REMEDIES ON SIN

Remedies on Sin Previews lesson we saw that God’s answer to the problem of

sin: Jesus Christ, The Son of God, became man & freely offered his life for our Salvation.

Through Jesus’ Suffering, death & Resurrection we are save from our sins and reconcile to God.

Let’s began by looking our description verse for this lesson: Fight the good fight of Faith, Take hold of the Eternal life to which

you are called. (1Thimothy 6:12)

Jesus death on the Cross reconciles us to God, but we still have to fight against our tendency to sin.

It is our job to make used of all the means available to us, in our struggle against sin.

God made the GRACES in our Redemption (Jesus’ suffering, death…) abundantly available to us through Prayer Penance & specially the Sacraments of the Church.

Everything Jesus Did & Thought We call everything that Jesus did and Thought;

everything that He handled on to his apostles, and they in turn, handed to their successors de

Bishops, and which come down to us: The Deposit of Faith is sum up in “The CREED”.

But there is also a Deposit of GRACEWe can think of it as a bank, and we make withdrawals

from this bank (this Great deposit of GRACE) –its great of abundance of Grace that Christ has wan for u—by using all the means of Grace that are available to us.

It is only by Grace that we can overcome sin, and live as children of God.

Today we will talk about 3 means of Graces that are specially helpful to us in the struggle against sin1) Prayer2) Penance3) Sacraments of Reconciliation & Holy Communion

Lets talk about Prayer

How Prayer helps us in the fight against sin?

Well, it strengthen our friendship with God!

We have said that SIN is: turning away form God.MORTAL SIN: Breaks us ours friendship with God. It

is like turning your back on God completely.

VENIAL SIN: weakens our friendship with God, but doesn’t, break it. It weakness our friendship with God, but it doesn’t breaks it completely.

And when we pray we are facing God, and we are having a conversation with Him So Prayer strengthen that friendship, instead of

turning away from God, it’s turning towards Him We are talking with Him, & spending time with Him.

Prayer Jesus wants to spend time with you

There are different type of prayer:

ADORING GOD AND THANKING GOD is one way to pray

Thanking God just for who He is God is the Creator of the whole world & everything in it; and He hold it in existence all the creation. He loves believers and unbelievers He is merciful and patient He is good & He is loving And He is always, by our side, even though we ignore it.

Prayer So we praise & thanks him for all he has done, for everything

that He is given us:

The nature, the animals, the plants The universe, the starts, the planetsour eyes, hands, Our abilities, talentsour parents, friends, food to eat, cloth to wearPeople from different races,

(with all their riches in cultures, languages, customs & traditions)

Everything that we have is given to us by God, So we need to spend time in prayer thanking Him for all these blessings.

Being Silent

Also sometimes we want to be silent.

Sometimes we should be silent & thoughtful in the presence of God.

We simply want to be quiet… Revelation most of the time occurs in the peace of our heart, during this time.

Being SilentWe want to be quiet in the presence of

God, and remembering that God is always thinking about us!And God is everywhere with us, especially

in those difficult moments,

  “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. .. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them…“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely ... Rejoice and be glad because your reward is great in heaven, (Mt 5:1-12)

Memorized PrayersSometimes it is difficult to think in the words to say, when

you are praying, and this is a good time to use prayers memorized:Our FatherHail MaryGlory Be The Psalms, etc.

And we can also make “ACTS OF FAITH”Just saying: Our God I believe in you

“ACTS OF HOPE”Saying something like: “God I hope in you” you have save me, and

I continue to be save, and help me with your GRACE.

“ACTS OF LOVE”Saying: God I love You!

Also we can make “ACTS of CONTRICTION” We can say: God I am sorry for my sins, and ask forgiveness.

Morning, Meals & Night OfferingsAnother wonderful prayers to say is the

Morning Offering to God, to begin your day by offering everything that

you have, and everything that you are to God.

Also we can pray to God in our own words, at meals

and at nights before going to sleep, too. You can simply tell God what is in you mind You can also ask things that you need for

yourself, or for other People.

We have Prayer as a mean of growing in Grace, and turning Away from Sin and getting closer towards God;

PENANCE Now we going to talk about PENANCE.

Some people love Lent: Lent is a happy time because Lent is a time to doing Penance. And Penance is not something sad. It is something happy

because it means turning back to God. Penance means turning back to God and being healed from

our sins, and this is a happy thing!

Every single one of us is a sinner, everyone!And so everyone has to do penance, and this is why the

church has set a side certain days and seasons of Penance.

Like LENT for example, is a time for the whole Church, for everyone to be penance together.

In addition to Lent every Friday for example, is a day of Penance.

Friday is a day of Penance for remember Jesus died for us on Good Friday.

And we want to show him, in a special day, how much we love Him and are grateful to HIM for what He has done for us

3 Traditional Forms of PenancePenance shows God, you want to turn away

from sin and turn toward Him.

The best way to do Penance is to do what you suppose to do, the best as you can.

There are 3 traditional forms of Penance in Church: 1. Prayer2. Fasting3. Good Works or Almsgiving

ALMSGIVING is giving to the poorALMS is simply an offering for the poor and it

can be money or food, or something like that.So Almsgiving is simply giving to the Poor, is

another word for good works (it can mean any as Charity)

ALMSGIVING How Can You Do Good Works? How Can You Give Alms?

a) You can give your friend, or someone in need something that they wanted,

b) Or give something that you know they want it, or need it,

c) Or let say you save a little money, instead of buying a new dress or another shoes, for yourself, you can give that money to the poor.

d) Or you can put that money in the poor box in your Church

e) Another thing you can do, it’s just try to notice when other people need something, and then do it for them.

f) There are many different way to give Alms: Maybe someone needs a wheelchair, or need to go to the doctor, or to the dentist… & we may have the possibilities to help them.

FASTING HOW CAN YOU FAST?

You can deny yourself, and some desires: (affections, things, food, technology, vanity, etc) For example:a) you can resist desire to eat some deserts, b) Or avoid to listen some music, or avoid to play with

some things or technology, etc.c) Turning off all electronics at home, like TV, Internet, cell

phones, etc.d) Or Avoid people who gossip, or play back jokes, etc.

That’s a way of Fasting, because you have to deny yourself.a) Or maybe instead of eating 3 cookies, you eat only 1.b) Another way can fast and deny yourself, it’s maybe be

quiet sometimes if it is not necessary to talk

You sometimes can say: No Thank You! to some PLEASURE, or to some enjoyment.

By fasting we receive some Graces that strengthen our will.

2 Sacraments We have been talking about all the ways God gives

us to Overcome our sins, and turn towards Him. We ready talk about Prayer, and Penance.

Now we going to talk about 2 SACRAMENTS that are specially helpful in overcoming sin. and turning back to God1) The Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation2) The Sacrament of Holy Communion

SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION: is also called Penance or Confession

And that’s makes perfect sense because we just said about Penance:

It simply means turning towards God, and away from Sin. And that’s what we do when we go to confession

CONFESSION is telling our sins to a priest, for the purpose of asking forgiveness from God.

And this is a very good thing for us, it makes us to look our sins and take responsibility for them.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

You probably see that is true through your own life;

It makes a difference when you tell a friend you are sorry for something that you did, instead of just being sorry.

Telling sorry, it just makes you to really know that you are done something wrong:

You say it for yourself and you say it to him, and it is forgiven!!!

Moral Sin & Venial Sin There is a difference between Moral Sin & Venial Sin

VENIAL SIN harm our friendship with God

MORAL SIN breaks our friendship with God. The word Mortal means Deathly Moral Sin is a serious sin and it puts at death the Life of God (Grace) in our soul

We have to confess all our Mortal Sin, ant least once at year.

Not confessing a sin, it’s like hiding a wound from a Doctor And that would be a silly thing to do. We never get better if we hid it from the Doctor or someone that it

can help su to cure our sick And that’s what is like, if we are a shamed to telling our

sins to a priest. We should never be ashamed!

Remember in the SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION, we receive the Grace of God, which strengthen our Will & enlighten our reason & makes us holy.

Reconciliation/Confession When we go to Confession, it’s really Jesus who

forgive us.

The priest say the word: “I absolve you in the name of…” but God is the only one who forgives sin.This is not a problem because when the priest is ordain,

Jesus give them a special power to act in His name.So when the priest said: “I absolve you” it is actually Jesus

saying it.

Now we have to confess Mortal sin at least once a year,

but you don’t have to confess Venial sin, as long you have a perfect act of contrition in your soul, and ask God for forgiveness

(You don’t have to, but is highly recommended & a good thing to do) Why is that?

Well is make you more aware of our faults Just like when we take the effort to tell our friends, we are

sorry, instead of just thinking of it.

Confessing Venial Sin

When we confess our venial sins, it makes us bring to them to mind, and tell them to the priest,

And so it gives us a better idea of what they are, and not only that,

when we confess our faults, we get (receive) a special Grace to OVERCOME those particular faults, and that helps us to fight against them.

Also when we go to confession regularly & receive God’s forgiveness, it helps us to be more forgiven to other people when they hurt us,

because we know God is forgiving us, So we want to forgive other people

Confession & ContritionAn important part of going to Confession, it is

what we called CONTRICITION CONTRITION is the sorrow for sin, and the firm

intention or resolution not to sin again.

Contrition is not necessary a feeling, it doesn't mean you feel sad necessarily, (although we can feel sad, and that is a special Grace)

The most important about Contrition, it is that it is a firm intention not sin again.

It doesn’t mean that you are not afraid that you going to sin again, but it does mean that you going to Try with the help of God’s Grace, with God!

There are 2 kind of Contrition1. Perfect Contrition2. Imperfect Contrition

Perfect & Imperfect Contrition PERFECT CONTRITION: is sorrow for sin because we have

offended God, who is good and who we love above all things.

IMPERFECT CONTRITION: is sorrow for sin because we are embarrassed, or we are afraid of being punished, either in this life or the next life.

Now some people think or say:That we Catholics think that we can do whatever we want,

and then just go to Confession, and it doesn’t matter (as if Confession is magic or something similar) But this is not True!!

In order for our sins to be forgiven in Confession, we have to be truly sorry for Him who loves us

Or we need to have at least Imperfect Contrition:a) this is the contrition you feel when you sorry for sin at least

because it make you feel foolish, b) because you know sin is not a good thingc) or because you are afraid of punish

At least you have to be sorry for those reasons.

Penance At the end of Confession the priest gives us

Penance: a) usually a prayer b) some good workc) Or something to express our sorrow for sin

PENANCE helps us to express sorrow for our sin.

When we do penance that the priest gives us, we are trying to make it right, and this is a good thing to do because it is in keeping our dignity as Children of God.

We said in the preview lesson that we are made in God’s Image and likeness.

This means that we have FREE WILL, and because we have this free will, we can freely choose God, or we can also freely choose what’s wrong.

By doing the penance, the priest gives us, 1. we’re expressing our sorrow for sin 2. and we freely choosing to try to make it right again.

Consequence of SinBecause Penance means turning back to

God, it helps to take care of the consequences of Sin.

And what are the consequences of sin?

The Consequences of Sin is an increase of our tendency to sin, which we called CONCUPISCENCE

And it simply means that once you turn away from God, it is easier to keep turning away from Him.

But when we are making an Act of Penance, we are turning back to God, so this lessen our tendency to sin again.

Acts of Penance lessen our tendency to sin; this is why Penance is a happy thing,

Holy CommunionWe have talk about Prayer, Penance, & The Sacrament of

Reconciliation, So now let’s talk about the next mean of Grace,

that God gives us to help us in the struggle against sin, and this is HOLY COMMUNION.

Communion is another word for Friendship, During those precious few minutes, after we receive Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament, we are closer to Him more than any other time

When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we are choosing Him.

We said that sin is turning around & away from God…Well, when we receive Holy Communion is just the opposite of that!

In Holy Communion, We are turning toward Him and stretching our hands toward Him saying: that we love him, and we want to be closer to Him.

Holy CommunionWhen we receive Jesus in the Eucharist we’re

saying: Yes Lord! I believe that you died for me. Yes Lord! thank you for giving your life to save me from

sin. Yes Lord! I want to receive your Grace, and your help so

that I can live as a Child of God.

Just as we have to nourish our bodies with material food, and drink, so we also have to nourish our souls with Spiritual food,

And Jesus loves us so much! that He gave us Himself in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

He gives us His Own Body and Blood as food for our souls.

What more Jesus could it done for us, than to give his own flesh and blood to be the food of our souls?

Holy Communion To be worthy to receive Jesus in the Holy

Communion, we have to be free from Mortal sin.

There are certain conditions that we have to meet: 1) We need to be free of Mortal sin!2) We have to observe Fast requirement

WE have to be free of moral sin, and this make sense because otherwise, How can we, at the same time, be turn away

completely from God in mortal sin, and be turning towards Him? It doesn’t make sense, it is impossible!

Therefore, we have to be free of mortal sin to receive Jesus in the Holy Communion.

And if we are not free from mortal sin, it has to be confessed before come to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Fasting The other condition is that we have to observe the Church’s

law in fast required before Holy Communion

What is the Church law? It says we can not eat or drink: we do not eat or drink

for 1 hour before receiving Jesus in the Eucharist

At less serious sins, our venial sins don’t make us unworthy to receive Jesus in Holy Communion, but can keeps us from receiving/getting all these Graces God wants to give us.

God wants to gives us Grace; He loves to pour His Grace upon us & to helps us to live as his children.

He made us to be with Him forever and that’s why he wants to give us Grace.

Therefore, we want to do everything we can, to receive all the Graces that God wants to give us in the Eucharist,

So what we can do, is try to be more fervent in our love for God

Acts of Faith, Hope & LoveAnd to be free ourselves from deliberate

venial sin, we can also prepare ourselves to receive Holy Communion for making

“Acts of Faith”, “Acts of Hope” & “Acts of Love”I believe in you GodI Hope in you GodI Love you God.

And also “Acts of Sorrow” for our sins.

Other things that we can do is just try to be neat & clean and modest in appearanceIt is an important thing to go to Communion to

receive Jesus inside of you,Just as we were dress up for any other important events, in our lives, we should dress up and look nice, when we receive Jesus in the Holy Communion.

Closer to Jesus It is such a great Grace to receive Jesus in the Holy

Communion We are never worthy enough of it, but it is a great privilege that

God allows us to have

We should treat each Holy Communion as if it were the only Communion we were going to receive in our whole life.

It is a greater privilege to receive Jesus in the Eucharist; We are closer to Jesus when we receive Him in Holy Communion.

So what do we do after we receive Jesus in the Eucharist?

When we go back to our pew and we are kneeling & praying, we just have a conversation with Him: a) Adore Jesusb) Thank Him for all His blessings c) Renew your promises to love Him & to obey His laws

You can also ask Blessings for yourself and for others.Remember Jesus said Ask and you shall receive, so do not be afraid to Ask

Spiritual CommunionWe can also make a SPIRITUAL

COMMUNION: when we cannot receive Jesus in the Eucharist.

This just mean simply ask Jesus to come spiritually into our soul, when we cannot received him really in the Holy Eucharist.

Remember that Jesus has given his life for you, and you want to say to Jesus: Yes my Lord! I want to continue to give my

whole life for you.

God give us so many Graces, and when we receive Him in Holy Communion, we are more closely united to our Lord, we grow in love for God & our neighbor

We can not get any closer to God that when we receive Him in the Holy Eucharist.

Communion Increases Sanctifying GraceWhen we receive Holy Communion, it

increases Sanctifying Grace.SANCTIFIYING GRACE: The Grace that makes us

Holy and like God

Remember that’s why we are made for; we always want to have more of his Grace, we need more of his Grace;a) It Strengthen our Willb) Illuminate our intellect/reasonc) Decreases our tendency to sind) Increase our empathy & love for our neighbor

When we receive Jesus in Holy Communion, He helps us to avoid moral sin, and He forgives venial sin.

Receiving Holy Communion lessen our inclination or desire to sin And it help us to practice good works.

Turning towards God Remember SIN is turning away from God,

It is Choosing ourselves, Or our won will over God’s Everything is about us, instead of others

But when we receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we are turning towards God, and this is why it lessen our desire to sin.

We receiving all this Grace through the Power of The Holy Spirit

The wonderful benefit we have of Holy Communion: it is that its Grace is leading us to do good works for God and for our neighbor.

Mary a Good Example:With her good example, Virgin

Mary is leading us to do good works for God & our Neighbor, too.

Right after she receive Jesus in her womb, she went in haze, in a hurry to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who also was with child (pregnant)

Mary went to Elizabeth to help her in her needs.

This is how we want to imitate Mary, and ask God for her helpWe too, want to rush out to serve God

& our neighbor.We also want to take Jesus to others

with our actions and good works.

A. So far, we have learned about the Creation; how God made everything from nothing, for humans beings, to enjoy & take care.

B. He created humans being in His own images & likeness Intelligence Free will Goodness & Love

C. We learned how human beings turned away from God at the beginning of the History through their sins.

D. But God send His own sin Jesus to save them from sin

E. And Now HE made all the Graces of our redemption abundantly available to us through the Church, and especially in PRAYER & THE SACRAMENTS

I leave you with a final thought: Always keep in mind we are made for God! And our true happiness would come in loving Him & Serving Him in this life and

then we will be Happy for eve in Heaven.

Conclusion:

Any Question?