Missing Daily Mass & Prayer-- Spiritual Sloth?

[TeresaBenedicta]

A question from a friend:

If someone were in the habit of going to daily Mass and had a very mature prayer-life, would it be sinful for such a person to miss Mass (for no good reason other than not wanting to go) and to fail to go to prayer. Would this be spiritual sloth? This is particularly for someone, while not a religious or priest, has kept daily Mass & a daily holy hour in their spiritual "plan of life."

[Resurrexi]

It wouldn't be a sin to miss Mass unless it were as Sunday or a holyday of obligation.

[Skinzo]

[quote name='TeresaBenedicta' post='1949139' date='Aug 14 2009, 09:44 PM']A question from a friend:

If someone were in the habit of going to daily Mass and had a very mature prayer-life, would it be sinful for such a person to miss Mass (for no good reason other than not wanting to go) and to fail to go to prayer. Would this be spiritual sloth? This is particularly for someone, while not a religious or priest, has kept daily Mass & a daily holy hour in their spiritual "plan of life."[/quote]

I don't think it would be gravely sinful in and of itself BUT it can get you into trouble. To me, it's the first step down the slippery slope. I saw the following from Garrigou Lagrange and it bears reading, IMHO: "Spiritual sloth is gravely sinful when it reaches the point of giving up the religious duties necessary for our salvation and sanctification: for example, when it goes so far as to omit the hearing of Mass on Sunday.(9) When it leads us to omit religious acts of lesser importance without a reason, the sin is only venial; but if we do not struggle against this negligence, it soon becomes more serious, placing us in a genuine state of tepidity or spiritual relaxation. This state is a sort of moral anaemia, in which evil tendencies awaken little by little, seek to prevail, and manifest themselves by numerous deliberate venial sins, which dispose us to still graver faults, just as bodily anaemia prepares the way for the invasion of the germ of a disease, the beginning of a serious illness."
See: [url="http://www.christianperfection.info/tta41.php"]http://www.christianperfection.info/tta41.php[/url]

S.

[pat22]

not sinful. but obviously losing a wonderful thing

[Hidden One]

Whether or not it is a sin, at this level, is almost immaterial. It is not a mortal sin.

Such behaviour must be avoided, whether sin or not.

[LouisvilleFan]

Neglecting prayer is a sin of omission (failing to do something you should or intended to do). No need to worry about it... just pick things up the next day and confess it along with whatever else you've done or failed to do at your next Confession.