Q. There was a poem about the Blessed Mother that Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to recite. It began, “Lovely Lady, dressed in blue.” Can you find the words? — T.L.H., Massachusetts.
A. Here are the words of the poem written by Mary Dixon Thayer:
Lovely Lady Dressed In Blue
Lovely Lady dressed in blue,
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
Tell me what to say!
Did you lift Him up, sometimes,
Gently on your knee?
Did you sing to Him the way
Mother does to me?
Did you hold His hand at night?
Did you ever try
Telling stories of the world?
O! And did He cry?
Do you really think He cares
If I tell Him things —
Little things that happen? And
Do the Angels’ wings
Make a noise? And can He hear
Me if I speak low?
Does He understand me now?
Tell me — for you know?
Lovely Lady dressed in blue,
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
And you know the way.
Q. There was a reading at morning Mass today from the First Letter of John. It said that “if anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly” (1 John 5:16-17).
Can you explain what John meant about sin that is deadly and sin that is not deadly? — K.R., Connecticut.
A. Here is some commentary from The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible — New Testament:
“John distinguishes between sin that is deadly (Gk, ‘unto death’) and sin that is not deadly (Gk, ‘not unto death’). The reference is to spiritual death rather than physical death. Sinning unto death means sinning so grievously that one forfeits the indwelling ‘life’ of Christ (5:12) and lapses back into a state of ‘death’ (the reverse of 3:14). The evil in view is probably ‘apostasy,’ i.e., the sin of heretical secessionists who denied the truth of apostolic doctrine (2:22) and severed themselves from the life and liturgy of the apostolic Church (2:19).
“Sin that does not lead to death weakens one’s fellowship with God and requires cleansing and forgiveness (1:6-9) but does not extinguish the divine life abiding within (3:24). It is unclear why John does not ask believers to pray for persons guilty of deadly sins. Whatever the reason, his words do not imply that such a one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy or incapable of future repentance.
“Catholic moral theology adopts this distinction between mortal and non-mortal (venial) sins. Venial offenses can be forgiven by prayers of contrition and other means, but, ordinarily, mortal sins cannot be forgiven apart from the absolution and restorative grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 1854-1864).”
In the paragraphs cited from the Catechism, you will find definitions of mortal sin and venial sin. The following quotation from St. Thomas Aquinas (cf. n. 1856) is helpful:
“When the will sets itself upon something that is of its nature incompatible with the charity that orients man toward his ultimate end, then the sin is mortal by its very object…whether it contradicts the love of God, such as blasphemy or perjury, or the love of neighbor, such as homicide or adultery. . . . But when the sinner’s will is set upon something that of its nature involves a disorder, but is not opposed to the love of God and neighbor, such as thoughtless chatter or immoderate laughter and the like, such sins are venial” (STh I-II, 88, 2, corp. art.].
Q. I thought that Scripture and the teaching of the Magisterium of the Church are binding on all members of the Church and that everyone with an “informed conscience” would always be in complete agreement. Nevertheless, at a recent Bible study someone claimed that a person actually need not conform because of their individually informed conscience. I can think of no situation where that would be true. Please enlighten me. — J.D.H., California.
A. Conscience is a practical judgment of human reason concerning the moral goodness or evil of a concrete act that one is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already performed. While we are always obliged to follow faithfully what our conscience tells us, our conscience may not be correct due to the shortcomings of our intellect and varying degrees of knowledge, freedom, and understanding concerning the morality of a certain act. Thus, a person may have a true or certain conscience, a false or doubtful conscience, or a lax or scrupulous conscience.
So before following our conscience, we must make sure that it is correctly formed. A person who thinks that Jesus was just a good man, and not God, will feel free to disregard what Jesus said. Or a person who doubts that Jesus gave the Catholic Church the authority to provide moral guidance in His name will not feel obligated to listen to the teaching of the Church. Knowledgeable Christians, on the other hand, can rely on the Magisterium of the Church. In the words of Vatican II:
“In forming their consciences the Christian faithful must give careful attention to the sacred and certain teaching of the Church. For the Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the teacher of truth. Her charge is to announce and teach authentically that truth which is Christ, and at the same time with her authority to declare and confirm the principles of the moral order which derive from human nature itself” (Declaration on Religious Freedom, n. 14).
However, we must beware of self-delusion, said Pope St. John Paul II on December 8, 1990, in claiming “that one has a right to act according to conscience, but without at the same time acknowledging the duty to conform one’s conscience to the truth and to the law which God has written on our hearts.” He was echoing the U.S. bishops in their 1976 letter on the moral life (To Live in Christ Jesus). The bishops said that “our judgments are human and can be mistaken; we may be blinded by the power of sin in our lives or misled by the strength of our desires.”
They added that “we must do everything in our power to see to it that our judgments of conscience are informed and in accord with the moral order of which God is creator. Common sense requires that conscientious people be open and humble, ready to learn from the experience and insight of others, willing to acknowledge prejudices and even change their judgments in light of better instruction.”
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