Evil thoughts - have I crossed the line?

  • Thread starter Thread starter timmyo
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

timmyo

Guest
I have battled with scrupulosity over the past year or two, so I find myself in quandries all the time. I am slowly working my way out of this spiritual pit with God’s help. I wish that information on scrupulosity was more public. I didn’t even know what the word meant until recently. Please give me your advice on a situation if you can.

I had a daydream about something that would be gravely sinful if the act was actually committed. I have no intention of ever committing the sinful act, but for some reason I was playing out the act in my head for something like a minute or two. My mind wanders alot and I find myself thinking about strange scenarios. As soon as I realized where my mind had taken me, I stopped the thought and re-focussed on the real world.

Do you think I sinned?
 
I do not think you have sinned. And you certainly have not sinned mortally. If, as soon as you realized where your mind had wandered to, you stopped the thought, you have not sinned. We don’t always have control over our thoughts, especially if you are prone to scrupulosity. If you had full control over your thoughts, the scrupulosity wouldn’t be a problem! 😃 Be at peace, and do try to enlist the help of a solid priest who can counsel you. 🙂
 
40.png
timmyo:
I have battled with scrupulosity over the past year or two, so I find myself in quandries all the time. I am slowly working my way out of this spiritual pit with God’s help. I wish that information on scrupulosity was more public. I didn’t even know what the word meant until recently. Please give me your advice on a situation if you can.

I had a daydream about something that would be gravely sinful if the act was actually committed. I have no intention of ever committing the sinful act, but for some reason I was playing out the act in my head for something like a minute or two. My mind wanders alot and I find myself thinking about strange scenarios. As soon as I realized where my mind had taken me, I stopped the thought and re-focussed on the real world.

Do you think I sinned?
Click to expand...
I agree with Affirmed - my mind wanders quite a bit, as soon as I realize where it went to - I refocused.
 
I have that problem quite often!

Your not alone my friend, I sure hope its not a mortal sin cause I had communion the other day! :eek:

Evanescence
 
Here’s a trick- If you don’t know if it’s a mortal sin, then it isn’t. Not for you. 🙂
 
To be culpable (i.e. guilty) of sin, it requires intent. So your mind wandered–obviously you did not intend to indulge in sinful fantasy.
 
Dr. Colossus:
To be culpable (i.e. guilty) of sin, it requires intent. So your mind wandered–obviously you did not intend to indulge in sinful fantasy.
Click to expand...
But you are obviously required to fix the situation as soon as you recognize it.
Too many people would want to use ignorance as an excuse to sin
 
I guess most people have that problem, sometimes your thoughts can get you into trouble, that is if you committed the act after you thought of it, then it becomes a sin. But sometimes when I think of things that are not of God, I would say Jesus have mercy on me a sinner, or you can say Holy Spirit of god I offer you that thought for healing. 👍

Be blessed
 
Don’t forget to ask for forgiveness from Our Lord the moment you realize what was happening, then get to confession at the next opportunity.

You may also be under spiritual attack, so recite the St. Michael prayer:

St. Michael the archangel, defend us in battle, protect us from the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell satan and all evil spirits who prowl about the earth seeking the destruction of souls.
 
If you struggle from scrupulosity, you should NOT be asking the opinions of people on a message board! Please find a regular, consistent confessor and tell him about your scruples. Most priests are trained to deal with scrupulosity. ONLY go to this priest for confession and spiritual guidance and obey your priest.

Don’t worry about the priest being wrong. That’s his problem and God will hold HIM accountable if he gives you wrong advice. Tell God “I’m gong to trust in Father So-and-so” and leave the rest to God."

God does not want you to suffer or beat yourself up or miss out on the joys of His mercy.

And stop asking people’s opinions on here! You could run into people who have bad advice, or suffer from scrupulosity, themselves, or even plain old trolls who want to play with you. Confide only in your priest, and try to make that only in ONE priest.
 
40.png
Affirmed:
Here’s a trick- If you don’t know if it’s a mortal sin, then it isn’t. Not for you. 🙂
Click to expand...
To quote a convert, “Perfectly phrased, and quite as true as any observation in civilized life ought to be.”

I think you found a slogan, Affirmed! We ought to put out informative TV spots on this, and then list all the things that are mortal sins. At the end, we’ll say: “You used to be innocent, but now you know!”

🙂
 
Here is the adivice my priest gave me after my confession.

" Any time you are inclinced to sin or a thought, whether sexual or not, comes into you head, immediatly offer the temptation up to Jesus. Ask Jesus to help you see people as He sees them."

I started doing this anytime I am inclinced to sin and it is amazing…but it works!! By the Grace of God it helps me to overcome the temptation to sin.
 
I don’t believe you sinned. The key is banishing those thoughts from your mind as soon as you realized what you were doing. Had you continued on daydreaming about the sinful things after you realized the wrongness of it then you’ve crossed the line.
 
40.png
katybird:
If you struggle from scrupulosity, you should NOT be asking the opinions of people on a message board! Please find a regular, consistent confessor and tell him about your scruples. Most priests are trained to deal with scrupulosity. ONLY go to this priest for confession and spiritual guidance and obey your priest.

Don’t worry about the priest being wrong. That’s his problem and God will hold HIM accountable if he gives you wrong advice. Tell God “I’m gong to trust in Father So-and-so” and leave the rest to God."

God does not want you to suffer or beat yourself up or miss out on the joys of His mercy.

And stop asking people’s opinions on here! You could run into people who have bad advice, or suffer from scrupulosity, themselves, or even plain old trolls who want to play with you. Confide only in your priest, and try to make that only in ONE priest.
Click to expand...
Excellent advice. It saved my soul many years ago. 👍
 
40.png
timmyo:
I have battled with scrupulosity over the past year or two, so I find myself in quandries all the time. I ?
Click to expand...
It is extremely important for a person who struggles with scrupulosity to confess to one priest and to follow his advice and spiritual direction. Priest shopping can add to the problem and confusion that are part of this spiritual struggle. It follows that it is not helpful, and may be harmful to ask advice from others, especially strangers on an internet forum. Please stick with your priest and follow his counsel, asking such questions here will not be fruitful for you.
 
My Friend,

I am not whether you are aware of this, but there is another thread within Moral Theology that is curently discussing the same topic of evil/unwanted thoughts.
**Need Help re. Unwanted thoughts
ItrustJesus **
This is the thread and the name of the person who created it. You will find my name as the last person to post on the thread. The best solution I can offer you, is the same that I offered [ItrustJesus] in his thread. I will post copies of the posts I made in that thread here so you understand what I’m talking about.
Originally Posted by ItrustJesus
  1. If sinful thoughts suddenly come into your head, but you have not consented/freely chosen to think them, but they just seemed to appear without warning, and you then pushed the thoughts away quickly, without accepting them, would this be a sin?
Click to expand...
  1. Why do unwanted/unconsented thoughts come into peoples heads. Is it the devil doing this and is it therefore spiritual warfare?
Click to expand...
My friend,

I like you, over the years, have been plagued by this evil as well. And to a certain extent, I am still fighting evil thoughts of every kind. I believe that I can offer some advice in this area, which should hopefully keep you from these thoughts, for this is how I am able to keep myself free of them.

I am fond of quoting Father John Corapi ,who has done a televised lecture of the entire Catechism…UNBELIEVABLE…Fr. Corapi states that temptation is not a sin. it is only a temptation, and should be treated as such. It all depends on what you do with the temptation. The temptation only becomes a sin when you give into whatever it is that is tempting you, by action or possibly speech of some kind. In your case, if you are being plagued by angry thoughts, the only time it would become a sin (according to Fr. Corapi) would be if you went into an angry rant against that person. Technically speaking, whenever you have any thought that you think has evil origins, you should and must dismiss it immediately, to prevent yourself from being further tempted by it, and falling into a state of sin. But to answer your question, which has been confirmed by just about everyone else in the thread, unwanted thoughts are not naturally sinful, and as long as you dismiss then immediately, and continually do so, for I have found that you can’t simply say no, they (he) will continually come after you, and you must have the proper “ammunition” to continually dismiss them. I’ll get to this a little later.

To also answer your other question, yes, it is satan, lucifer, whatever you want to call him, in my opinion, and his evil minions. they are the ones who are constantly driving these thoughts into your mind, and trying to deceive and manipulate you, in order for you to sin (which, considering society today, I would say they are succeeding, which we must stop). You use a good metaphor in saying “spiritual warfare”, which is a good way of describing it. This brings me to something else I am fond of saying, originally from my cousin, who consults w/ BC Dep. of Theology (Boston College Department of Theology), that **the angel of darkness will always appear as an angel of light, and we all must know the faith in order to fight him. this is the ammunition that I was getting to earlier. THE FAITH.
**
The best way, really the only way, that I have found to be successful in fighting satan in all his forms is of course, being active in the Faith and the Church. But given today’s society, which is bordering on the description/fulfillment of some revelational/apocalyptic prophecies, that is especially…especially hard. but trust me, it is the only way. WE MUST IMMERSE OURSELVES IN THE FAITH… This is the only way that I have found refuge from the evils of the world, which are many. One simple way of avioding unwanted thoughts that I have found is to pray, right when you have an unwanted thought, for Fr. Corapi also says that evil and prayer cannot coincide and that if you pray hard enough, the evil thought will eventully dissipate. I believe others have mentioned this as well. Pray the Our Father, or the Hail Mary, and an Act of Contrition even, or even a prayer for the person or emotion your thinking about. Offer it up as others have said, to God to take away from you. Believe me, throught prayer, anything is possible.Now, I’m not saying to go join the seminary, but we as lay Catholics must become more active in the Church than any other generation has had to be in the past…we are at the gates of a dominantly evil world, and we must fight it. I don’t mean to sound mean with the word evil, but it is true. Our society has become what Aldous Huxley predicted 70 years ago and George Orwell predicted 50 years ago. (read “Brave New World” and “1984” OBJECTIVELY) This is what I mean by evil. And the only way to fight it is to immerse ourselves in the Church, in Jesus Christ.

(CONTINUED IN NEXT POST)
 
Default Re: Need Help re. Unwanted thoughts
TAKE me for example. 2 years ago, I was one of those lazy American Catholics who thought that going to mass once a week was good enough. To be completely honest, I lived in complete sin, both mentally and physically, and only went to Mass weekly with my elderly grandmother, not because I wanted to (All I wanted was the free food that came afterwards!). After my grandmother died, who was the reason I went to Church, I began to realize the truth about the world around me, the error of my ways, and began reading the Bible and the Catechism, which not only reinforced my notions, but showed what more I needed to do to really be a Catholic. Now at 18 years old, by the Grace of God, I am now a member of three different Catholic youth groups, leader of one, and also a teacher in my local religious education program. All of this came to me because I immersed myself in the Faith and Church teachings, and still am. Mind you, I may have no intentions of becoming a Priest or theologian, but it is my strong belief that today, we can not afford to leave it to the few and proud (and hopefully the many once again) Priests and theologians to tell us what to do, we must take it upon ourselves to read the Bible, the Catechism, and KNOW THE FAITH. Pope Benedict XVI himself was the one who said recently that lay Catholics around the world must “immerse themselves in the faith and the eternal word”. I did not hear this myself, but when it comes to taking the word of Scott Hahn, one of, and in my opinion, THE foremost Christian and Catholic theologian in the world, I’ll take his word for it, especially when it’s in person. (also unbelievable)

TO THIS DAY…I still have unwanted thoughts, but you may ask yourself how I accomplish so much and still be tempted daily; it is the simple, but undeniably strenuous concept of immersing myself in the Faith and Church. Trust in me, Scott Hahn, and Pope Benedict XVI, when we say that you must immerse yourself in the Church to be saved from evil of every kind. I realize your probably scared half to death after that reading this, and although you should fear The Lord, don’t fear my words. I said them to help you, not scare you. I think I can relate to your situation better than most because I was there and to extent still am; I know what it is like to constantly give into unwanted thoughts. Looking back honestly, I spent a good 7 years as a slave to my senses, desires, and ultimately, satan. I was his lapdog and I lapped it up. By the Grace of God though, I have repented my evil ways, and am weaning myself off my evil through self-discipline, hard work, and of course, immersing myself in Church activities. And you know what…IT’S WORKING! And in my opinion, is the only way for Catholics of ALL AGES to survive. Remember this, of my own intuition…satan doesn’t care whether you’re young or old, man or woman, black or white (or green or yellow or pink for that matter), or even WHAT YOU BELIEVE…he attacks all people of every religion and kind on the face of this earth. The only way to survive is to fight him with divinity through the Church.

Grace of Christ and continue to trust in Jesus and his Church,

R.A.H.
 
40.png
katybird:
If you struggle from scrupulosity, you should NOT be asking the opinions of people on a message board!
Click to expand...
True. Affirmation in numbers is not the route to go. It is not morally safe.
40.png
katybird:
Please find a regular, consistent confessor and tell him about your scruples.
Click to expand...
And that priest may ask you to see a psychotherapist. Scrupulosity may be a symptom of Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, or the ruminations associated with depression. These things need treatment and can be treated successfully.

The flip side of scrupulosity is that it buys into the notion that one can take care of things oneself. If one is scrupulous enough, one is OK. This was Luther’s mistake. Whatever you do, get help; not affirmation, help.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top