The dangers of \\"lesser\\" carnal pleasures

Interesting topic - what used to be called the Warm sins, plus the computer. Artintel, your calculations would appear to over stress these lesser faults, and create a hard, rigid, even cruel attitude. It has a puritanical ring. Gluttony, fwiw, is not a pleasure: eating is. But gluttony can be excess of delicacy/fussiness, insistence on perfect quality, etc regarding food. If you kept the diary, piggybank, etc for all the sins at once, perhaps some insight might emerge.

You Calvinists are a hoot!

When I say my morning prayers I declare myself the worst of sinners having \\"never done anything good\\"...and I feel the tremendous relief of very low expectations. I still try not to do anything bad, if I am I try to stop, If I already have I try to repent and go on, but I have the true Christian attitude of freedom from anxiety. But dwell on your inevitable weaknesses is not good way toward spiritual growth. It may be appropriate for monks with proper guidance, but rarely for lay people.

\\"You don’t become holy by fighting evil. Let evil be. Look towards Christ and that will save you.\\" (Elder Porphyrios) What I learned from my last confession (it\'s just some ours away) was this: not to give evil and our sins to much of weight and importance, that they don\'t afford, lest we loose sight of - or prevent ourselves from doing - what is the true will of God: to love. You can fight at a false front, too. (I hope, my English is understandable and not confursing). Jannis

if i notice i sinned, I typically say to myself \\"I sinned... I am weak... try not to do it again\\" and I try not to make mountains out of mole-hills, and I think, more importantly, try not to believe that change in my habits will be changed suddenly, but, rather, slowly.

I should add, frequent confession is part of this... at least once a month... who cares if it\'s inconvenient... sin is inconvenient... the more often you go to confession, the more aware you get of your smaller sins, because the bigger ones mostly get taken care of, and you find yourself watching yourself more closely

I\'m under the impression that sin is sin, and that there is no degree of sinfulness, as far as God is concerned. Yet in our eyes, the \\"big\\" sins are usually more obvious outwardly and most time, confessed and dealt with right away, yet the \\"lesser\\" sins, which are less obvious outwardly, are the ones that can cause the most problems. As robotom stated, more frequent confession is important and in addition, adhering to what our Spiritual Fathers suggest, as to the handling of those \\"lesser\\" sins, would be most profitable to us.

.

I think most people don\'t see it as a degree... most seem to say \\"lesser\\" in quotes to indicate that it\'s not less at all... but that being said, it seems to me, a \\"lesser\\" sin is something more of a slip-up... kind of the putting you foot in your mouth of sins... like you didn\'t intentionally boast or eat too many dinner rolls... but upon realizing, some prayer for forgiveness is adequate for such weakness in these spontaneous situations... (at least my spiritual father directed me as such) compared to the \\"big\\" sins which are often more pre-meditated, thought about, struggled over, what have you... maybe you struggled with thought over that girl for a long time, and finally gave into such passions.. or being in a situation to kill or harm others.. taking the deliberate action to steal something (it\'s kind of hard to steal on accident) but yeah, you\'re right, the \\"lesser\\" ones tend to give birth to the bigger ones... I find the most difficult time of the year is the week AFTER pascha.. I manage to fatten myself up quite gluttonously, and then find myself getting myself into much bigger spiritual trouble with my contented guard down.

All I know is, is that we are called to be changed to become more like Christ, to become more loving, more selfless and more humble. We are supposed to not judge other\'s sins, but first work on ourselves. This includes every part of ourselves, big, little or in between. It\'s hard, but working on ourselves can be wonderful. This is all I know.