I want to pick up where I left off last week about the Sacrament of Confession. Last time I defined mortal sin. I would like to now define venial sin. Venial is pretty easy to define. It’s anything that is less than mortal. But venial sin should not be thought of as no big deal. It is kind of like poison. If I handed you a drink saying don’t worry it doesn’t have enough poison to kill you, would you drink it? Well, no! So, you could think of venial sin as a watered-down mortal sin. Where one drink of mortal is deadly, venial sin can kill slowly by accumulated doses. Habitual and unhindered venial sin disposes us to a growing disposition to more serious sin, even mortal sin. Although venial sins do not require the Sacrament of Confession to be forgiven, remedy must still be sought by confession to God and asking forgiveness. This is why nearly every Mass begins with an acknowledgment of our sin and asking for forgiveness. Most of us need to do it frequently. So, we can address our venial sins by personal prayer but there is a great advantage to also going to Confession. In the Sacrament we receive a measure of God’s grace. If we are serious about growing in virtue and ridding ourselves of vice, this is a huge advantage. It’s like having a cut on your finger and putting a band aid on it. It will probably heal. But if you put some antibiotic on the wound it will heal faster. Confession is like the antibiotic. Yours in Christ our Lord, Fr. Sid.