Consecration Bracelets - How Does This Work (btw I'm Orthodox, can I still do this?)

[Maxim1982]

Hi everyone. I should start by saying that although I was born, baptised, and grew up Roman Catholic, I converted to Orthodoxy last year. But the particular problem I have, I hate to say, I am having so much difficulty fighting, even with saying Jesus Prayer and Rosary. I still can’t seem to fight off the temptation to self-abuse/self-pollute. I have however given up pornography, but the urges to self-abuse just don’t stop nagging me. my body has been so used to it for all these years of not really having a truly active faith and prayer life until this past year.

Thats where the consecration bracelets come in. Now obviously this is something my church does not do and most Orthodox priests would not endorse, but I don’t know what else to do. The consecration to the Virgin Mary doesn’t seem like something that would be heretical to me, as we too venerate her. And having this specific sacramental is really my only option it seems, nothing else seems to be helping me to eradicate this habit!! My questions are this:

1. After you finish the 33 days of prayers and acquire a bracele, do you have to get a priest to bless this bracelet? Virtually nothing online seems to say this, or pehaps it is already assumed.
2. Is it ok that I do these prayers and have this sacramental even though I am now Orthodox? I would assume so but I don’t know.

I really just am at my wits end here. This has been so, so very difficult for me and I really do want to conquer this awful sin that modern culture perpetuates and even encourages, but I have literally tried everything. I feel like this might help. Thoughts please?

 

[ReaderT]

Another Orthodox! “Again and again in peace…!”

But the particular problem I have, I hate to say, I am having so much difficulty fighting, even with saying Jesus Prayer and Rosary. I still can’t seem to fight off the temptation to self-abuse/self-pollute. I have however given up pornography, but the urges to self-abuse just don’t stop nagging me. my body has been so used to it for all these years of not really having a truly active faith and prayer life until this past year.

Brother,
The struggle you have is not uncommon or unheard of in our churches. Many men take years to overcome it. I know a fellow Reader who has the problem “every three days” and have even heard (albeit second-hand) of some monks with the issue.

An Elder or Saint (I forget who) said “God permits us to fail sometimes - even many times, and collect a lot of zeroes. But one day, by His grace, He puts a “one” in front of them.”

Also - the fact that your body has been used to this for years really lessens your responsibility in my opinion. The body wants what it wants, whether that’s caffeine, cigarettes, or any other pleasurable activity. Self-abuse is a strong urge for most men.

 

[Maxim1982]

Amen. Thank you for your kind words of support. I don’t think some, namely women, truly understand, and I mean TRULY understand, what this filthy modern culture has done to us. It damaged us very early in our youth, using our sexual drive against us by disordering it and then enslaving us to it. Many of us fight so hard to overcome it but it is proving to be a lifelong struggle. I pray to the Mother of God and to Christ and the saints every morning and night, and then some, but I can’t seem to beat it. i don’t want this deep down, i really just want it switched off, but my body and my lower instincts crave it. I wish I could somehow be delivered of some responsibility because after a week of holding out it literally feels painful, like I need to do it or I won’t relieve the pain. My wife is sick so she can’t be intimate most of the time, which makes it all the more difficult. I am hoping that through this devotional I can be delivered from this, or at least be granted some strength to resist it. Lord have mercy on me.