Lent is the season when we traditionally do more in the way of examination of conscience and take the opportunity to confess our sins. I would like to take a moment to review the difference between venial sin and mortal sin. Mortal sin is first a very serious sin. The Church defines it as concerning “grave matter”. Grave matter would be sins such as murder, adultery, character assassination (willfully telling lies to destroy another’s good reputation), stealing a significant amount, serious blasphemy, etc. etc. There is not a comprehensive list of grave sins. Now to be mortal it must be grave. Two, the person must be mentally aware that the sin is grave. And three, the person committing the sin must have sufficient time to ponder the seriousness of the sin and then still decide to commit the sin anyway. This sin is said to be mortal or deadly because it cuts off the grace of God from our soul. Or another way to say it, mortal sin destroys our relationship with God. Our Faith teaches us that this can be restored or healed by one of two ways. The Church teaches us that if one is capable of perfect contrition, they can pray directly to God for forgiveness and receive forgiveness. Perfect contrition means being truly sorry for offending God and not motivated by fear of punishment or other resulting bad consequences. The question we must ask, is a person who has committed mortal sin capable of perfect contrition? Probably not. So, God’s mercy through Christ provides a much easier way, the Sacrament of Confession. Through this sacrament, God the Father, through the death and resurrection of the Son, sends the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Church/priest to give forgiveness of all sin even if the contrition is much less than perfect. I suspect many folks think that if they haven’t committed mortal sin there is no need for the Sacrament of Confession. That would be wrong. All the sacraments impart God’s grace. We all need God’s grace. Next week I will write about venial sin and the benefits of Confession. Yours in Christ, Fr. Sid.