AvariceĪvarice, also known as covetousness or greed, is defined as the immoderate desire of earthly goods, especially those that belong to others. Then pray: From the sin of pride deliver me, O Lord. Imagine our divine Savior in His Passion, undergoing the cruelest torments yet uttering no complaint and showing no resentment (cf. “Learn of me,” Jesus tells us, “because I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). The virtue of humility makes us indifferent to worldly power, prestige and riches, so that we might keep our focus on God, who alone is our supreme joy.

Just as pride is the foundational sin, so humility is the foundational virtue and thus ranks first among the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3). Humility, or poverty of spirit, is the opposite of pride. We know from Sacred Scripture that pride is the bottleneck of all graces (Jas 4:6) that it is self-ruinous (Lk 14:11) that God hates it (Prov 8:13) and punishes it (Prov 16:5) and that it deprives one’s good works of merit in God’s sight because it makes one perform them with a wrong intention (cf. Some of the ways in which sinful pride manifests itself are: exaggerating one’s own talents, attributing to oneself qualities one lacks, magnifying other people’s defects, putting other people down, ingratitude, and failing to attribute one’s gifts and talents to God. Pride is the prolific source of countless sins, including presumption, hypocrisy, disobedience to lawful superiors, hardheartedness to subordinates, acrimony, and boastfulness. The first of the seven deadly sins is pride, defined as inordinate self-esteem or self-importance. Spiritual growth is impossible unless we try to dig up the roots of our sins with the help of God’s illuminating and sanctifying grace. Sheen liked to call them the “seven pallbearers of the soul.” We call them “deadly” because they cause spiritual death Archbishop Fulton J. We call them “capital” sins (from the Latin caput, “head”) because they are the sources or fountainheads of all the sins people commit, whether sins of commission or sins of omission. These are: pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. The disorder introduced into our human nature by Adam’s fall from grace reveals itself especially through seven dominant vices known in the Catholic tradition as the capital sins.

A Letter from the Vatican on Traditionis CustodesĪllegory of Virtue and Vice – Lorenzo Lotto (1505).

A Warning to the Carmelites of Fairfield.

A Supreme Moment of Decision, Courtesy of “Divine Worship”.

Clandestine Ordinations Against Church Law: Lessons from Cardinal Wojtyła and Cardinal Slipyj.

Does Catholicism have a Future in Chicago? Traditionalism and Cardinal Cupich.

This Year, Resolve to Make Your Family’s Spiritual Life “Lockdown-Proof”.

The Only Way We Will Lose This War is if We Stop Fighting.

Come Let Us Adore the Holy Name of Jesus.

7 sins defined