7 Deadly Sins

PRIDE: One of the seven capital sins.
Pride is undue self-esteem or self-love,

which seeks attention and honor and sets oneself in competition with God (1866).
It is essentially an act or disposition of the will desiring to be considered better
than a person really is. Pride may be expressed in different ways: by taking
personal credit for gifts or possessions, as if they had not been received from
God; by glorying in achievements, as if they were not primarily the result of
divine goodness and grace; by minimizing one’s defects or claiming qualities that
are not actually possessed; by holding oneself superior to others or disdaining
them because they lack what the proud person has; by magnifying the defects of
others or dwelling on them. When pride is carried to the extent that a person is
unwilling to acknowledge dependence on God and refuses to submit his or her
will to God or lawful authority, it is a grave sin.
AVARICE: is the inordinate love for riches. It makes the getting and keeping of
money or possessions a purpose of life. It is called a capital vice because through
it many other sins are committed. In so far as avarice is an incentive to injustice
in acquiring and retaining of wealth, it is frequently a grievous sin. In itself,
however, and in so far as it implies simply an excessive desire of, or pleasure in,
riches, it is commonly not a mortal sin.
ENVY: Resentment or sadness at another's good fortune. (2539).

Envy tries to destroy another advantage. Jealousy can be good depending on
what one is actually desiring. St. Paul wrote that his apostolate was to make his
fellow Jews jealous of Christians — not so that they would persecute and try to
destroy them (as in envy) but so that they would seek the spiritual advantages of
conversion to Christ (see Romans 11:15).
WRATH: The desire of vengeance. How we judge it depends upon the quality of
the vengeance and the quantity of the passion. When these are in conformity with
the prescriptions of balanced reason, anger is not a sin. It is rather a praiseworthy
thing and justifiable with a proper zeal. It becomes sinful when it is sought to
wreak vengeance upon one who has not deserved it, or to a greater extent than it
has been deserved, or in conflict with the dispositions of law, or from an
improper motive. The sin is then in a general sense mortal as being opposed to
justice and charity. It may, however, be venial because the punishment aimed at
is but a trifling one or because of lack of full deliberation. Likewise, anger is sinful
when there is an undue vehemence in the passion itself, whether inwardly or
outwardly. Ordinarily it is then considered a venial sin unless the excess is so
great as to go counter seriously to the love of God or of one's neighbor.
LUST: The inordinate craving for or indulgence in sexual pleasure. The evil of
lust is reducible to this: that sexual satisfaction is sought for either outside
marriage or, at any rate, in a manner which is contrary to the laws that govern
marital intercourse. Indulging in lust is a mortal sin, provided of course, it is
done in a way that is voluntary in itself and fully deliberate. This is the testimony
of St. Paul in the letter to the Galatians, 5:19:
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness,
immodesty, luxury… Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that
they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God.” This teaching
applies to external and internal sins alike: “Whosoever shall look on a woman to
lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew
5:28).
GLUTTONY: Overindulgence in food or drink. Gluttony is one of the seven

capital sins (1866). The moral deformity discernible in this vice lies in its defiance
of the order postulated by reason, which prescribes necessity as the measure of
indulgence in eating and drinking. A glutton wants things according to the apt
rendering of Father Joseph Rickably: too soon, too expensively, too much, too
eagerly, too daintily. Clearly one who uses food or drink in such a way as to injure
his health or impair the mental equipment needed for the discharge of his duties,
is guilty of the sin of gluttony. It is incontrovertible that to eat or drink for the
mere pleasure of the experience without desire of nourishment or table
fellowship, is likewise to commit the sin of gluttony. Someone habitually
gluttonous is so wedded to the pleasures of the table as to live merely to eat and
drink, so minded as to be of the number of those, described by the Apostle St.
Paul, “whose god is their belly” (Phil 3:19). Such a one would be guilty of mortal
sin. Likewise a person who, by excesses in eating and drinking, would have
greatly impaired his health, or unfitted himself for duties for the performance of
which he has a grave obligation, might be guilty of mortal sin.
SLOTH: A culpable lack of physical or spiritual effort; acedia or laziness. One of
the capital sins (1866, 2094, 2733). One of the seven capital sins which represent
the “I don't care” feeling. A man sees that the practice of virtue is hard and so
resists the service of God. He becomes slothful and his soul grows sluggish and
lazy at the thought of the painful life journey. The idea of right living inspires not
joy but disgust, because of its laboriousness. This is the notion commonly
obtaining, and in this sense sloth is not a specific vice according to the teaching of
St. Thomas, but rather a circumstance of all vices. Ordinarily it will not have the
malice of mortal sin unless, of course, we conceive it to be so total that because of
it one is willing to reject some serious obligation. In this sense sloth is directly
opposed to charity. The man who is slothful violates, therefore, expressly the first
and the greatest of the commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy
whole strength.” (Mark 12:30).

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PRIDE: One of the seven capital sins.

Pride is undue self-esteem or self-love,

ENVY: Resentment or sadness at another's good fortune. (2539).

GLUTTONY: Overindulgence in food or drink. Gluttony is one of the seven

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