The basis for the harmonious development of the spiritual and material worlds is the observance of the existing, basic rules and laws, the violation of which will inevitably lead to destruction and catastrophes.

Moreover, the moral rules of existence in society accurately reflect the commandments Christian religion, and therefore their observance is necessary, both for people who believe, and those who are far from the Church.

In Orthodoxy, sins are divided according to the severity of the possibility of expiating them. Particular attention is paid to such a phenomenon as the seven deadly sins. Not everyone understands the meaning of this phrase and what kind of sins faith refers to mortals.

What is the difference between secular morality and religious morality? Religion always formulates moral norms more generally and substantiates them, referring to higher power. In secular life, laws are more specific and explained logically.

According to the Christian religion, mortal sin is the most serious of possible sins, and it can only be redeemed through repentance. For the soul of a person who has committed a mortal sin, the road to paradise is closed if he has not been redeemed. It is believed that it is the mortal sin, despite its seeming harmlessness, that leads to the commission of more serious sins.

Christian teaching identifies 7 deadly sins, and they are named so because the immortal soul dies in the event of their constant repetition and burns in hell.

Biblical texts are not a justification for the sins of mortals and represent God's revelation, for the first time there was a mention of them in later texts of theologians.

Seven deadly sins

In fact, there are much more actions that can be equated with mortal sin than seven, but they are all conventionally grouped into seven groups. For the first time such a classification appeared in 590 and was proposed by St. Gregory the Great. At the same time, the Church relies on a different classification, consisting not of 7 sins, but of eight.

Pride

The first and worst of the sins that Orthodoxy singles out is pride. According to Scripture, he was known even before the creation of man. The severity of sin is in the contempt of one's neighbor, the exaltation of one's "I".

Pride is the desire to be superior to others, to prove personal superiority. It darkens the mind and does not allow a person to really look at reality. It is believed that a person subject to pride eventually burns all the best feelings in himself and is guided only by it. After a while, self-esteem is too high, and he begins to think only about himself excellent.

To defeat pride, you must learn to love God and all life on earth. This is a very big job and will require a lot of mental strength, but over time the heart of the proud will be cleansed, and he will look at others and his place in society in a completely different way.

Envy

Envy is, first of all, dissatisfaction with what a person has, a desire to get what others have. Jealousy also belongs to this group of sins. A person is constantly guided by the belief that the world is unfair, that he deserves much more than others, but does not even have this.

Quite often, such thoughts become the reason for committing a more serious sin, pushing for a crime.

For a person, the need for water and food is normal, so he reinforces his strength and gets pleasure. It is only important to observe the line between the necessary saturation and an overabundance of food. Everyone must learn to live both in abundance and in lack, not to take Furthermore what is due to man.

It is not the food itself and its consumption that is sinful, but greed and the desire to eat more than the body requires. Gluttony is considered both the desire to eat more, and the desire to eat only tasty, without knowing the measure.

The constant desire to fill the stomach forces one to spiritual food. Over time, gluttony becomes. This sin can only be overcome through prayer and fasting.

Fornication

One of the most serious sins is fornication. The Church refers to adultery any manifestations sexual activity outside of marriage. These are promiscuity, betrayal, unnatural sex life. And not only bodily passion is a sin, but also obscene erotic thoughts and dreams. The Church believes that the origins of bodily passion are primarily the result of mental activity and obscene imagination.

Only in marriage is physical intimacy born as a result of the union of souls and love, and fornication destroys such a moral foundation and instead gives dishonest carnal joys.

Anger

Anger is the cause of many conflicts, it destroys friendship, trust, love and other human feelings. In anger, a person is terrible and can scold, offend, insult and even kill. Often this passion is generated by pride and envy, it injures the soul of a person and leads to huge troubles.

Greed

It is generally accepted that greed is a mortal sin inherent only in rich people. It is understood that already having wealth, a person tries in every possible way to increase it. But such an opinion is erroneous, regardless of the level of material well-being, anyone can suffer from greed. This passion lies in an obsessive, irresistible desire to possess money and other material values.

A person simply painfully desires to have a lot of money, without even thinking about whether he needs them and for what. Such a love for finances is not permissible in the opinion of the Church and destroys the spirituality of a person.

Despondency

Despondency is a state of general relaxation combined with laziness and a pessimistic mood. For a dull person, any business is uninteresting, boring.

Such a mood distracts him from work, takes away his spiritual strength, distracts him from prayer and distances him from God. A person often falls into depression, despair overtakes him and suicidal thoughts appear.

To overcome sin, you need to cultivate your own willpower, fight boredom and laziness, which prevent you from achieving success.

Seven deadly sins in art and culture

For many centuries, mankind has associated the seven deadly sins with various ideas and images. That is why the theme is so widely disclosed in the work of many writers, artists, sculptors and other figures of culture and art. Moreover, the topic was relevant in the period of the Middle Ages, when Dante, Marlo, Bosch worked, and today.

The only difference is that in modern art more attention is paid to the natural explanation of the causes and consequences of each of the sins, while the Divine Comedy of Dante or the picture of the seven sins of Bosch is simply saturated with mysticism.

Today, people's understanding of sin is formed under the influence of scientific psychological and sociological justifications. But despite this, mortal sins continue to be an object of artistic fantasy that can arouse people's interest and attract attention, and therefore artists, jewelers and designers actively use biblical stories in their art.

Among recent works of note is the London exhibition of Barnaby Barford's mirrors, the frames of which symbolized each of the seven sins. The viewer is forced to think about seeing his own reflection in a mirror framed with such metaphorical frames.

Renowned jeweler Stefan Webster has created a collection of gemstone rings symbolizing each of the seven sins.

And the Serbian artist Bilyana Dzhurdzhevich created a series of realistic paintings that reflect the essence of sinful deeds and vices.

The leader of the German musical group "DasIch" illustrated the vision of sins in photographs, where he captured his own face, made up and twisted in various mimic poses.

Conclusion

Each person can stumble and commit a misdemeanor, including mortal sins. But if the situation turned in such a way that you already had to face your own sinful deeds, then you should reflect and make every effort not to repeat the sin and get rid of it.

It is necessary to fight with one's own passions, to hold back emotions, to eradicate sin at the stage of its inception. The more sin enters the soul and consciousness of a person, the more difficult it is to get rid of it, and gradually it is able to completely enslave a person.

Contrary to popular belief, the expression "seven deadly sins" does not at all refer to certain seven acts that would be the most serious sins. In fact, the list of such actions can be much longer. And the number "seven" here only indicates the conditional association of these sins into seven main groups.

For the first time such a classification was proposed by St. Gregory the Great in 590. Although along with it in the Church there has always been another classification, numbering not seven, but. Passion is a skill of the soul, which was formed in it from repeated repetition of the same sins and became, as it were, its natural quality - so that a person cannot get rid of passion even when he realizes that it no longer brings him pleasure, but torment. Actually, the word "passion" in the Church Slavonic language just means - suffering.

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Today, talk about the future has interesting feature- while we are discussing how this or that innovation will affect our life, this innovation is already entering life and taking over it. And we are left to think not about what will happen, but how to deal with what has already happened. In the age of progress, the future has time to become the past while we drink morning coffee.

St. Theophan the Recluse writes about the difference between a mortal sin and a less serious one: “ Deadly sin there is one who robs a person of his moral-Christian life. If we know what the moral life is, then the definition of mortal sin is not difficult. Christian life is zeal and strength to be in communion with God by fulfilling His holy law. Therefore, every sin that extinguishes jealousy, takes away strength and weakens, separates from God and deprives Him of His grace, so that a person after it cannot look at God, but feels himself separated from Him; every such sin is a mortal sin. ... Such a sin deprives a person of the grace received in baptism, takes away the Kingdom of Heaven and gives it to judgment. And all this is affirmed in the hour of sin, although it is not done visibly. Sins of this kind change the whole direction of a person's activity and his very condition and heart, they form, as it were, a new source in moral life; why others determine that mortal sin is the one that changes the center of human activity.

These sins are called mortal because the falling away of the human soul from God is the death of the soul. Without a gracious connection with its Creator, the soul dies, becomes incapable of experiencing spiritual joy either in the earthly life of a person or in its posthumous existence.

And it is not so important how many categories these sins are divided into - into seven or into. It is much more important to remember the terrible danger that any such sin is fraught with, and to try in every possible way to avoid these deadly traps. And also - to know that even for those who have sinned with such a sin, the possibility of salvation remains. Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) says: “He who has fallen into mortal sin, let him not fall into despair! May he resort to the medicine of repentance, to which he is called until the last minute of his life by the Savior, who proclaimed in the Holy Gospel: whoever believes in me, even if he dies, he will live(In 11 :25). But it is disastrous to remain in mortal sin, it is disastrous when the mortal sin turns into a habit!

And the Monk Isaac the Syrian said even more definitely: "There is no unforgivable sin, except the unrepentant sin."

Seven deadly sins

1. Pride


“The beginning of pride is usually contempt. He who despises and considers others as nothing - considers some poor, others lowly, others ignorant, due to such contempt, comes to the point that he considers himself alone wise, prudent, rich, noble and strong.

... How is a proud person recognized and how is he healed? Recognized because it seeks preference. And he is healed if he believes the judgment of Him who said: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble(Jac 4 :6). However, you need to know that, although he is afraid of the judgment pronounced for pride, he cannot be healed of this passion if he does not leave all thoughts of his preference.

St. Basil the Great

Having mastered a person, she cuts him off first from unfamiliar people, then from relatives and friends. And finally, from God himself. The proud man does not need anyone, he is not even interested in the delight of those around him, and he sees the source of his own happiness only in himself. But like any sin, pride does not bring true joy. Internal opposition to everything and everything dries up the soul of a proud person, complacency, like a scab, covers it with a rough shell, under which it becomes dead and becomes incapable of love, friendship, and even simple sincere communication.

2  Envy


“Envy is sorrow because of the well-being of a neighbor, which<…>seeks not good for himself, but evil for his neighbor. The envious would like to see the glorious dishonest, the rich - poor, the happy - unhappy. This is the purpose of envy - to see how the envied falls into misfortune out of happiness.

Saint Ilya Minyatiy

Such an arrangement of the human heart becomes a launching pad for the most terrible crimes. As well as countless big and small dirty tricks that people do just to make another person feel bad or at least stop feeling good.

But even if this beast does not break out in the form of a crime or a specific act, will it really be easier for the envious person? After all, in the end, with such a terrible attitude, he will simply drive him into his grave prematurely, but even death will not stop his suffering. Because after death, envy will torment his soul with even greater force, but already without the slightest hope of satisfying it.

3 Gluttony


“Gluttony is divided into three types: one type encourages eating before a certain hour; the other loves only to be satiated, whatever food it may be; the third wants tasty food. Against this, the Christian must be careful in three ways: to wait for a certain time for eating; do not get fed up; be content with the humblest food."

Rev. John Cassian the Roman

Gluttony is slavery to one's own stomach. It can manifest itself not only in insane gluttony for festive table, but also in culinary intelligibility, in the subtle distinction of shades of taste, in the preference for gourmet dishes to simple food. From the point of view of culture, there is an abyss between a rude glutton and a refined gourmet. But both of them are slaves of their eating behavior. For both, food ceased to be a means of maintaining the life of the body, turning into the longed-for goal of the life of the soul.

4 Fornication


“... consciousness is more and more filled with pictures of voluptuousness, dirty, burning and seductive.

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From his diary we see not a blissful textbook image of a saint of God, but a living person who knows in his own skin what sin is, what passion is, who is irritated, angry, offended, tempted - but also finds the strength in himself for genuine repentance, overcomes it's all in yourself. This is very useful to read for those who have not yet made their religious choice: look, this is how the road to holiness lies.

The strength and poisonous fumes of these images, enchanting and shameful, are such that they drive out of the soul all the lofty thoughts and desires that carried away ( young man) earlier. It often happens that a person is not able to think about anything else: he is completely dominated by the demon of passion. He cannot look at every woman otherwise than as a female. Thoughts creep one another dirtier in his foggy brain, and in his heart there is only one desire - to satisfy his lust. This is already the state of an animal, or rather, worse than an animal, because animals do not reach the depravity that a person reaches.

Hieromartyr Vasily Kineshma

The sin of fornication includes all manifestations of human sexual activity contrary to the natural way of their implementation in marriage. Promiscuous sex life, adultery, all kinds of perversions - all this different kinds manifestations of fornication in man. But although it is a bodily passion, its origins lie in the realm of the mind and imagination. Therefore, the Church refers to fornication obscene dreams, viewing pornographic and erotic materials, telling and listening to obscene anecdotes and jokes - everything that can arouse sexual fantasies in a person, from which bodily sins of fornication later grow.

5 Anger

“Look at anger, what signs of its torment it leaves. Look what a person does in anger: how he becomes indignant and makes noise, curses and scolds himself, torments and beats, hits his head and face, and trembles all over, as if in a fever, in a word, he looks like a possessed one. If appearance he is so unpleasant, what is going on in his poor soul? ... You see what a terrible poison is hidden in the soul, and how bitterly it torments a person! His cruel and pernicious manifestations speak of him."

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk

An angry person is scary. And meanwhile, invested in it by God to reject everything sinful and inappropriate. This useful anger was perverted in man by sin and turned into anger against people close to him, sometimes for the most insignificant reasons. Offenses to other people, swearing, insults, screams, fights, murders - all these are the works of unrighteous anger.

6 Greed (greed)


“Self-interest is an insatiable desire to have, or the search for and acquisition of things under the guise of utility, then only to say about them: mine. There are many objects of this passion: a house with all its parts, fields, servants, and most importantly - money, because they can get everything.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

It is sometimes believed that only rich people who already possess wealth and seek to increase it can suffer from this spiritual disease. However, a person of average income, and a poor person, and a completely beggar - everyone is subject to this passion, since it does not consist in the possession of things, material goods and wealth, but in a painful, irresistible desire to possess them.

7 Despondency (laziness)


“Despondency is a continuous and simultaneous movement of the furious and lustful part of the soul. The former rages for what is at her disposal, the latter, on the contrary, yearns for what she lacks.

Evagrius of Pontus

But it is important to understand that despondency occurs in a person due to a deep mismatch between the abilities of his soul, zeal (an emotionally colored desire for action) and will.

In the normal state, the will determines for a person the goal of his aspirations, and zeal is the “motor” that allows you to move towards it, overcoming difficulties. When despondent, a person directs zeal to his current state, far from the goal, and the will, left without an "engine", turns into a constant source of longing for unfulfilled plans. These two forces of a discouraged person, instead of moving towards the goal, seem to “pull” his soul in different directions, bringing it to complete exhaustion.

Such a mismatch is the result of a person falling away from God, a tragic consequence of an attempt to direct all the forces of his soul to earthly things and joys, while they were given to us for aspiration to heavenly joys.

The list of the worst human passions consists of seven points that must be impeccably observed for the salvation of the soul and a righteous life. In fact, there is little mention of sins directly in the Bible, as they were written by famous theologians from Greece and Rome. The final list of deadly sins was compiled by Pope Gregory the Great. Each item had its place, and the distribution was made according to the criterion of opposing love. The list of the 7 deadly sins, in descending order from the most serious to the least significant, is as follows:

  1. Pride- one of the worst human sins, which implies arrogance, vanity, excessive pride. If a person overestimates his abilities and constantly insists on his superiority over others, this contradicts the greatness of the Lord, from which each of us comes;
  2. Envy- this is a source of serious crimes, reborn on the basis of the desire for someone else's wealth, prosperity, success, status. Because of this, people begin to do dirty tricks to others until the object of envy loses all their wealth. Envy is a direct violation of the 10th commandment;
  3. Anger- an absorbing feeling from the inside, which is the complete opposite of love. It can manifest itself as hatred, indignation, resentment, physical violence. Initially, the Lord put this feeling into the soul of a person so that he could give up sinful deeds and temptations in time, but soon it itself grew into sin;
  4. Laziness- inherent in people who constantly suffer from unrealizable hopes, dooming themselves to a boring pessimistic life, while the person does nothing to achieve the goal, but only loses heart. It brings spiritual and state of mind to extreme laziness. Such a mismatch is nothing more than a person’s departure from the Lord and suffering due to the lack of all earthly blessings;
  5. Greed- most often rich, selfish people suffer from this mortal sin, but not always. It does not matter whether it is a person from the rich, middle and poor class, a beggar or a rich man - each of them seeks to increase his wealth;
  6. Gluttony- this sin is inherent in people who are in bondage to their own stomach. At the same time, sinfulness can manifest itself not only in gluttony, but also in love for gourmet dishes. Whether it is an ordinary glutton or an exquisite gourmet - each of them exalts food in a kind of cult;
  7. Lust, fornication, adultery- manifests itself not only in physical passion, but also in sinful thoughts about carnal intimacy. Various obscene dreams, watching an erotic video, even telling a vulgar joke - this is already in the opinion Orthodox Church great mortal sin.

Ten Commandments

Many people are often mistaken, identifying mortal sins and God's commandments. Although there are some similarities in the lists, the 10 commandments are directly related to the Lord, which is why keeping them is so important. According to the biblical stories, this list was delivered by Jesus himself into the hands of Moses. The first four of them tell about the interaction of the Lord and man, the next six tell about the relationship between people.

  • Believe in the only God- First of all, this commandment was aimed at combating heretics and pagans, but since then it has lost such relevance, because most beliefs are aimed at reading the one Lord.
  • Don't make yourself an idol- originally this expression was used in relation to fans of idols. Now the commandment is interpreted as a rejection of everything that can distract from faith in the one and only Lord.
  • Do not take the name of the Lord in vain- you can’t just mention God fleetingly and meaninglessly, this applies to the expressions “Oh, God”, “By God”, etc., used in a dialogue with another person.
  • Remember the day off It's not just a day to spend relaxing. On this day, in the Orthodox Church it is often Sunday, you need to devote yourself to God, prayers to him, thoughts about the Almighty, etc.
  • Honor your parents After all, it was they who, after the Lord, gave you life.
  • Dont kill- according to the commandment, only God can take life from a person to whom he himself gave it.
  • Don't commit adultery Every man and woman should live in a monogamous marriage.
  • Don't steal- according to the commandment, only God gives all the blessings that it is he who can take away.
  • Do not lie- you can not slander your neighbor.
  • Do not envy- you can’t want someone else’s, and this applies not only to objects, things, wealth, but also to spouses, pets, etc.

The Bible is a truly wise book that can give advice in any life situation. Heroes and villains, vices and virtues - all this is mentioned on its pages. It is worth noting that the Bible does not just give instructions on what to do and what not to do - it always tries to explain everything and convey the meaning to people in the most obvious way. In addition to the Bible, it is customary to refer to the Holy Christian texts the works of famous figures in this area, since it is believed that they wrote on behalf of the Lord.

Painted in great detail. They differ from each other in many ways: the degree of severity, the possibility of redemption, and so on. Talking about what sins are, Special attention it is worth giving seven Many have heard about them, however, not all of them know exactly which sins are included in this list and how they differ from everyone else.

What are the seven deadly sins

They are called mortals not by chance, since in Christianity there is an opinion that it is these sins that can lead the soul to death. It is worth noting right away that, contrary to popular belief, the seven deadly sins are not described in the Bible, and their concept appeared much later than it is believed that the works of a monk named Eugarius of Pontus, who compiled a list of eight human vices, became the basis for them. Toward the end of the sixth century, Gregory I the Great reduced this list, and only seven deadly sins remained in it.

Do not think that the sins that will be described below are the most terrible in Christianity. The fact is, they are not those that cannot be redeemed, but simply can lead to the fact that a person will become much worse on his own. You can live your life without breaking any of the Ten Commandments, but you can't live your life without breaking the seven deadly sins (or at least some). The seven deadly sins are what nature has laid in us. Perhaps, under certain circumstances, this helped a person to survive, but it is still believed that these “sins” cannot lead to anything good.

Seven deadly sins

  1. Greed. People very often try to get it without even thinking about why they need it at all. All life turns into a constant accumulation of property, jewelry, money. Greedy people always want more than they have. Measures they do not know, and do not want to know.
  2. Laziness. A person who gets tired of constant failure may simply stop striving for anything. Over time, he begins to be satisfied with a life in which nothing happens, there is no hassle and fuss. Laziness attacks quickly and ruthlessly, succumbing to it just once, you can forever lose yourself and your personality.
  3. Pride. Many people do something not because it is really necessary, but only because it will help them rise above others. Universal admiration kindles a fire in them, which burns all the best feelings that are stored in the soul. Over time, such a person begins to think only about himself.
  4. Lust. The instinct of reproduction is inherent in each of us, but there are people who cannot saturate with sex. Sex for them is a way of life, and in their thoughts there is only lust. Everyone is dependent on it to one degree or another, but its abuse has not yet brought anyone to good.
  5. Envy. It very often becomes the cause of quarrels or even crimes. Not everyone is able to normally perceive the fact that his friends and relatives live better than himself. History knows many cases when envy made people even commit murders.
  6. Gluttony. Isn't it nice to look at a person who knows nothing better than to eat delicious food? Food is needed in order to live and do something good and meaningful in this life. However, gluttons believe that this life is needed in order to be able to eat.
  7. Anger. You need to be able to control your emotions. Of course, chopping from the shoulder is easy, but the consequences can be irreversible.

At one stage or another in life, almost all people commit at least some of these sins. And it is very important to stop in time, take a critical look at your life, so as not to waste it and try to become cleaner and better.

The canonical list of seven deadly sins was compiled in the 6th century by Pope Gregory the Great on the basis of the work of the Greek theologian Evagrius from Pontus, who compiled a list of the eight worst thoughts. Gregory the Great noted pride, greed (greed), lust (sensuality), anger, gluttony, envy and laziness (despondency). Further, the concept of the seven deadly sins became widespread after the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was not only a great theologian, but also a great systematizer of religious science. There are several options for the order of importance of sins.
For example, Gregory the Great ordered the list according to the degree of opposition to love: pride, envy, anger, despondency, greed, gluttony and voluptuousness (that is, pride is more opposed to love than others), it is in this order of sins that purgatory is arranged in Dante's Divine Comedy. Classifications have become more widespread depending on the severity of the sin, one of these options: pride, greed (greed), lust (sensuality), envy, gluttony, anger and laziness (despondency).
A list of sins is contrasted with a list of virtues. Pride - humility; greed - generosity; envy - love; anger - kindness; lust - self-control; gluttony - moderation and abstinence, and laziness - diligence. Thomas Aquinas singled out Faith, Hope and Love among the virtues.

Pride (arrogance, vanity, lat.superbia)
Pride is the most important sin, because it entails all the others. Pride is an excessive faith in one's own abilities, which conflicts with the greatness of the Lord, because a sinner blinded by pride is proud of his qualities before God, forgetting that he received them from Him. Do not forget that pride is precisely the sin that led to the overthrow of Lucifer into Hell. Arrogance entails an underestimation, and then contempt, of the people around us, contrary to the words of Jesus Christ: “Judge not, lest you be judged, for by what judgment you judge, you will be judged; And with what measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Matt. 7:1-2.

Greed (greed, avarice, lat.avaritia)
Greed means the desire for material wealth, the greed for profit, ignoring the spiritual. This sin in our time is no less relevant than pride. Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break through and they do not steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” Matt. 6:19-21.

Lust (sensuality, fornication, debauchery, lat.luxuria)
This sin is characterized not only by extramarital sexual intercourse, but also by the very craving for carnal pleasures. Let us turn to the words of Jesus Christ: “You have heard what was said to the ancients: do not commit adultery. But I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” Matt. 5:27-28. A person whom the Lord endowed with Will and Reason must be different from animals that blindly follow their instincts. Lust should also include various types of sexual perversions (bestiality, necrophilia, homosexuality, etc.), which inherently contradict human nature.

Envy (lat.invidia)
Envy is the desire for someone else's properties, status, opportunities or situation, as well as grief over the success and well-being of other people. It involves the belief in the injustice of the order established by God and often entails the condemnation of both the people around us and the Lord himself. The Bible says about this: “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven” Matt. 12:31.

Gluttony (gluttony, lat. gula)
Gluttony in literally means immoderation and greed in food, bringing a person to a bestial state. The point here is not only in food, but also in the unrestrained desire to consume more than is required. However, the fight against the vice of gluttony involves not so much a strong-willed suppression of the urge to eat, but a reflection on its true place in life. Food is certainly important for existence, but it should not become the meaning of life, thereby replacing worries about the soul with caring for the body. Let us remember the words of Christ: “Therefore I say to you: do not worry about your soul what you will eat or drink, nor about your body what you will wear. Is not the soul greater than food, and the body than clothing?” Matt. 6:25. This is very important to understand, because in modern culture, gluttony is defined more as a medical ailment than as a moral concept.

Anger (hatred, malice, lat.ira)
Anger includes irritability, the desire to do harm. A person who is easily angry, offended, or provoked is in constant danger of committing terrible acts, thereby causing irreparable harm to himself and others. Anger is the complete opposite of love. Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount said the following about this: “You heard that it was said: love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.” Matt. 6:44; “For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?” Matt. 6:46.

Idleness (laziness, despondency, lat. acedia)
Idleness is the avoidance of physical and spiritual work. Despondency, which is also part of this sin, is a state of objectless discontent, resentment, hopelessness and disappointment, accompanied by a general breakdown. According to John of the Ladder, one of the creators of the list of seven sins, despondency is "a slanderer of God, as if He is unmerciful and inhumane." The Lord endowed us with Reason, which is able to stimulate our spiritual quest. Here again it is worth quoting the words of Christ from the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

edited news Oliana - 13-11-2012, 12:34