal sin. If you reflect well on this, can you any longer believe that a voluntary distraction during prayer, or, in fact, any venial sin is of so little consequence?

Third Point - However innocent an attachment to a certain object may appear, unless we are very guarded it will gradually become a purely human attachment. God will not be the object of it, and nature alone, not grace, will regulate it. An affection for a creature can easily develop into a natural passion, then into a sensual passion, and finally into an impure or criminal passion. Since we fall into mortal sin by degrees and almost without being aware that we are falling, how difficult it is when we are on the brink of that precipice, to avoid falling over it! Alas, may I not be in danger of falling over this precipice without being aware of it? Prevent it, O my Saviour; enlighten me, and preserve me from so great a misfortune.

Take the resolution to avoid, as far as possible, every venial sin, since this is a most certain means of avoiding mortal sin.

He that contemneth small things, shall fall by little and little. Ecclesiasticus 19:1

They who have committed great sins have begun by committing small ones. - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

- text taken from Meditations for Every Day in a Month, by Father François Nepveu