“Is This a Sin?” 

5 years ago I would’ve never said this with a gun to my head, but I can’t wait till I can go to confession! I’m (God willing) getting baptized this year and I’ve never been so ready for anything.

Hey Father Mike, Lutheran here, but I gotta say you have been a great influence in my spiritual life. Thank you!

The blessed virgin Mary said at one of her apparitions that "monthly confession will be the remedy for the west". So we should all Do an examination of conscience every night and unburden our soul's at least once a month and pray the rosary daily and we will have peace and strength to carry our crosses in life

Why we need to ALL pray the Holy Rosary everyday.

Lately, when I feel myself getting frustrated and overwhelmed, moving toward anger, I've been getting the regular impulse to pray against it rather than go along with it. It's such a blessing that in my struggles and failures I am being drawn closer to God.

PLEASE MAKE THAT VIDEO ON CONFESSING THINGS THAT AREN'T SINS 😌 I struggle with this

Yes! Please do a video about “not sure if this is a sin but I’ll confess it anyways “

I love going to confession.

I do NOT like going to confession…but every time I do, I always feel soooo good! Blessings.

A few weeks ago I went to confession and apart from confessing my sins I also shared something that I was troubled with for a while, and I remember the love and mercy that I received was overwhelming that in my heart I saw Jesus through the priest whom I was confessing to.

This is why it’s such a gift to be Catholic: we can dig down into the nitty gritty of our sins, root them out, and go to confession, allowing for more of God’s Grace to enter our heart and permeate our soul. This is why there are so many saints in the Church. What a pity to reject the sacraments that our separated brothers and sisters do. :/

Your Podcast is helping like this: "It's not about that God wants us to believe in Him. He wants us to Belong to Him, willfully and lovingly". That not only explains a lot of things historically and in a matter of societal patterns but must importantly personally. I can think of John Paul's II courage streaming from that decision to Belong to God.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Fr. Mike is amazing 🤩 Greetings from Poland 😊

God bless and promote such a priests like Schmidt, Goring, Altman...and many other...all faithful bishops and all Catholics with brain in their heads and God in their hearts!

The example that Father Mike gives is one that's quite straightforward. The intention to do wrong, to hurt someone or commit a bad action, is there, so, is in itself a sin, therefore worthy of confession.

Thank u Lord!! Thank u Fr. Mike!! I was needing this. God bless u!!

I’ve had this question in the back of my mind forever. Thank you for answering this great moral question!

Went to confession Monday, even shared you Mass...Thank you Ft. Mike.

Thank You Father. God Bless You!

Wow. This struck a chord within me ... Father Mike. You mean so much to me.

God bless you Father Mike!

You are a blessing in my life and I share your videos to my family you have been like a spiritual guide for me and we pray for you everyday. May God continue to bless you!

Thanks for the clarification! God bless you!

May God repay you, Father. Really the kind of advice I was looking for.

Wonderful Father Mike, please make the other video that you mentioned here. We love hearing you always Father Mike. God Bless You

Thank you for this helpful clarification! So glad you are here Fr Mike!

Father Mike!!! I love your podcasts. So great to have a face to the voice💟. Keep being amazing!

Wow. This is very helpful. Now I know. Thank you, Fr. Mike! 🙏🏻

Thank you father, you just helped me more than you know😊

You create daily podcast and are still able to record preaching video... Thank you so much for your words!

Fantastic video! I really get a lot out of these videos. Thank you and God bless!

When I have come across this type of thing in my own life, I have looked to CCC paragraphs #2302 and #2303 which talks about anger toward neighbor. The line that strikes me the most in those two paragraphs is "Anger is the desire for revenge". That is why I tend to confession the times where in anger, I thinking badly of others.

I love this man, thank you for enlightening my life and my soul, God Bless you Father. You are Doing God's Will.

Love this priest!

Perfect timing! I’ve been struggling for the past month and feeding the anger over a certain situation by complaining. I’d have to take it to confession so now I’ll bring it to God or our Heavenly Mother. Amen!

Thanks for the Bible study. Loving it...your truly doing the will of God. God bless you always.

Hi Father Mike. I listen to you regularly. Thanks for keep my mind grounded. Also, I love the weeping angel 😇 photo. Thank you Father Mike

Thank you Fr Mike for this video it made me resolve to be more sensitive and thorough with my examination of conscience. God bless you always.

Beautiful. Thank you 🙏🏾

Thanks for sharing another great video Father Mike. I struggle with this often. God bless you in your ministry in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

You are truly doing your god's work. You offer sound advice that has often help me through difficult times in a way that didn't seem to overly preach your dogma.

Father Mike you are truly blessing for all of us specially in this Era of destruction. You explained it very well. God bless you and use you in a mighty way

Nailed it in the final minute and a half, Father. Thank you and God bless🙏🏽 Btw, loving Bible in a Year! Congrats! AMDG

This was very helpful, Father Mike and I look forward to the other video about "I'm not sure if this is a sin or not, but I'm going to confess it anyway." This is something I struggle with. May God bless you for all the good you are doing.

I've been watching Father Mike and I really like his messages because he really believes in what he talks about and hes excited about it. I just wanna know who makes his coffee. Caffeine is definitely a factor here🙂

God bless you, Father Mike! You are an amazing shepherd. May God grant you many graces 🙏 Concerning anger, yes, I do believe your friend should confess it. Jesus told us, “But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.” Even though he/she did not send the letter, they were still angry with their brother.

Holy cow! So when planning to do the BiaY podcast, I decided to hold off on buying the bible and just use the one I ready had. Well, I'm quickly learning about how I'm missing a lot of biblical books, so I tried to order the Great Adventure Bible and...they are sold out until May!!😱 I'm so smitten seeing how unprepared they were for the massive success of the podcast! Hooray🥰🥰🥰

Thank you so much for your wisdom on this subject Fr. Mike. If you can, please make the video you mentioned making on “confessing sins anyway”, or if possible making a video more in depth on the last part you mentioned. It would be very helpful to explain mortal sin and venial sin when it comes to “interior” locutions. Thank you for all you do!

These facial expressions by Father Mike are hilarious. Each one brings a smile to my soul. Quite humorous. 🤣🙌🏻🙏🏻🕊

Amen so true god bless you father Mike

I have so many things I want to talk to my priest about but I never do because I know he's busy with my parish and you take that place for me so often with your videos. Thank you so much!!

you know what? im really blessed to find ascension presents. its helping me through tough questions about sins and relationships. God wills anything and thats what i believe thoroughly. im only 15, but i know how important religion is. thank you ascension presents! 🥰😁

Thanks Fr Mike

Ooohhh I jst wish all the priest would speak like u Fr. Mike!! Sucha nice topic u have here-- I am discovering a lot alredy...

Such good points. I think sometimes people see confession as a way to simply clean their slate..i.e." I'm not sure if this was a sin , but I'll confess it anyway ". The whole intention behind confession..is to bring before God what is in our hearts that separates us from Him. Confession is training us to cultivate this awareness and surrender , from moment to moment.

I so needed that word, been struggling with writting romantic fiction, and trying to do it from a Christian viewpoint without making it lustful. I wanted to show a relationship from a Christian view point and I have been tempted to make it more like the worldly book, which I'm tempted to do. I want to write a book that's pleasing to G0D that will glorify and encourage rather than hinder someones walk. Amen to this message.

It’s because the sin of robbing the bank was in the heart. I always say matters of the heart matter to God.

This was perfect to hear

Blessings to you,💚❤️💚❤️💚❤️

Sometimes it’s more worthwhile to write down your hurt then tore it up rather than hurt someone in reality. It’s like removing the hurt from the inside to the outside, then it can be discarded.

I am picturing a priest robbing a bank haha. Great video. Solid advice

I read the title of this message. And my first thought was, If you have to ask, it most likely is a sin.

Love God he will always forgive you!

Thanks Fr. Mike, Very good examples, I hope I can digest this and look at answers from different videos. I am trying to look for that line so it is not crossed. But since in mass we have that portion when we are confessing as a Church in public... Let's see something like in, "I confess to you my brothers and sisters, and to All Mighty God that I have sinned my thoughts, in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do." So lots to remember in that one line, but we repeated so many times, its ingrained in our heads. We might not be able to quote scripture like our rebellious brothers, but we can definitely repeat some parts of the mass verbatim... and even follow along when the priest is consecrating the bread and wine. Anyways, the "thought" portion of that sentence is like: oh where is the line. I mean, so we can stay very far from it. And I can see the more we pray, the more we can by nature stay away from sin. Obviously, the words are a little easier, you either said it or you didn't like you said of the guy writing the bad letter. What I have done is the easiest of course... is either yes or no. And lastly the last one, which is what I have failed to do, or also the doing the right thing which could also be straight forward. Anyways, thank you for the video, Praise and thanks be to God.

Ironic that I see this now. Thanks for making this video.

Thank you 🌹

Please make that video on confessing things you're uncertain about! (Scrupulosity)

Thank you👍

.......how come it sounds like Fr. Mike was going to knock over a bank or casino? I mean, he could have used a number of other examples. I imagine him, Jeff Cavins, Matt Fradd, and maybe Fr. Mitch Pacwa in an Oceans 11 type thing.

Saint Augustine. Love and do what you want because he who loves will never do anything wrong. Greetings from Lithuania.🙏🙏🙏👨‍🦲

Thank you.

Wow this a thought I have been troubled with everyday. I don't know if this is the answer but atleast there are others that wonder about every thought we have.

Thank you Fr. Mike for this video.

Considering that even mere thoughts can be mortal sins, you know very well that there are too many people receiving communion.

Thank you

Pray for me that God may bless all of us with child like faith and have full access to God's kingdom and have no blessings blocked!! May God bless you all more than he can ever bless me

A genuine intent and clear conscience while asking for the lord's forgiveness relieve burdens and expectations alike through the everlasting mercy of Jesus Christ.

Great video. Just asking are you going to do a video on scrupulosity? Would be much appreciated. Thanks!

You're right. We know. You might not know, but we know. But generally I think that if we stop ourselves and feel the guilt we are supposed to feel - and decide to do better than that - then that is enough.

Hi Fr. Mike I am a Christian Living and Values Education Teacher. It is not easy to look for videos and related articles about Social Teachings of The Catholic Church explained in a simple way. I came across one of your videos and I was relieved To have additional resources. I hope your team can visit Philippines to help upgrade CLVE subject to be a prerequisite of major subjects instead of just a minor subject that most students and parents criticize and disregard.

Thank you Fr Mike. This did clear some doubts, but what about the sins that we might have committed when we really didn't have knowledge about it, and we realise it later on in our lives because we have grown in our faith and feel sorry for what we had done. Should such sins be confessed when we realise about them? #AskAscension

I wrote the letter and I sent it. Oh my God, I really need to go to confession. Im disgusted with myself. I doubt confession will stop the person I sent that email to from hurting. Im disgusting and im disgusted with myself. Im so incredibly sorry for the hurt I caused. Its been 20 years.

Pray the Rosary and you will be at peace...

So I'm coming from a therapist's perspective. I'm Catholic but clearly not an expert in Catholicism. For me I think you have to look at intention in the letter situation. Sometimes with mental health a letter to someone that we never intend to send can be a very helpful tool for dealing with things like anger. But then again that's very different from I wrote it with the intent to send it

Oh boy Father, this is super-Catholic! Teaching people the authentic moral theology of our Faith. Sometimes the corporate Church acts as if it doesn’t care anymore. Thanks be to God that you do.

Thank you for another wonderful video! I have so admired your print of Mary in the background. Would it be possible for me to find out where I can find one just like it? Thank you very much & God Bless! ❤️🙏

Father Mike, I just wanted to thanks for all your beautiful messages. I am currently doing the RCIA process and noticed your picture behind you of the Mother Mary, I was wondering if you could tell me where I can get a copy of the picture? Thanks for your time and knowledge.

I suffer from scrupulosity, please pray for me!

Always when needed ;)

Hi Father! Im so thankful to you.. your vlogs are really helpful. But can i knkw how can i make a question tou you?

If I knew you Fr Mike when I was in the seminary 1978...I most likely would have continued with my studies. You have a happy attitude and just a terrific priest to share running a parish. Can you explain why the Vatican nor the Pope released a statement of repentance for allowing homage given to Mayan idols at the Amazon Synod October 2019.? numbe

Thank you Father Mike. I discovered you by chance and have shared Ascension Presents with my friends and family. I have a question about sin. If Eve had never eaten from the forbidden fruit and there was no death, wouldn't the world be overpopulated?

Perfect

Can you please do a video on the 9 choirs of Angels? I’m having difficulty understanding it

Sounds good Jon hamm.

Saint Matthew 9:12-13 He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’I did not come to call the self-righteous but sinners.”

Could you please please please do a serious on how to do a good confession? Confession is an area of my spiritual life were I struggle a lot.

Hey Father I love your Bible podcast btw I never missed any episode till now thx and praise God but I want to know what is brokenness? You mean weak or sinful? I listen to you saying this world evrytime

Advice to the person about to send a letter: Check your emotions at the door. Try to only ask questions via the socratic method. If the recipient of the letter has put thought into their actions or speech and enjoy intellectual debate, they will take no offense. This is how research papers are debated. But the caveat is that most people think with their amygdala (emotional part of brain) because this is innate with us since birth. Debating (and thinking) with the prefrontal cortex (the reasoning and logic part of the brain) typically must be learned. So most people get offended if questioned. Also, subtle nuances of intonation and facial expression are lost in written language. You might think you’re only asking a question but the reader may think you’re yelling at them. Only question someone if it will lead to the betterment of them or the people they influence. One shouldn’t start a fight just for fun or to prove they’re smarter (remember, humility and “do unto others”) Also, be prepared to be proven wrong - this is how we learn. Advice to the recipient of the letter: be prepared to be questioned and be prepared to be wrong. Again, this is how we learn. I won’t speak of a priest’s preferences about confessional topics, but I advise that if you have even a cross thought about someone that is unjustified, you make amends to that person. I think of sin as a slope (or hill), not discrete steps like a staircase. Bad thoughts insidiously lead to bad actions that lead to worse actions. A cross thought may lead to an unfriendly look which may lead to a desire to see misfortune befall someone which may lead you to causing that misfortune - all the while taking you further from God. When does callusness end and evil begin? It’s like asking when does a pond become a lake - because nature does not fit into discrete categories. A mild insult, a back handed compliment, a prank that causes little harm, a prank that causes much harm: when does callusness lead to cruelty? When does cruelty lead to evil? It’s like a pond becoming a lake. There is no boundary - it just grows. I argue this is not a slippery slope fallacy. Criminals in prison didn’t get there by a single horrible decision. Their bad decisions started years ago with hundreds of milder bad decisions that just kept getting worse. So, if I’m angry or impatient with my daughter for acting like an 8 year old (because she is 8); even if I don’t show it, I apologize and offer to make it up to her. She says “Why are you apologizing? You did nothing wrong”. I tell her I thought it so I have to fix it. I suggest that everyone do this. It will bring you closer to God. We must keep our souls soft like a baby’s skin, not like a callused foot that can walk on broken glass.