How can I be truly repentant if I keep repeating the sin? What can I do?

[btritone]

How can I be truly sorry if I always go back to the same sin time after time. I cry over this, not only for my own salvation but because how much I hurt God by doing this. I feel like my sin is an addiction and I have great days away from it and other days where I feel I lose total control over my impulses.
The aftermath of my sin makes me desperate , lonely and sad. it also makes me feel unworthy of God’s love and that I am worthless and belong to satan. The only thing that ever makes me feel better is after I go to confession or what I heard the great eveangelical Charles Stanley say: “Satan does not need the non believer, he already has him. He wants the believer.” So I believe that the devil works extra hard to get my soul because he knows how much I love Jesus Christ. I try to go to weekly mass as much as possible, but someone said that I need people to pray over me to be healed. Any suggestions??? I am desperate.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear B,

Avoid those situations that tempt you. Just……don’t……go……there! Don’t go there physically if this applies. And certainly don’t go there in your mind. It is in our minds that sin begins.

The greater temptation for you (and most people) is the one that comes after the sin: the temptation to just give up on trying to be faithful to God. Nevertheless, it is most important that we put God first to begin with. Sin does just the opposite. In order to put God first all the time, we have to arrange all of our priorities. This can mean a real change in our daily routine. It definitely will involve some sacrifice. Our problem so often is that we want God, but we don’t want to give up the enjoyment that certain temptations give us. But at this point it is good to remember that He gave up—everything—as He hung on that cross of us. How much are we willing to love Him? How much are we willing to give up?

At the beginning of a temptation say this adaptation from a prayer from the Divine Mercy chaplet: “Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and in protection from all temptation. For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on me and on the whole world.”

I know of no other more powerful prayer because we are joining ourselves to the perfect prayer of His Son on the cross. Keep repeating it. Satan flees at such power and we become strong by it.

Write again if you need to. You are in my prayers.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.