(Post 1 of 2)
You’ve gotten alot of great advice already, so i’ll try not to make this to long,
first of all, to answer the title to your post “does God hate me”, the answer to that is simply no, He does not and cannot, God hates the sin and loves the sinner, and this particular sin, although mortal, is not the worst kind of sin, the sin God hates most are the ones against the first commandment “I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.”
and even those who commit sins against this commandment, are not hated,
it might seem strange to us what sins God hates over others, but we also have to remember that God sees things differently from us, or rather, we see things in a distorted way.
sins of the flesh are bad for many reasons, but one of the worst is that they enslave us, they are very hard to overcome, and impossible to overcome on your own, so don’t even attempt to go it alone, you need God to overcome this, we are told by the saints, that it is only when we neglect to ask God for help that we fall into sin,
so what you want to focus on first is seeking Gods help, just forget your pride, and do it, because that’s all that’s wanting in you right now, all God needs is your willingness, and then He can really work in you.
you need Him to beat your pride also, so just keep praying,
but as for some advice in actually overcoming this sin, first i would suggest keeping up a good prayer regimen, the rosary will help you very much, along with making sure to say your morning and night prayers promptly before sleeping and waking, and to have a set time to sleep and time to wake, here’s a site with alot of good prayers for morning and night(and in between)
catholictradition.org/prayers1.htm just don’t over-do it when it comes to prayers, if it causes you frustration or stress, cut back on some of them.
also, take up the practice of saying 3 Hail Mary’s in the morning and at night for the intentions of purity and holiness, which was the practice of Saint Maria Goretti, and which also helped me greatly in overcoming my own similar problems, the moment i began this practice was the moment i truly began to make progress, drastically.
another very good prayer to say is one you say at the moment any temptation to impurity shows up, whether by thought, sight, desire, or whatever else, say “Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, wash over me, protect me from the wickedness and snares of the devil” and then right after that “Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Saint Maria Goretti, Guardian Angel, help me.” and then immediately think of something else, or get yourself out of or away from what is causing your temptations, even if the temptation is to go somewhere or do something you know usually leads you into this sin, pray then too, do not give it a chance to enter your mind, pray and run! sins of the flesh must be fled from and never fought, and to do what you know always leads to this sin would also be mortally sinful, it is called an occasion of sin, so be careful with that too,
and don’t take it lightly, the Saints went to great lengths and extremes to avoid this sin, some threw themselves naked into the snow or thorn bushes, so if avoiding this sin means doing something like giving up the computer or tv or whatever other direct source of temptation, or at least getting a good internet filter, then do it,
but above all pray, and do not expose yourself to temptation, never trust yourself, even if you’ve made great progress, never put your guard down,
so daily prayers for Gods grace and Our Ladies special aid and protection, plus praying at the times of temptations and fleeing for those temptations, will help you greatly.
what will also help you greatly is confession and communion, go to confession as much as you need to, learn your sins with a good examination of conscience, and confess even your temptations to impurity, which really knocks the wind out of those temptations sales, and gives you more strength over them, go every day if you have to(for more than just this sin)
and only go to communion if you have no mortal sins on your soul that you are aware of, communion is the best time to petition Gods grace to grow in the virtues and resist sin, and also to grow more in love with Him, but you must never go unworthily, which would be a sacrilege, so be careful to learn your sins and go to confession often, which will also help you to keep track of your progress.
another help is, reading daily the lives and writings of the saints, many of which you can find here -
store.saintbenedict.com/index…chk=1&Itemid=1
and here -
www.tanbooks.com
the church recommends we read the lives of the saints daily to help teach and inspire us in virtue and in imitating Christ, Who the saints imitated so beautifully.
and these sites will help you very much too -
audiosancto.org/
youtube.com/user/CatholicClips#g/p
fultonsheen.com/Fulton-Sheen-MP3.cfm
keepthefaith.org/
