us to obey, whether it be a law He gave
directly Himself, or through His Church. We can also violate God's law
by neglecting to observe it, and thus sin, provided the neglect be
willful, and the thing neglected commanded by God or by His Church.

53 Q. How many kinds of actual sin are there?
A. There are two kinds of actual sin--mortal and venial.

"Mortal," that is, the sin which kills the soul. When a man receives a
very severe wound, we say he is mortally wounded; that is, he will die
from the wound. As breath shows there is life in the body, so grace is
the life of the soul; when all the breath is out of the body, we say the
man is dead. He can perform no action to help himself or others. So when
all grace is out of the soul we say it is dead, because it is reduced to
the condition of a dead body. It can do no action worthy of merit, such
as a soul should do; that is, it can do no action that God is bound to
reward--it is dead. But you will say the soul never dies. You mean it
will never cease to exist; but we call it dead when it has lost all its
power to do supernatural good.

"Venial" sin does not drive out all the grace; it wounds the soul, it
weakens it just as slight wounds weaken the body. If it falls very
frequently into venial sin, it will fall very soon into mortal sin also;
for the Holy Scripture says that he that contemneth small things shall
fall by little and little. (Ecclus. 19:1). A venial sin seems a little
thing, but if we do not avoid it we shall by degrees fall into greater,
or mortal, sin. Venial sin makes God less friendly to us and displeases
Him. Now if we really love God, we will not displease Him even in the
most trifling things.

54 Q. What is mortal sin?
A. Mortal sin is a grievous offense against the law of God.

"Grievous"--that is, very great or serious. "Against the law." If we are
in doubt whether anything is sinful or not, we must ask ourselves: is it
forbidden by God or His Church? and if we do not know of any law
forbidding it, it cannot be a sin, at least for us.

Suppose, for example, a boy should doubt whether it is sinful or not to
fly a kite. Well, is there any law of God or of His Church saying it is
sinful to fly a kite? If not, then it cannot be a sin. But it might be
sinful for another reason, namely, his parents or superiors might forbid
it, and there is a law of God saying you must not disobey your parents
or superiors. Therefore a thing not sinful in itself, that