How do I stop sinning all the time?

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Dogmatic

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In thought, word, and deed my sin is always before me! How can I stop, what can I read that will make me fed up with my sins to the point I’ll stop? I’ve had compunction before, but I just can’t feel agony over my sins anymore and I don’t know how to quit?

In other words, how do I develop a deep conscience?
 
I have one word for you…pray. Get up extra early and pray. Every little bit of free time that you have…spend it praying. Always have a prayer in your heart as you go about your day. The greatest saints who ever existed prayed for hours a day. The more you pray, the more Christlike you become.

Hope that helps.
 
Sorry, but it ain’t gonna happen while you still walk this earth.

That’s why God gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Just don’t surrender. Keep fighting as a soldier of the Church Militant and you can expect to persevere to the end.
 
MrsFlapjack said:
I have one word for you…pray. Get up extra early and pray. Every little bit of free time that you have…spend it praying. Always have a prayer in your heart as you go about your day. The greatest saints who ever existed prayed for hours a day. The more you pray, the more Christlike you become.

Hope that helps.
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Very well said, the only thing I might add is make your regular prayer the Rosary. Pray it slowly and meditively. It is said that “Mind works anti-meditively and Soul works meditively” **The Rosary is incredible.
**
John 19:27
Eddy Barry
 
We are all creatures of habit… It’s the bad habits we want to rid ourselves of… Most bad habits are sin… I could list the most common, and yours may be among them… But I won’t…

These are known as habitual sin and they have a powerful hold on us.

Sit down with your priest and ask him to help you develop a program that will work for you… The 12 step program, used with a priest as your mentor may work.
  • [**Step 1**](http://www.12step.org/Step-1.html) - **We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable**
  • [**Step 2**](http://www.12step.org/Step-2.html) - **Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity (For Catholics, this is Christ Jesus)**
  • [**Step 3**](http://www.12step.org/Step-3.html) - **Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God (For Catholics, this is Christ Jesus)**
  • [**Step 4**](http://www.12step.org/Step-4.html) - **Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves (For Catholics, this can be done in the confessional)**
  • [**Step 5**](http://www.12step.org/Step-5.html) - **Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs (This can be done in the confessional)**
  • [**Step 6**](http://www.12step.org/Step-6.html) - **Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character**
  • [**Step 7**](http://www.12step.org/Step-7.html) - **Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings (This can be done in the confessional)**
  • [**Step 8**](http://www.12step.org/Step-8.html) - **Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all**
  • [**Step 9**](http://www.12step.org/Step-9.html) - **Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others**
  • [**Step 10**](http://www.12step.org/Step-10.html) - **Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it (Confess your sins often.. Weekly or even daily if necessary)**
  • [**Step 11**](http://www.12step.org/Step-11.html) - **Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out**
  • [**Step 12**](http://www.12step.org/Step-12.html) - **Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs**
 
Dogmatic said:
In thought, word, and deed my sin is always before me! How can I stop, what can I read that will make me fed up with my sins to the point I’ll stop? I’ve had compunction before, but I just can’t feel agony over my sins anymore and I don’t know how to quit?

In other words, how do I develop a deep conscience?
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Read Romans 7:15. Let St Paul will tell you the answer.
 
Regular recourse to confession and communion (daily, if possible) helps.
 
Prayer, Confession and Communion, brother. Strive for conversion of heart more and more everyday.

As far as readings go, anyone have suggestions as to books about Purgatory?
 
  • Pray. Specifically ask God to give you a hatred for your sin. He will grant it.
  • Go to mass during the week if you can
  • Go to confession frequently, even if you only have venial sin
  • If you have Adoration in your city, go sit before the Blessed Sacrament
  • Read the scriptures. Read the psalms or proverbs. They’re easy to understand.
 
Dogmatic said:
In thought, word, and deed my sin is always before me! How can I stop, what can I read that will make me fed up with my sins to the point I’ll stop? I’ve had compunction before, but I just can’t feel agony over my sins anymore and I don’t know how to quit?

In other words, how do I develop a deep conscience?
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Your conscience is not an emotional. It does not compell you from doing wrong. Your conscience only tells you the difference between right and wrong.

You are not going to stop sinning on your own or overnight. It is humanly impossible. Even our motivation tends to be more out of spiritual pride rather than authentic love of God. It is important to remember that through God’s grace, we are made perfect. Until we have reached perfection in love, we cannot go to Heaven. That is why Purgatory gives us such great hope. That’s why we should regularly receive the sacraments, especially confession.

What you are asking for is more perfect contrition over your sins. Often we think the more emotionally distraut we are about our sins, the greater our repentence, but often the emotional distraut is just the result of false humility which is really spiritual pride. Our contrition is found more in our actions. What do we do after confession? How soon do we take the sin up again? That is when we face the reality over how imperfect our contrition is, and how enslaved we are to sin. That is also when we come to appreciate the sacrament of confession as not merely being forgiven, but a sacrament of spiritual healing.

So what should you do? 1. Read CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity especially Beyond Personality “Is Christianity Hard or Easy?” 2. Learn about St. Therese’s Little Way 3. Live a Sacramental life 4. Pray the Litany of Humility “That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…”

Your part is to open yourself to God’s grace and to use whatever strength you have, plus the strength you gain through God’s grace, to turn away from the opportunities to sin. Focus on your acheivements though repent and confess your failures. Do not fall into despair over the fact that you do fail because you’re failing in that moment of despair as well.
 
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