Is saying ge-z a mortal sin?

[Guest Matt]

PI said g--z in response to something that suprised me. I knew that this was a grave matter because I have said it in the past and have tried to restrain myself from saying it. Although, I didn't deliberately intend to offend God by saying this as I was suprised and it happened to slip out without  thinking. Is this a mortal sin?

P.S. Sorry for asking so many questions on here

[Luigi]

"Geez" is not the-name-of-the-Lord. I don't think you've got anything like grave matter here.

Many, many curse words have euphemistic forms:

- Geez, Geezo peezo, Geez Louise, Geemeny Christmas, maybe even that weakest of all exclamations, "gee whiz." Once people start playing around with these substitute words, they get very creative.

- Gosh, golly, golly Moses for "God."

- Dang, darn, and drat for "beaver dam" or "damned." "To beaver dam" is just a regular old verb. It becomes a curse word only if a person uses it in a blasphemous way, usurping God's authority to beaver dam someone. For instance, if "beaver dam you" is a shortened form of "I beaver dam you," then you're usurping God's power. Or if you call upon God to beaver dam someone, as in "God beaver dam you" - we really shouldn't entreat God to send our brothers & sisters to hell. 

- I knew a nun who used to say, "If you don't like it, you can kiss my stinking foot!" Clearly a substitute for another body part.

- My mother sometimes uses Spoonerisms and/or spelling to skirt around cursing, as in, "The whole famn damily is going to H - E - double-matchsticks!"

One doesn't want to get too technical about the words. The attitude is more important than the sounds that come out of your mouth. If you're speaking in anger, the sin is in the anger, not in the words. If you're calling on the name of the Lord in a moment of danger or shock, it really is more of a prayer than anything else. When they called to tell me that my sister had died quite suddenly, my reaction was "Dear God!" but it really was more like a shortened form of "God come to my assistance, Lord make haste to help me!" It's about attitudes and intentions, not about speech sounds.