'Venial sin becomes mortal sin when one approves it as an end. . .'
St. Thomas Aquinas
'There is a sin which is always "unto death" (1 John 5:16): the sin for which we do not repent. For this sin even a saint's prayers will not be heard.'
St. Mark the Ascetic
'St. Augustine and St. Thomas define mortal sin to be a turning away from God: that is, the turning of one's back upon God, leaving the Creator for the sake of the creature.
What punishment would that subject deserve who, while his king was giving him a command, contemptuously turned his back upon him to go and transgress his orders? This is what the sinner does; and this is punished in hell with the pain of loss, that is, the loss of God, a punishment richly deserved by him who in this life turns his back upon his sovereign good.'
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
'This I say, because God showed me somewhat of his truth, in order that I might know what man is without him; that is, when the soul is found in mortal sin, at that time, it is so monstrous and horrible to behold, that it is impossible to imagine anything equally so.'
St. Catherine of Genoa
'Without sanctifying grace it is not possible to refrain long from mortal sin.'
St. Thomas Aquinas
Yes, dear reader, before your Baptism you were a member of Satan, and now you are a member of Jesus Christ; you were a child of the devil, and now you are the child of God; you were a base associate of Satan, and you have become the sacred spouse of the Holy Ghost; you were the inheritor of the pains of hell, and now you are the heir of heaven; you were separated from your God, and you are united to him in most intimate union. Behold what you are, if you have still preserved the grace of your Baptism.
But, alas! if you have lost it through mortal sin, the holy union which you contracted with God is broken.'
St. Jean Eudes
'I repeat it; all works, without the help of grace are dead, being produced by the creature only; but grace aids all works performed by those who are not in mortal sin, and makes them worthy of heaven; not those which are ours solely, but those in which grace cooperates.'
St. Catherine of Genoa
- Some quotes for reflection on mortal sin.To go to Heaven we have to live a supernatural life, not a natural life. It's not simply a matter of being bad enough to go to Hell, it's a matter of being good enough to go to Heaven. Nature cannot rise above nature. All the works of people on a natural level are at that same fallen level.
Some people only have faith on a natural level, the same for hope, the same for charity. But all three are required on a supernatural level, that level that shows union with Christ. Faith is precious.
'Human language cannot express the beauty of a soul which dies in a state of grace.'
St. Philip Neri