What are the Seven Deadly Sins?

[Pax]

How did the RCC come up with the idea, then?

This is a great question Yomo,

The history of how the 7 deadly sins came about goes back to 360 A.D. St. John Cassian came up with two prinicpal works with the first being titled "De institutis coenobiorue et de octo principalium vitiorum remediis libri XII, and the second called Collationes XXIV." These both contained works on the 7 deadly sins. Later in 540-604 A.D. St Gregory the Great who was the 64th Pope to lead the Catholic Church wrote even more extensively on the topic of 7 deadly sins. Some of the ealier post stated that the 7 deadly sins were introduced by the Catholic Church. Actually they were introduced by two men who were Catholics. You must remember the only Christians around during this period were all Catholics.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph: 1865, states "Sin creates (an inclination) to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its roots." This is why it is very important to make people aware of the 7 deadly sins. All sins that we commit as people have at the root one or more of the seven vices.

I will list the 7 vices followed by the 7 virtues to combat them.

VICE

1.) Pride

2.) Envy

3.) Anger

4.) Sloth

5.) Greed

6.) Gluttony

7.) Lust

VIRTUES

1.) Humility Seeing ouselves as we are and not comparing ourselves to others is humility. Pride and Vanity are competitive. If someone else's pride really bothers you, you have a lot of pride.

2.) Love "Love is patient, Love is kind..." Love actively seeks the good of others for their sake. Envy resents the good others receive or even might receive. Envy is almost indistinguishable from pride at times.

3.) Kindness Kindness means taking the tender approach, with patience and compassion. Anger is often our first reaction to the problems of others. Impatience with the faults of others is related to this.

4.) Zeal Zeal is the energetic response of the heart to God's commands. The others sins work together to deaden the spiritual senses so we first become slow to respond to God and then drift completely into the sleep of complacency.

5.) Generosity This is about more than money. Generosity means letting others get the credit or praise. It is giving without having expectations of the other person. Greed wants to get its "fair share" or a bit more.

6.) Faith and Temperance Temperance accepts the natural limits of pleasures and preserves this natural balance. This does not pertain only to food, but to entertainment, and other legitimate goods, and even the company of others.

7.) Self-Control Self control and self mastery prevent pleasure form killing the soul by suffocation. Legitimate pleasures are controlled in the same way an athlete's muscles are: for maximum efficiency without damage. Lust is the self-destructive drive for pleasure out of proportion to its worth. Sex, power, or image can be used well, but they tend to go out of control.