"We know that the faithful are surrounded by a culture that tends to eliminate the sense of sin and to promote a superficial approach that overlooks the need to be in a state of grace in order to approach sacramental communion worthily." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS (Sacrament of Charity), 2/22/2007 [...]
"All sin is a lie. For no sin is committed save by that desire or will by which we desire that it be well with us, and shrink from it being ill with us. That, therefore, is a lie which we do in order that it may be well with us, but which makes us [...]
"We ought to be on our guard, in case our conscience has stopped troubling us, not so much because of its being clear but because of its being immersed in sin. A proof of our having been delivered from our failings is the unceasing acknowledgement of our indebtedness. Nothing equals the mercy of God or [...]
"How is it that even very old religious turn their back on the Lord, to whom they had pledged themselves, and return to the world as apostates? They go away of themselves without any one's sending them, by the simple consequence of their own negligence, which has degenerated into an inveterate habit of sin. They [...]
"Have you no longer any sentiment of your sins? and, if you do see them, do you correct them? No, I am constantly falling back into the same faults, without paying any great attention to it. Then, are you already dead! You are without feeling! There is no state more frightful than that in which [...]
"The will, therefore, is then truly free, when it is not the slave of vices and sins. Such was it given us by God; and this being lost by its own fault, can only be restored by Him who was able to at first to give it." Source: St. Augustine, City of God [...]
“I told you also the teaching and principal foundation you should give to those who come to you for counsel because they want to leave behind the darkness of deadly sin and follow the path of virtue. I told you to give them… an affectionate love for virtue through knowledge of themselves and of my [...]
"Our personal sins are another source of profound humility and humiliation. I am a sinner, more of a sinner than all other men, for I could have and I might have done all that they have done. With as many graces as I, they would not have been so wicked as I. That is the [...]