Anyone else struggle with sin?

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Anyone else struggle with sin? I reconverted about four years ago. Once I learned about the faith and mortal and venial sin I swore off sin for life… and it lasted about a week. Now even today, after four years of saying how much I love God, mostly in prayer to him, I commit sin. I feel like an adulterer against God. How could I possibly offend again and again after what he’s done for me. It seems like I’m determined to throw away my salvation and that my words of praise and love towards him are just lies. I thought by now I would have conquered sin and be working towards sainthood. I feel like I’m just fighting for a chance at purgatory in reality. Anyone else feel similar? Anyone else still struggle with sin? With how many people get the Eucharist every week at my parish I often feel like I am the only one sinning. I go to monthly confession but I will be lucky to participate in the Eucharist twice in a month.
 
I meant after converting/taking the faith seriously. It seems like so many people are able to live sinless lives except me on this and other Catholic forums.
 
We all struggle with sin. The just man sins 7 times a day, as Scripture (Proverbs 24:16) says.

The thing is, some people manage to keep the daily sins to venial sins. If your grave, possibly mortal, sins are so frequent that you can’t receive the Eucharist more than twice a month, then one of two things is going on: either you have some problem with habitually falling into grave sin (Porn and masturbation are two of the worst culprits) or else you may be being overscrupulous as to what is a grave, possibly mortal sin.

If you have some gravely sinful habit that you keep falling into, like porn, masturbation, fornication, drunkenness, etc then you should work on breaking the bad habit.
If you think you may be scrupulous then talk to a priest.

I personally don’t live the kind of lifestyle where I’d be in a position to commit grave sins regularly. When I was younger, I was probably more prone to temptation, but that stuff doesn’t interest me now. It doesn’t mean that I don’t get tempted once in a while, but when we aren’t having a pandemic, I typically go to Mass almost every day and I don’t want to have to be missing Communion the next day because I gave in to some stupid temptation the night before. That usually gets me to stop.
Riman643 said:
It seems like so many people are able to live sinless lives except me on this and other Catholic forums.
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Venial sin isn’t exactly “living a sinless life”. However, it does not prevent one from receiving Communion, if that’s the measure you’re using. Also, people can and do go to confession as needed to have grave sins absolved.

You also need to remember that we’re all in different places in our lives. I am an older person who committed so many grave sins when I was younger that they became boring and ultimately unfulfilling. I haven’t exactly lived a sinless life, more like the life of the Prodigal Son to be honest. Fortunately the Lord is merciful and forgiving. Those kinds of sins aren’t very interesting to me any more because I remember they made me unhappy in the end.
 
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either you have some problem with habitually falling into grave sin (Porn and masturbation are two of the worst culprits)
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Unfortunately you hit the nail on the head. It has been a nasty habit to break. I was able to give up alcohol seemingly overnight and barely touch the stuff. But those other two I’m lucky if I can last a week. I want to be able to stop the mortal sins, then the venial, then start doing pre-purgatory punishment. But it is really difficult.
 
I know there are resources for those who want to break a porn addiction. Maybe one of the other guys on here who has dealt with that problem can point you to some of them. I’m not so familiar with them because I didn’t have that particular problem.

You might try asking Mother Mary to help you the next time you feel the urge to sin. It’s kind of hard to have porn and Mother Mary in your mind at the same time. At least for me it is.
 
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Riman643 said:
I meant after converting/taking the faith seriously. It seems like so many people are able to live sinless lives except me on this and other Catholic forums.
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If you’re talking about porn and masturbation, I guarantee that the majority of men, at least younger men, have this problem to some degree. It’s just not something they do in public , obviously, or brag about, so you’re not aware of it. I’d really question your assumption that everyone is perfect in this area except you. A priest friend once told me that this is far and away the most common sin he hears about in confession.
 
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BroJames96 said:
I mean don’t most people engage in it with full knowledge anyway?
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I think it’s usually the consent that is more at issue. The catechism addresses this in the context of masturbation specifically.
 
BroJames96 said:
If someone struggles with a particular sin, does it make sense to go to confession frequently? Or does that not make sense? How does confession play with people struggling with sins?
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If someone is struggling with a habitual sin, probably best to mention that to the priest in confession and let him guide you on how often you should be confessing.
 
BroJames96 said:
If someone struggles with a particular sin, does it make sense to go to confession frequently? Or does that not make sense? How does confession play with people struggling with sins?
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If you think you may have committed a grave, possibly mortal sin, then you’re expected to go to confession before you receive Holy Communion. Most parishes have weekly confession, usually on Saturday, the idea being that you can go to confession on Saturday and be ready to receive Communion at the Mass you will attend for your Sunday obligation. People used to go to confession weekly and some still do. Others just go when they feel they’ve committed a mortal sin, or they have some other schedule for going when they’re not in mortal sin (like once every 2 months).

People who are conscious of frequently committing grave sins probably need to confess more frequently than those who don’t often commit grave sins. Regular confession is a good idea in any case, as the grace you get from the sacrament will help you to resist sin. If a priest feels that you’re confessing too frequently, or falling into the same sin too frequently, he will tell you that.
 
One famous definition of “saint” is “a sinner who never stopped trying.” Whatever your sin is, just keep on trying to avoid it. It’s the Chumbawamba path to righteousness: you get knocked down, but you get up again. Then just don’t get knocked down again right now. You can worry about five minutes from now in five minutes.

God is way more merciful than some give Him credit for; and far, far more merciful than we deserve. We all sin. Deal with it. Try to avoid sinning the next time. And praise God for His mercy.
 
Riman643 said:
Anyone else struggle with sin? I reconverted about four years ago. Once I learned about the faith and mortal and venial sin I swore off sin for life… and it lasted about a week. Now even today, after four years of saying how much I love God, mostly in prayer to him, I commit sin. I feel like an adulterer against God. How could I possibly offend again and again after what he’s done for me. It seems like I’m determined to throw away my salvation and that my words of praise and love towards him are just lies. I thought by now I would have conquered sin and be working towards sainthood. I feel like I’m just fighting for a chance at purgatory in reality. Anyone else feel similar? Anyone else still struggle with sin? With how many people get the Eucharist every week at my parish I often feel like I am the only one sinning. I go to monthly confession but I will be lucky to participate in the Eucharist twice in a month.
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A person does not conquer sin, rather the Holy Trinity through grace with a person’s willful cooperation does.

What does it mean to mortally sin? It is a grave voluntary choice made after reflection, not to cooperate. “I don’t love you” is implied, so it is a loss of friendship with the Holy Trinity.
 
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Every human on earth has committed at least 2 sins expect for Jesus and maybe Mary.
We all have committed some type of sin whether it’s big or small.
 
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I miss the mark every day.
Some days are better than others.
I get knocked down, but I get up again.
 
Nope, you’re the only one who struggles with sin. Except for maybe a few others. Just keep fighting-it’s a good fight. Sometimes you’ll feel like a failure but we’re to do the best we can with what we have and what we know-and things will change and God is infinitely patient and desires our victory. Changes can be slow.
 
oneanswer said:
religious leadership was yokeing the people to rules that were false
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Are you suggesting this about the need for confession and the requirement to receive the Eucharist free from mortal sin?
 
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