Choosing to sin so easily

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Eccp19

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Last night,
I committed a series of mortal sins (sexual related) - none of which I am proud of. The thing that I don’t understand is why I was able to that easily? I have been working very hard at allowing God to fill me with His grace and love, and I have also been working hard in my prayer life to avoid sinning. How is it then that I just dropped everything and “gave up” for a night?

I don’t understand this. And I know how serious I offended God, but I wish I felt more guilty. I don’t want to feel indifferent, perhaps its because I committed one of the same sins a few days ago and felt really bad then? Or perhaps it was because alcohol was involved?

I know how much God hates what I did…and I want to hate it just as much, ya know?
 
Don’t worry, we all understand! After all, we are all sinners. You are so right; it is very easy to give into sin…whether venial or mortal. You want to know why? Because it is in our human nature. But thanks be to God, our Lord forgives us* every time* we sin…no matter what - as long as we are truly sorry and desire to please Him rather than ourselves.

Are you a practicing Catholic?
 
Hi Eccp and welcome to the forums.

I know what you mean. This last week, I slipped back into some sexual sin that I have been fighting to overcome. I can probably rationalize 100 reasons why, but in the end I knew better and I did it anyway.

I once heard that until we finally get to Heaven, we will not know how much the smallest venial sin hurts God and yet he continues to love and forgive us. Keep that in mind, no matter how human and weak we are, he continues to love and forgive us.

Salvation is a journey. Sometimes we go straight ahead and sometimes we stumble and fall. If each fall makes us stronger, we are still on the right path. Jesus is always there to help us up, but we have to reach out our hand (i.e. we have to make the effort to want to get better).

As lil_flower asked, I don’t know if you are Catholic or not. I “picked myself” up again by going to reconcillation this morning. If you are, then I lovingly suggest that is where you need to go. If you are not, you should be :D.

Know in either case I will pray for you for strength to resist temptation.
 
If you figure out the answer, can you let the rest of us know? 😃

The truth is, in the short term, it’s just easier to give in. Resisting temptation is hard work, and sometimes we just don’t want to make the effort. Especially when that temptation is geared toward something particularly enjoyable. The fact that you’re here posting says that God is working on your conscience, and pulling you back toward Himself. He knows us, He knows that we are weak. He also knows that we can do better, and as long as you are open to Him, He’ll keep steering you back in the right direction. Hang in there!!
 
I don’t really know how to answer your question.

But my advice is to remain faithful. Immediately after sinning, seek the sacrament of reconciliation with a contrite heart, do penance. Avoid temptation and being near occasions of sin. Examine your conscience daily. Make time to pray the Rosary often. Spend time with the Blessed Sacrament. Fast regularly. Meditate on the Stations of the Cross.

I’ve been reading some of these works of Fr. Hardon. I think some of these things will help you as they have helped me.
 
Here is what works for me… I always remind myself to “avoid the near occasion of sin” which is in the Act of Contrition prayer.

What happens is… that if you sin the first time and you keep doing it over and over…then you become desensitized to the guilty feelings and you nolonger feel guilty.
So you think it is okay to keep on committing the same sin over and over.

What I do is the moment I am close to committing a sin I back off remembering that once I get started I will just keep on committing the same sin over and over and being pushed outside of God’s Light and Grace. I prefer to stay in God’s Grace and Light.

We were all born to be sexual beings so I do think it is hard for some people who have strong urges to not be able to resist their sexual feelings. That is a problem for a lot of people. But God is a forgiving God who will forgive you.

It will help you a lot to go to confession right away to get back in God’s Grace.

There is a funny song where the male singer is in love with a woman and just wants to have sex with her. So he asks God to forgive him in advance because he is planning to see her again for sex.LOL. “DUH”…

My advice is just to get married and your problem may be solved. I am guessing.
 
LaLucia said:
Here is what works for me… I always remind myself to “avoid the near occasion of sin” which is in the Act of Contrition prayer.

What happens is… that if you sin the first time and you keep doing it over and over…then you become desensitized to the guilty feelings and you nolonger feel guilty.
So you think it is okay to keep on committing the same sin over and over.

What I do is the moment I am close to committing a sin I back off remembering that once I get started I will just keep on committing the same sin over and over and being pushed outside of God’s Light and Grace. I prefer to stay in God’s Grace and Light.

We were all born to be sexual beings so I do think it is hard for some people who have strong urges to not be able to resist their sexual feelings. That is a problem for a lot of people. But God is a forgiving God who will forgive you.

It will help you a lot to go to confession right away to get back in God’s Grace.

There is a funny song where the male singer is in love with a woman and just wants to have sex with her. So he asks God to forgive him in advance because he is planning to see her again for sex.LOL. “DUH”…

My advice is just to get married and your problem may be solved. I am guessing.
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I wonder whether someone here give a new deal…http://www.*********.com/img/4713/n09x0302vnsn/clear.gif
 
Those confounded sexual sins are real difficult nuts to crack.

They affect everyone differently & recovering from them or gaining freedom from them ( if they are/were a habit of some longstanding) can be extremely difficult.

Prayer, more Prayer, CONFESSION time & again as required, and ask Mary to intervene on your behalf as well. These are Bad Sins, constant Prayer & vigilance is required. Change your Habits and associations etc to eliminate or avoid those tempting circumstances.

If you slip & fall, Pick yourself back up & repeat the above paragraph.

Make no bones about it you are in for one “hell” of a fight. But if you’ve peeked at the ending, You Know that if you are on GOD’s side you will WIN…
 
Thank you all for your encouraging posts.

I am not officially Catholic (in RCIA) but am Catholic to the bone nonetheless. I can’t go to confession until closer to Easter Vigil.

I will agree how powerful Mary is. There was this one particular occassion (story time) about 3 months ago. I was being assaulted on all sides to commit sexual sin. I immediately prayed the Rosary and it went away. Then I went to the gym and I was upstairs by myself with no one around on a stair-master. All of a sudden, this georgeous model barely clothed was parading in front of me on the television. It was too much and I started to let all the lust in…and then I started smelling roses =). The temptation was gone and I started thinking about what true beauty and femeninity is - Mary!

Praise God and God bless all of you!
 
Eccp19, “WOW”! Blessed Mother MARY was there to help you to avoid the near occasion of sin. YEAH!!! YES, IT WAS MOTHER MARY who was there to help you out.
I also have had the experience of smelling her flowers and also seeing her in a vision.

Blessed Mother Mary is also with me and takes care of me. I used to have a sinful problem and had gone for therapy for years for my problems. But after I went to confession I most never committ that sin again and the minute I do I run to my priest to comfess the sin. I don’t want to fall back into my old sinful habits.

I have wonderful caring priests and they are always kind to me when I go to confession.
They know me and care about me.

Recently I almost committed a sin but I thought about having to go to confession and I changed my mind. “WHEW”. It was a small sin but a sin that can escalate to becoming a larger problem for me. I do like going to confession because my priests give me good advice. They were the first therapists in the world. I don’t need to go to therapy anymore.
 
Eccp19 said:
Thank you all for your encouraging posts.

I am not officially Catholic (in RCIA) but am Catholic to the bone nonetheless. I can’t go to confession until closer to Easter Vigil.

I will agree how powerful Mary is. There was this one particular occassion (story time) about 3 months ago. I was being assaulted on all sides to commit sexual sin. I immediately prayed the Rosary and it went away. Then I went to the gym and I was upstairs by myself with no one around on a stair-master. All of a sudden, this georgeous model barely clothed was parading in front of me on the television. It was too much and I started to let all the lust in…and then I started smelling roses =). The temptation was gone and I started thinking about what true beauty and femeninity is - Mary!

Praise God and God bless all of you!
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God bless you Eccp…

It is so important to know that we can do nothing by ourselves. When we have victory, victory, victory with never a fall, we tend to forget our weakness. God isn’t pleased when we sin but neither is He pleased if we begin to think we are holy. So the more we cultivate humility, the more grace He can give us. But the problem is that the more grace we get, we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are holy. So it usually takes time to learn how to grow in grace without getting uppity about it. It seems sometimes like it is more important to God that we know beyond doubt that we are capable apart from grace of the most hideous acts, than that we always behave ourselves.

So…Take your lesson, get up, and move on, forming a good intention to avoid occasions of this sin, asking God for abiding sense of sorrow for your sin, and of course to make your good confession so soon as possible. Resolve never to do this as often as you do it. Go to confession as often as you do it. Be ashamed, but repeat the same confession over and over if you must. I have heard it said that never was there a sinful habit so stubborn that it would not yield to regular, determined sacramental confession. You can believe it.

God bless,

Rory
 
It takes time and effort to work up a good hate. Put in the effort, and put in the prayers. 🙂

And make certain, absolutely certain you have put away the near occasions of sin from your life.

Normally God will not give people the grace to overcome a sin until they give up its near occasion, and many people want to have their cake and eat it too, and so never give it up and never stop the sin.
 
Eccp19 said:
I don’t understand this. And I know how serious I offended God, but I wish I felt more guilty. I don’t want to feel indifferent, perhaps its because I committed one of the same sins a few days ago and felt really bad then? Or perhaps it was because alcohol was involved?

I know how much God hates what I did…and I want to hate it just as much, ya know?
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Yep, been there. At times, I too have felt little remorse, at least at first. I make the more fervent prayer I can to hate the sin as Our Lord hates the sin. I just keep asking God for this grace until I begin to feel remorse. Over time this has helped immensely.

God bless you, dear one.

Gertie
 
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