Help! I need to know whether or not I'm committing a mortal sin!

[Gift_from_God]

After racing back to the Catholic Church, I obviously needed to give up masturbation. Being 18, I still have the sexuality of an adolescent and when I’m alone and feeling aroused or have the need to masturbate, I tend to lay on my stomach and not “do” anything I shouldn’t be until the feeling goes away. I have tried doing other activities, but the urge still stays with me. However, I seem to notice that I ejaculate time to time when I lay on the floor. This has me a little bit worried. Am I committing a mortal sin, or is it just something normal?

 

[Whitacre_Girl]

The first rule about a mortal sin is: If you have to ask if you are committing one, you can be assured that you haven’t. One of the qualifications is that you know the sin is a mortal sin, and you fully choose to do it anyway with a sound mind and body.

My best guess, based on the situation you have described is that at worst its a venial sin. I admit, I don’t know enough about the male body to tell you if that is “normal,” but you aren’t actively seeking orgasm or sexual pleasure (quite the opposite, it seems), so don’t worry about it. If this happens and you aren’t purposefully giving yourself sexual pleasure or harboring lustful thoughts, then you aren’t doing anything wrong so you aren’t sinning at all.

If you want to know if it’s normal in a biological sense, ask a trusted male friend or family member or maybe a doctor.

Lastly, don’t be too hard on yourself. Remember: “Love God, and do as you will.”

 

[willofgods]

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. “Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.” “The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose.” For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of “the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved.”
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.

The last part in no way means you should stop trying to be pure. You and God know your intentions, and it looks like you’re truly fighting, so He is proud of you, so keep up the good fight:knight2:!