care of the sick or any other pressing necessity which prevents our hearing Mass, we are released from the obligation.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
VENIAL SINS.
THOUGH the sins of which we have been treating are those which we should avoid with most care, yet do not think that you are dispensed from vigilance in regard to venial sins. I conjure you not to be one of those ungenerous Christians who make no scruple of committing a sin because it is venial. Remember these words of Holy Scripture: "He that despiseth small things shall fall by little and little."[1] "Do not despise venial sins because they appear trifling," says St. Augustine, "but fear them because they are numerous. Small animals in large numbers can kill a man. Grains of sand are very small, yet, if accumulated, they can sink a ship. Drops of water are very small, yet how often they become a mighty river, a raging torrent, sweeping everything before them!" The holy Doctor continues to observe that though no amount of venial sins can constitute a mortal sin, yet these slighter failings predispose us to greater faults, which often become mortal. St. Gregory observes with equal truth that slight faults are some-
- ↑ Ecclus. xix. 1.
