Little Sins Mean a Lot: Kicking Our Bad Habits Before They Kick Us

It's easy to go through life without much reflection, except the shallow kind we get in the mirror each day. Spiritual and character reflection takes time and effort, and oftentimes we don't want to take that hard look at ourselves. This book allows us to pick and choose a topic that perhaps speaks to us at that moment, and spend a few minutes reading about an issue we need to work on. The author provides us with a topic, gives examples from her own life and ends with a few prayers we can use to help with the issue. I enjoyed this book and will keep it queued up on my kindle to refer back to when I need a little assistance mastering my bad habits.

This book should be used to help confirmation candidates and adult RICA students learn what it means to do an examination of conscience. It should come with a warning, may cause you to need to run to the confessional. Through discussion and example, Scalia examines the thousand rationalizations that otherwise go unchecked in daily life, using what are normally considered minor sins to reveal how those exceptions we give ourselves, chip away at grace. Scalia uses her own life experiences to flesh out what might otherwise remain an abstract concept, and help the reader begin to do the same. There are many reasons for loving this book, her honesty, her inclusion of the wisdom of the saints for each of the topics, and the prayers at the end of each chapter, which remind the reader of God's desire to help us and heal us and always to love us, in spite of our proclivities and rationalizations.

This little book is a true gem. Filled with all the ‘little’ things that daily cause me challenges & difficulty. Each chapter addresses a little sins, gives examples, and outlines prayerful, practical strategies to address. Helpful quotes from the saints, the Bible and the Catechism, along with reminders to entreat your guardian angel, pray, and frequent Mass and Confession add up to a wonderfully Catholic answer to addressing the ‘little’ faults that threaten to overtake all our best efforts to become holy.

The book is clear, concise and to the point in describing all the ways sin can take over our lives without us fully realizing it. At times I thought there was too much personal information in the book, but in retrospect, it was helpful. The conclusion was short but summarized the reason for the book and the next steps.

The author points out how what we are doing in every day life just might be a sin even though it doesn't fit the dictionary definition of Sloth, Pride, Wrath, Envy, etc. She relates it to the Bible, religious writers and the Catechism. Her views are refreshing, real life, and relatable. The book is a quick, easy read but you will want to go back to reread and ponder certain sections. I'm a voracious reader, yet she managed to throw in 6 words I thought for sure were misspelled but on looking them up found they were just words I'd never come across before. Yes, there are 4 swear words in the book (out of several thousand words in the book) but they are used appropriately to explain the issue - this doesn't mean she is not a Catholic writer or a good person or that the book doesn't have a lot to offer as food for thought.

By using her own experiences as examples of those "little sins" which can be all but unnoticed, Elizabeth Scalia helps the reader to see that little sins can lull us into a sense of false complacency. ("But I'm not a bad person.") and serve as gateway sins to greater transgressions. Though little sins such as procrastination, gossip, or self-neglect can seem like mere character flaws, the author shows how they are connected to the Seven Deadly Sins and how, despite their littleness, they mire us in loathing and self-disgust. Far from being a downer, the book is written with a good deal of humor. As soon as I read it, I knew I wanted to read it a second time. The first time I was galloping through to see what the author had to say. In the second, I am reflecting and meditating on the various "little sins" which the author discusses and trying to discern which ones have wormed their way into my life. (Hint: most of them.)

I found this book to be witty and yet very spiritual. Scalia address these “little sins” by bringing awareness to the reader of the seriousness of them, and how we tend to justify them as insignificant. I really like how she outlines the problem, what the church says about the problem, provides strategies to overcome these habits, and ends each chapter with a beautiful prayer. Great book!

Little Sins Mean a Lot: Kicking Our Bad Habits Before They Kick Us by Elizabeth Scalia. I read a review of this on Catholic Mom and thought, this is the book for me! How many of us are compelled to commit murder or adultery? Not many, I hope :) It's the little sins that we allow to foment that if left unchecked become big sins. I know that in a culture that has no concept of right and wrong, it can seem like a strange and too scrupulous a thing to focus on little sins (because you know, we are basically good people), but the author has made her case beautifully. She covers 13 bad habits, from procrastination (do all writers procrastinate as much as I do?) to gossip to sins of omission. She gives examples (many from her own life so it's lovely getting to know her as well), what Catholicism has to say about these sins, practical suggestions on breaking away with a short prayer at the end. Another gem of a book. I think perhaps in June I'll tackle the first bad habit: procrastination. Who knows, maybe at the end of 13 months or perhaps it will take 13 years I might be a mite holier. Pray for me.

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