As noted in Step Fourteen, the chief sources of actual sin are: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth, and these are commony called Capital Sins or the Seven Deadly Sins. They are called capital from the Latin caput which means "head," because they are the heads or sources of all sins. Thus they originate sins of luxury, gossip, excessive ambition, etc.

    They are called capital sins, not because they are the greatest sins in themselves, but because they are the chief reasons why men commit sin. They are the origin of every sin, all others sins arising from them as from their fountainhead. These sins are termed deadly, because they are either mortal of their own nature, or may easily become mortal. They may be mortal or venial according as the matter is serious or less serious.

    These sins are called vices, because they produce permanent disorders in the soul. They are the seven fatal diseases of the soul, which end in death. He who will be a friend of God must divest himself of these vices. Before we can plant the beautiful garden of virtues, we must root up the thorns and weeds growing out of these deadly sins. Let us examine each of the Seven Deadly Sins in the order of ASPLEGG since that acronym is so fitting for it was the deadly viper satan who slithers in and sinks his fangs into our legs where we may think we cannot run back to God for we are paralyzed in fear and loathing.

Anger or Wrath

    Anger is a strong feeling of displeasure, combined with a desire to inflict punishment on the offender. An angry man loses his reason. In anger a man will do what he afterwards regrets. From anger arise hatred, revenge, quarreling, blasphemy, contumely, and murder. The virtues of patience and meekness are opposed to anger.

    Anger, or wrath, is a temporary madness. A man with this vice flies into a rage at every little thing. He always puts the blame of his anger on others, and even when he is alone he gets angry. "The wrath of man does not work the justice of God" (James 1:20).

    Willful murder, one of the "sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance", arises from anger. When the first willful murder took place, and Cain killed his brother Abel, God said to Cain, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth to Me from the earth" (Genesis 4:10).

    He who indulges in anger injures his health, becomes hated, incurs damnation. Many men have had a stroke of paralysis brought on by anger; some have even died. If anger is so hurtful to the body, how much more to the soul!

    When we feel ourselves becoming angry, we should never speak or act, but try to calm ourselves by prayer. Saint Francis de Sales said: "I have made an agreement with my tongue never to utter a word while my heart is excited." "Let every man be slow to speak and slow to wrath" (James 1:19).

    If we should be so unhappy as to have offended anyone by our anger, we should hasten to apologize. "Do not let the sun go down upon your anger" (Ephesians 4:26).

    A just anger against sin and injustice is praiseworthy. We may hate the sin, but not the sinner. Jesus Christ had this just wrath when He drove the sellers from the Temple. Holy Scripture says, "Be angry and do not sin" (Ephesians 4:26).

Cure Against Anger: MEEKNESS

   This virtue enables man to curb his anger, the humble and patient man learns not to be quick to anger, but rather keep his calm in the eye of the storm of circumstances that might rile him to wrath. We've all heard the term "ride with the punches" or "stay on a steady beam", that is what meekness allows man to do and the more he practices this virtue, the slower he is prone to grow angry or let things bother him for he knows it will only be harmful to not only his soul, but his state of mind and create more friction. Most importantly, we can take counsel from the beautiful prayer/ejaculation "Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine."

Sloth

    Sloth is the neglect of one's duties, spiritual or temporal, through laziness. The rule of the universe is activity; life and movement may be found in all nature. The slothful man is the exception; and he by his laziness goes against nature. "Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom" (Proverbs 6:6). The slothful keep putting off doing anything till tomorrow and tomorrow, and tomorrow, which often never comes. Procrastination leads to sloth.

    Many complain of hard luck, but often misfortunes come from laziness. Sloth leads to many sins; idleness begets vice. The lazy neglect good works. The virtues of diligence and zeal are opposed to sloth. Even on earth, most rewards go only to the industrious and energetic. If man has no useful occupation, his natural activity turns to all kinds of mischief. A busy person avoids many temptations. Again, idleness is the devil's workshop.

    Spiritual sloth is called lukewarmness. It is also called tepidity. The lukewarm person would like to have the rewards given by God, but will not move a finger to serve Him. As soon as it is necessary to exert himself, he shrinks from the effort. Great sinners have been known to become great saints, but the lukewarm, never. Holy Scripture says: "I would that thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to vomit thee out of My mouth" (Apocalypse 3: 15-16).

Cure Against Sloth: DILIGENCE and ZEAL

    God has deigned that man should work "from the sweat of his brow" for this is the obligation of man due to the sin of Adam. St. Paul reminds us in 2 Thessalonians 3: 10, "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." This is a far cry from the entitlements that are mistranslated into rights today where man sits back and depends on the state (government) to take care of him. We see this with the welfare state which leads to sloth, the very benchmark for enabling Communism and Socialism which, ironically use the term "workers" when in truth those subjected to this kind of system become lazier and depend on others to provide for them.

    The way to counter spiritual sloth is through zeal and fervor for salvation, placing everything in perspective as far as the Four Last Things are concerned: Death, Judgment, Heaven or hell. Keeping these in mind one understands the necessity to love God and love his neighbor as himself out of love for God. We don't have to like our neighbor, but we must love him. Practicing zeal helps us understand how our fellow man is made in the image and likeness of God and you'd be surprised how, through grace, we like our neighbor as well, though we may not like what he does; all part of 'love the sinner, hate the sin' concept that is paramount for Catholics.

    Zeal is the energetic response of the heart to God's commands. The other 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. When we have zeal we are concerned for the welfare of souls and therefore want to share our Faith, proselytizing the True Faith wherever we go and being industrious in knowing our Faith so that when we stand before our eternal Judge He can say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Pride

    Pride makes one admire himself, in the belif that his excellence, imagined or real, is the result of hisown worth. Our Lord condemned pride in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. Jesus said that the humble and repentant publican was justified in the eyes of God, while the proud Pharisee went home unjustified. Pride is an inordinate love of one's own excellence, an excessive self-esteem.

    Our Lord is the best example of meekness and patience. Did He use His almighty power to punish those who did Him evil? For hours He hung meekly on the cross, until He died. Every day God is patient with sinners, giving them time to change their ways. God, the Supreme One, is not proud.

    The proud man overestimates himself, and believes himself the source of his own excellence. The virtue of humility, which disposes us to acknowledge our limitations, is opposed to pride. Some are proud of their appearance; others of their family, talents, poisition, money, and the virtues they imagine they possess. Even if we do have excellent abilities or possessions, we should not be proud of them, remembering that they all come from God. Instead, we should be humbly thankful, and see in what way we can make a return to God for such gifts. "Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord" (Proverbs 16:5).

    Pride may be called the mother of all vices, for most sins can be traced to it. From pride arise ambition, vanity, presumption, disobedience, hypocrisy, obstinacy in sin. "For pride is the beginning of all sin: he that holdeth it shall be filled with maledictions and it shall ruin him in the end" (Ecclesiastes 10:15). "Never suffer pride to reign in they mind or in they words, for from it all perdition took its beginning" (Tobias 4:14). Pride was the sin of our First Parents, who wanted to be as great as God. It was the sin of the pharaoh; he was so proud that in spite of the miracles Moses worked, he refused to be convinced. For this God "hardened his heart" (Exodus 9:12); that is, God permitted him to close the window of his soul against the grace of the Holy Ghost. "Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected thee" (1 Kings 15:26).

    The proud man tries to attract notice and praise, strives after honors, distinctions, and other worldly favors. He is over-confident in himself, and despises the assistance of God. Pride was the sin of lucifer. The proud man pretends to be greater than he is, and tries by all manner of means to attract the praise of others, even using false humility to do so.

    God hates pride, and punishes it severely. He often punishes secret pride by withdrawing His assistance from the proud man. And deprived of God's aid, the proud man often falls into grievous sins leading to his humiliation. "The beginning of the pride of man is to fall off from God" (Ecclesiastes. 10:14). "God resists the proud" (1 Peter 5:5). "Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled" (Luke 14:11). Thus the proud King Herod was eaten up by worms and died. Thus, the proud Roman Empire fell and became nothing. Our Lord pointed out the pride in the heart of the Pharisee, and praised the humble publican.

    If we, however, despise sin as beneath us, that is not pride, but a virtuous self-respect.A decent regard for cleanliness and neatness is not vanity. The ambition to exceed in good things, as in studies, in order to make the best use of God's gifts, is to be commended. God wishes us to be His excellent children.

Cure Against Pride: HUMILITY

   Humility is the virtue that combats Pride. Taking the example of Christ, we strive to emulate Him and His saints in not worrying about how others see us, but how God sees us; not being afraid of what man thinks but, because of love of God, not wanting to compete with another but complement them by submitting our will to God's holy will and being the last for Jesus has assured, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Lust

    Lust is the inordinate seeking of the pleasures of the flesh. Lust defiles a man as no other sin does. It degrades man to the level of the beast. Pride is the sin committed by lucifer, avarice by Judas, and lust by the brute. Of all vices, lust is most severely punished on earth. It leads to loss of health and reason. It was the cause of the Deluge. It was the cause for the destruction with fire and brimstone of Sodom and Gomorrha. "But immorality and every uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becomes saints" (Ephesians 5:3). The Blessed Mother Mary has imparted to many, many saints, visionaries and messengers over the centuries that there are more people in hell for sins of the flesh than any other sin. She affirmed this at Fatima and have heard of the visions of hell from the visionaries of Fatima as well as other saints, most notably St. John Bosco.

    Those tempted to lust should remember that man was made in the image and likeness of God. Will they so rashly destroy that image, to make themselves like to beasts? In fact, beasts are better than lustful men, for beasts act in that manner from instinct; they have no soul like God. Chastity is the virtue opposed to lust.

    Impurity weakens the will and darkens the understanding. For this reason amendment is very difficult, and the sinner falls into many other sins. So Solomon, who yielded to lust, finally lost all his wisdom and turned to worship false gods.

    From lust spring jealousy, hatred, murder, loss of faith, breakup of families, and other sins. The consequences of lust are seen in the case of Henry VIII. It was the cause of his apostasy, and his apostasy dragged an entire nation into similar apostasy. "For know this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous one (for that is idolatry) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God" (Ephesians 5:5). Lust is the self-destructive drive for pleasure out of proportion to its worth. Today, selfish instant gratification not only rules the roost but is the key reason for lack of self-control.

    Sodomy, or sins against purity by persons of the same sex, is a form of lust and condemned by God. It is important to remember in these days of "political correctness" when homosexuals are trying to attain recognition and acceptability for their lifestyle that their lifestyle was, is and always will be sinful and can never be accepted as "right." It is one of the four sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance and God will have his vengeance for He is a Just Judge. Hate the sin but love the sinner, yet admonish always against the sin as Jesus said, Go, and sin no more." Remember one who is homosexual can be accepted as a child of God by rejecting the sin just as heterosexuals cannot lust after a person of the opposite sex or copulate with them outside of the sanctity of marriage. While that sin may not cry to Heaven for vengeance, it will keep one out of Heaven forever if one dies with mortal sin on their soul. It is good to remember always that God hates the sin, but loves the sinner. But He, Who is all-Merciful, can take just so much before He delivers His equal Justice.

Cure Against Lust: CHASTITY

    Abstinence is the best deterrent against lust and to do so takes being chaste. That means avoiding the occasions of sin in all aspects of society. Not easy today when we are inundated with sexual innuendoes, immorality, perversion, immodesty and indecency flooding our lives no matter where we go. While we cannot live as hermits away from the maddening rush because of our states in life that mandate we deal with the world we must remember two things:

1. We are in this world, but not of this world and must realize in this vale of tears that we are here for a greater purpose and only by following God's will can we accomplish what He has in store for each one of us. Many are called, few are chosen."

2. We must remember at all times our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost and treat them as such, assuring no harm comes to what God created or that we do not abuse our bodies or another's.