Fragmenda

Scripture

Leviticus 6–8

Leviticus 6

Oblation for sins of injustice: ordinances concerning the holocausts and the perpetual fire: the sacrifices of the priests, and the sin offerings.

1 

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 

Whosoever shall sin, and despising the Lord, shall deny to his neighbour the thing delivered to his keeping, which was committed to his trust; or shall by force extort any thing, or commit oppression;

3 

Or shall find a thing lost, and denying it, shall also swear falsely, or shall do any other of the many things, wherein men are wont to sin:

4 

Being convicted of the offence, he shall restore

5 

All that he would have gotten by fraud, in the principal, and the fifth part besides, to the owner, whom he wronged.

6 

Moreover for his sin he shall offer a ram without blemish out of the flock: and shall give it to the priest, according to the estimation and measure of the offence.

7 

And he shall pray for him before the Lord: and he shall have forgiveness for every thing in doing of which he bath sinned.

8 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

9 

Command Aaron and his sons: This is the law of a holocaust. It shall be burnt upon the altar, all night until morning: the fire shall be of the same altar.

10 

The priest shall be vested with the tunick and the linen breeches; and he shall take up the ashes of that which the devouring fire hath burnt: and putting them beside the altar,

11 

Shall put off his former vestments, and being clothed with others, shall carry them forth without the camp, and shall cause them to be consumed to dust in a very clean place.

12 

And the fire on the altar shall always burn, and the priest shall feed it, putting wood on it every day in the morning: and laying on the holocaust, shall burn thereupon the fat of the peace offerings.

13 

This is the perpetual fire which shall never go out on the altar.

14 

This is the law of the sacrifice and libations, which the children of Aaron shall offer before the Lord, and before the altar.

15 

The priest shall take a handful of the flour that is tempered with oil, and all the frankincense that is put upon the flour: and he shall burn on the altar for a memorial of most sweet odour to the Lord.

16 

And the part of the flour that is left, Aaron and his sons shall eat, without leaven: and he shall eat it in the holy place of the court of the tabernacle.

17 

And therefore it shall not be leavened, because part thereof is offered for the burnt sacrifice of the Lord. It shall be most holy, as that which is offered for sin and for trespass.

18 

The males only of the race of Aaron shall eat it. It shall be an ordinance everlasting in your generations concerning the sacrifices of the Lord: Every one that toucheth them shall be sanctified.

19 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

20 

This is the oblation of Aaron, and of his sons, which they must offer to the Lord, in the day of their anointing. They shall offer the tenth part of an ephi of flour for a perpetual sacrifice, half of it in the morning, and half of it in the evening.

21 

It shall be tempered with oil, and shall be fried in a fryingpan.

22 

And the priest that rightfully succeedeth his father, shall offer it hot, for a most sweet odour to the Lord: and it shall be wholly burnt on the altar.

23 

For every sacrifice of the priest shall be consumed with fire: neither shall any man eat thereof.

24 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

25 

Say to Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the victim for sin. In the place where the holocaust is offered, it shall be immolated before the Lord. It is holy of holies.

26 

The priest that offereth it, shall eat it in a holy place, in the court of the tabernacle.

27 

Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof, shall be sanctified. If a garment be sprinkled with the blood thereof, it shall be washed in a holy place.

28 

And the earthen vessel, wherein it was sodden, shall be broken: but if the vessel be of brass, it shall be scoured, and washed with water.

29 

Every male of the priestly race shall eat of the flesh thereof, because it is holy of holies.

30 

For the victim that is slain for sin, the blood of which is carried into the tabernacle of the testimony to make atonement in the sanctuary, shall not be eaten, but shall be burnt with fire.


Leviticus 7

Of sacrifices for trespasses and thanks offerings. No fat nor blood is to be eaten.

1 

This also is the law of the sacrifice for a trespass: it is most holy.

2 

Therefore where the holocaust is immolated, the victim also for a trespass shall be slain: the blood thereof shall be poured round about the altar.

3 

They shall offer thereof the rump and the fat that covereth the entrails:

4 

The two little kidneys, and the fat which is by the flanks, and the caul of the liver with the little kidneys.

5 

And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the burnt sacrifice of the Lord for a trespass.

6 

Every male of the priestly race, shall eat this flesh in a holy place, because it is most holy.

7 

As the sacrifice for sin is offered, so is also that for a trespass: the same shall be the law of both these sacrifices. It shall belong to the priest that offereth it.

8 

The priest that offereth the victim of holocaust, shall have the skin thereof.

9 

And every sacrifice of flour that is baked in the oven, and whatsoever is dressed on the gridiron, or in the fryingpan, shall be the priest’s that offereth it.

10 

Whether they be tempered with oil, or dry, all the sons of Aaron shall have one as much as another.

11 

This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings that is offered to the Lord.

12 

If the oblation be for thanksgiving, they shall offer loaves without leaven tempered with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and fine flour fried, and cakes tempered and mingled with oil.

13 

Moreover loaves of leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanks, which is offered for peace offerings:

14 

Of which one shall be offered to the Lord for firstfruits, and shall be the priest’s that shall pour out the blood of the victim.

15 

And the flesh of it shall be eaten the same day: neither shall any of it remain until the morning.

16 

If any man by vow, or of his own accord offer a sacrifice, it shall in like manner be eaten the same day. And if any of it remain until the morrow, it is lawful to eat it.

17 

But whatsoever shall be found on the third day shall be consumed with fire.

18 

If any man eat of the flesh of the victim of peace offerings on the third day, the oblation shall be of no effect: neither shall it profit the offerer. Yea rather, whatsoever soul shall defile itself with such meat, shall be guilty of transgression.

19 

The flesh that hath touched any unclean thing, shall not be eaten: but shall be burnt with fire. He that is clean shall eat of it.

20 

If any one that is defiled shall eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which is offered to the Lord, he shall be cut off from his people.

21 

And he that hath touched the uncleanness of man, or of beast, or of any thing that can defile, and shall eat of such kind of flesh: shall be cut off from his people.

22 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

23 

Say to the children of Israel: The fat of a sheep, and of an ox, and of a goat you shall not eat.

24 

The fat of a carcass that hath died of itself, and of a beast that was caught by another beast, you shall have for divers uses.

25 

If any man eat the fat that should be offered for the burnt sacrifice of the Lord, he shall perish out of his people.

26 

Moreover you shall not eat the blood of any creature whatsoever, whether of birds or beasts.

27 

Every one that eateth blood, shall perish from among the people.

28 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

29 

Speak to the children of Israel, saying: He that offereth a victim of peace offerings to the Lord, let him offer therewith a sacrifice also, that is, the libations thereof.

30 

He shall hold in his hands the fat of the victim, and the breast. And when he hath offered and consecrated both to the Lord, he shall deliver them to the priest,

31 

Who shall burn the fat upon the altar. But the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’.

32 

The right shoulder also of the victim, of peace offerings shall fall to the priest for firstfruits.

33 

He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood, and the fat: he shall have the right shoulder also for his portion.

34 

For the breast that is elevated and the shoulder that is separated I have taken of the children of Israel, from off their victims of peace offerings: and have given them to Aaron the priest, and to his sons, by a law for ever, from all the people of Israel.

35 

This is the anointing of Aaron and his sons, in the ceremonies of the Lord, in the day when Moses offered them, that they might do the office of priesthood,

36 

And the things that the Lord commanded to be given them by the children of Israel, by a perpetual observance in their generations.

37 

This is the law of holocaust, and of the sacrifice for sin, and for trespass, and for consecration, and the victims of peace offerings:

38 

Which the Lord appointed to Moses in mount Sinai, when he commanded the children of Israel, that they should offer their oblations to the Lord in the desert of Sinai.


Leviticus 8

Moses consecrateth Aaron and his sons.

1 

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 

Take Aaron with his sons, their vestments, and the oil of unction: a calf for sin, two rams, a basket with unleavened bread.

3 

And thou shalt gather together all the congregation to the door of the tabernacle.

4 

And Moses did as the Lord had commanded. And all the multitude being gathered together before the door of the tabernacle:

5 

He said: This is the word that the Lord hath commanded to be done.

6 

And immediately, he offered Aaron and his sons. And when he had washed them,

7 

He vested the high priest with the strait linen garment, girding him with the girdle, and putting on him the violet tunick: and over it he put the ephod.

8 

And binding it with the girdle, he fitted it to the rational, on which was Doctrine and Truth.

9 

He put also the mitre upon his head: and upon the mitre over the forehead, he put the plate of gold, consecrated with sanctification, as the Lord had commanded him.

10 

He took also the oil of unction, with which he anointed the tabernacle, with all the furniture thereof.

11 

And when he had sanctified and sprinkled the altar seven times, he anointed it, and all the vessels thereof: and the laver with the foot thereof, he sanctified with the oil.

12 

And he poured it upon Aaron’s head: and he anointed and consecrated him.

13 

And after he had offered his sons, he vested them with linen tunicks, and girded them with girdles: and put mitres on them as the Lord had commanded.

14 

He offered also the calf for sin: and when Aaron and his sons had put their hands upon the head thereof,

15 

He immolated it: and took the blood, and dipping his finger in it, he touched the horns of the altar round about. Which being expiated, and sanctified, he poured the rest of the blood at the bottom thereof.

16 

But the fat that was upon the entrails, and the caul of the liver, and the two little kidneys, with their fat, he burnt upon the altar.

17 

And the calf with the skin, and the flesh and the dung, he burnt without the camp, as the Lord had commanded.

18 

He offered also a ram for holocaust. And when Aaron and his sons had put their hands upon its head:

19 

He immolated it, and poured the blood thereof round about the altar.

20 

And cutting the ram into pieces, the head thereof, and the joints, and the fat he burnt in the fire.

21 

Having first washed the entrails, and the feet, and the whole ram together he burnt upon the altar: because it was a holocaust of most sweet odour to the Lord, as he had commanded him.

22 

He offered also the second ram, in the consecration of priests: and Aaron, and his sons put their hands upon the head thereof.

23 

And when Moses had immolated it, he took of the blood thereof, and touched the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and the thumb of his right hand, and in like manner also the great toe of his right foot.

24 

He offered also the sons of Aaron: and when with the blood of the ram that was immolated, he had touched the tip of the right ear of every one of them, and the thumbs of their right hands, and the great toes of their right feet, the rest he poured on the altar round about.

25 

But the fat, and the rump, and all the fat that covereth the entrails, and the caul of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and with the right shoulder, he separated.

26 

And taking out of the basket of unleavened bread, which was before the Lord, a loaf without leaven, and a cake tempered with oil and a wafer, he put them upon the fat, and the right shoulder:

27 

Delivering all to Aaron, and to his sons. Who having lifted them up before the Lord,

28 

He took them again from their hands, and burnt them upon the altar of holocaust: because it was the oblation of consecration, for a sweet odour of sacrifice to the Lord.

29 

And he took of the ram of consecration, the breast for his portion, elevating it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded him.

30 

And taking the ointment, and the blood that was upon the altar, he sprinkled Aaron, and his vestments, and his sons, and their vestments with it.

31 

And when he had sanctified them in their vestments, he commanded them, saying: Boil the flesh before the door of the tabernacle, and there eat it. Eat ye also the loaves of consecration, that are laid in the basket, as the Lord commanded me, saying: Aaron and his sons shall eat them.

32 

And whatsoever shall be left of the flesh and the loaves, shall be consumed with fire.

33 

And you shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle for seven days, until the day wherein the time of your consecration shall be expired. For in seven days the consecration is finished:

34 

As at this present it hath been done, that the rite of the sacrifice might be accomplished.

35 

Day and night shall you remain in the tabernacle observing the watches of the Lord, lest you die. For so it hath been commanded me.

36 

And Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord spoke by the hand of Moses.

Catechism

An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Lesson 6, Question 53

53 Q. How many kinds of actual sin are there?

A. There are two kinds of actual sin—mortal and venial.

"Mortal," that is, the sin which kills the soul. When a man receives a very severe wound, we say he is mortally wounded; that is, he will die from the wound. As breath shows there is life in the body, so grace is the life of the soul; when all the breath is out of the body, we say the man is dead. He can perform no action to help himself or others. So when all grace is out of the soul we say it is dead, because it is reduced to the condition of a dead body. It can do no action worthy of merit, such as a soul should do; that is, it can do no action that God is bound to reward—it is dead. But you will say the soul never dies. You mean it will never cease to exist; but we call it dead when it has lost all its power to do supernatural good.

"Venial" sin does not drive out all the grace; it wounds the soul, it weakens it just as slight wounds weaken the body. If it falls very frequently into venial sin, it will fall very soon into mortal sin also; for the Holy Scripture says that he that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little. (Ecclus. 19:1). A venial sin seems a little thing, but if we do not avoid it we shall by degrees fall into greater, or mortal, sin. Venial sin makes God less friendly to us and displeases Him. Now if we really love God, we will not displease Him even in the most trifling things.