Avoiding Temptation

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AVOIDING TEMPTATION

Our Men’s Spirituality Group is discussing ways to deal with temptation … and especially with mortal sins. Understanding there is no formula for this, or we would already know about it, what are some of the ways each of us responds when he feels a mortal sin coming on?

Should we pray the Our Father?

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
 
  1. I immediately start silently praying the Our Father when I think I am being tempted, to avoid the rationalization steps into sin.
  2. When I come across something that is more problematic and harder to avoid, twice now I have promised Jesus personally I would not do that. My word is so important to me, that has worked twice in a row - never went back!
  3. I go to Mass more if I feel I am slipping down the slope and caring more for secular and less for spiritual life.
  4. I pray to St. Benedict every morning:
O glorious St. Benedict, sublime model of all virtues, pure vessel of God’s grace! Behold me, humbly kneeling at thy feet. I implore thy loving heart to pray for me before the throne of God. To thee I have recourse in all the dangers which daily surround me. Shield me against my enemies, inspire me to imitate thee in all things. May thy blessing be with me always, so that I may shun whatever God forbids and avoid the occasions of sin.

Graciously obtain for me from God those favors and graces of which I stand so much in need, in the trials, miseries and afflictions of life. Thy heart was always so full of love, compassion, and mercy towards those who were afflicted or troubled in any way. Thou didst never dismiss without consolation and assistance any one who had re-course to thee. I therefore invoke thy powerful intercession, in the confident hope that thou wilt hear my prayers and obtain for me the special grace and favor I so earnestly implore (mention it), if it be for the greater glory of God and the welfare of my soul.
 
I also find the prayer to St. Michael to be helpful

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray
And do thou, o Prince of the heavenly host,
Cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits
Who roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
 
There are tried and true remedies for temptations to sin. For example,

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7

Resist him [the devil], firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. **1Peter 5:9 **

Presuming you are talking about sexual temptation (the kind most men struggle with), the above is good advice. Other good defensive moves.
  1. Avoid placing yourself in situations where it’s liable you will have near occasions of sin. If watching certain shows on TV (or TV in general) is your problem, cut it out of your life (this is what Jesus meant by Matthew 5:27-30, not his literal words!).
  2. Avoid hanging around with individuals that place you in such situations.
  3. Learn to avert your eyes. Oggling women sometimes becomes an ingrained, almost involuntary, habit, and the only way to break a habit is to develop one to take it’s place.
  4. If you are married, make it a priorty to strengthen your relationship with your wife. I just finished reading “The Five Love Languages” and I highly recommend it (they have one just for men).
  5. Learn a short, easily remembered Scripture verse or prayer to help you through the rough spots. My personal favorite is the “Jesus Prayer.”
**“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God; have mercy on me a sinner.” **

Repeat as necessary.
 
FIDELIS

I especially liked items 3 & 4 combined.

Exactly … replace bad habits with good ones!

God bless.
 
Gilbert Keith:
FIDELIS
I especially liked items 3 & 4 combined.
Exactly … replace bad habits with good ones!
God bless.
Click to expand...
I must have been editing my post when you posted this :o , so you probably meant (what is now) 3 & 5.

Regardless…I agree! 😃
 
This is an old thread but a timely topic.

I suppose we all have to first identify that we are having a temptation, if we have any chance of avoiding it. Instead of focusing on the action (a) that is tempting us, we should change the context of our thinking to T(a), that is that we are having a Temptation to (a).

There’s probably a lot to be said, once we recognize that we are having a temptation.
  1. We should remind ourself that (a) is sinful. Lots of people don’t think about this or even know what is sinful (right from wrong).
  2. Learn to recognize that we can overcome our temptations
  3. Learn to recognize that temptations will pass in a few minutes, so that we can focus us on something else with confidence about the outcome
  4. As other posts have said, develop specific or general counter-actions to take us away from (a) and T(a).
There’s probably lots of advice in the writings over the centuries from Catholic thinkers.
 
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