Monday, January 08, 2024
Peccadillos
Augustine, Sermons 77B.7 (Patrologiae Latinae Supplementum, vol. 2, col. 704; tr. Edmund Hill):
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Not even slight sins are to be treated lightly. They are nothing very big, of course, but they do pile up, they make a heap; they pile up and make a lump. Don't shrug than aside because they are tiny, but be apprehensive if they are many. What could be tinier than drops of rain? And in quantity they soak the fields, they fill the rivers. Don't shrug your slight and tiny sins aside, or they may form a heap and crush you.
Nec ipsa levia peccata contemnenda sunt; quamvis enim non sint grandia, congeruntur, acervum faciunt; congeruntur et massam faciunt. Nolite contemnere, quia minuta sunt, sed timete, si multa sunt. Quid minutius guttis pluviae? Et his multis agri satiantur, flumina implentur. Nolite contemnere peccata vestra levia et minuta, ne acervo facto premant vos.
