How do I strengthen my conscience against impurity?

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I have battled sins of impurity for years, how do I strengthen my conscience against impurity? I can’t seem to really get myself to hate this sin, it is hard because it has been a major part of my life for so ling. I know it is wrong but I can’t seem to really hate it, I really dislike it, but I’m not sure I HATE it. Any advice?
 
I know this may sound like the easy answer, but what I have done is pray pray pray. Example: I used to think about sex every waking moment. Having sex was of the norm in every relationship I was in. After I was confirmed this past Easter I started to analyze all my actions (good and bad). I read a lot about the Church’s stance on sex before marriage, etc.

One day I asked my priest what I should do, he suggested I pray every morning when I wake and every night before I go to sleep, asking God to help me to keep my mind and body pure. I did this for about 2 weeks before I noticed a difference. Its now been about 5 weeks and a lot has changed within me. My boyfriend actually broke up with me because I wanted to be celibate until marriage. I rarely ever think about sex now. Before all of this I never used to put a lot of stock into prayer, I’m a true believer in it now. It has helped me immensely.
 
Try using some sort of penance. You don’t have to throw yourself into thorn bushes like St Benedict used to do, but anything simple should help. For eg, whenever, on one day, you commit a sin of impurity, make yourself fast until noon the next day. Or give some money to charity, or pray the rosary, or some sort of self discipline like that. You won’t like having to do the penance and so it will help you stop doing the sin so much.
 
One thing I did? I started going to daily mass. You can’t go through with it when you know you just recieved the Lord that morning, and you are going to recieve him again the next morning. Recieving Him so often gives you the confedence to really lean on Him when it gets rough.

Oh- Eucharistic adoration helps. A lot.🙂
 
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Shameless:
I have battled sins of impurity for years, how do I strengthen my conscience against impurity? I can’t seem to really get myself to hate this sin, it is hard because it has been a major part of my life for so ling. I know it is wrong but I can’t seem to really hate it, I really dislike it, but I’m not sure I HATE it. Any advice?
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To stop sinning all you need to do is get close to God.

(Romans 6: 10 - 11) “When He died, He died, once for all, to sin, so His life now is life with God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Jesus Christ.”

(1 John 3:5-6) “Now you know that he appeared in order to abolish sin, and that in him there is no sin; anyone who lives in God does not sin, and anyone who sins has never seen him or known him.”

(Hebrews 6: 4) “As for those people who were once brought into the light, and tasted the gift from heaven, and received a share of the Holy Spirit, and appreciated the good message of God and the powers of the world to come and yet in spite of this have fallen away it is impossible for that to be renewed a second time. They cannot be repentant if they have willfully crucified the Son of God and openly mocked Him.”

(Hebrews 10:26-31) “If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them. There will be left only the dreadful prospect of judgment and of the raging fire that is to burn rebels. Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three; and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment. We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will repay. And again: The Lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
 
cultivate the virtue of charity, regarding each and every individual in right relationship with you, with others and with the Creator, and treating everyone as a brother or sister and child of God in the most minor encounters of daily life.

cultivating a habit of silence and mental prayer, especially before the blessed Sacrament. St. Alphonsus tells us it is nearly impossible to retain sinful habits when one is in the regular daily habit of mental prayer.

wear a scapular at all times and pray the rosary daily
 
Get to know the Lord! Understand the true depths of His love and how much it hurts Him for you to sin. I just listened to a devotional by Father Larry Richards on the Passion, and I almost cried when I realize how much I’m hurting Jesus when I sin.

Think about it. When I sin, I’m telling Christ that He died for nothing…Nothing! How painful is it to realize that I’m rejecting all the pain He went through for me and all the love He has for me.

Good Luck with your journey. You will fall from time to time at first, but don’t give up!

God Bless,

Notworthy
 
wonderful suggestions, very helpful, I also found out that singing hymns or praise songs also helps to keep your mind “on things above” or meditaate (memorize) on sacred scripture
 
The secret to conquering the sin of impurity —in addition to prayer --is to recognize it for what it is – a bad habit. It usually begins with the failure to control your eyes—pornography, either pictoral or literary, oggling members of the opposite sex, etc. Remove these bad habits from your life by replacing them with good habits–reading and watching wholesome material, not going places or hanging out with people that will expose you to unwholesome material, etc.

It may take a change of lifestyle to effect this, but if you are really serious about not giving the devil a toe-hold and whipping impurity, such radical means may be necessary. Good luck–I’m praying for you.
 
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Fidelis:
The secret to conquering the sin of impurity —in addition to prayer --is to recognize it for what it is – a bad habit. It usually begins with the failure to control your eyes—pornography, either pictoral or literary, oggling members of the opposite sex, etc. Remove these bad habits from your life by replacing them with good habits–reading and watching wholesome material, not going places or hanging out with people that will expose you to unwholesome material, etc.

It may take a change of lifestyle to effect this, but if you are really serious about not giving the devil a toe-hold and whipping impurity, such radical means may be necessary. Good luck–I’m praying for you.
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If it is Jesus (Holy Spirit) leading and guiding you to do the things you suggest I’m sure it will work. If it is just someone wanting to do what is right it won’t work.
Giver
 
I picture Jesus on the Cross saying, “John, John, why have you forsaken me?” That is what we do when we willingly sin.

Notworthy
 
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Giver:
If it is Jesus (Holy Spirit) leading and guiding you to do the things you suggest I’m sure it will work. If it is just someone wanting to do what is right it won’t work.
Giver
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Correct. That is why I said in addition to prayer.
 
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NotWorthy:
I picture Jesus on the Cross saying, “John, John, why have you forsaken me?” That is what we do when we willingly sin.

Notworthy
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Notworthy, I don’t know that we have agreed on much before, but this time I say AMEN!

(Hebrews 10:26-31) “If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them. There will be left only the dreadful prospect of judgment and of the raging fire that is to burn rebels. Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three; and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment. We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will repay. And again: The Lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Giver
 
I think this website has a very strong and Catholic program to help people overcome impurity.
trueknights.org/
He also has a podcast you can download through iTunes.
 
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Shameless:
I know it is wrong but I can’t seem to really hate it, I really dislike it, but I’m not sure I HATE it. Any advice?
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If you can’t hate it, fear it. Whenever temptation lurks, run! Do not get into a dialog with it, you will lose. Run to Sts. Mary and Joseph for help.

:blessyou:
 
If you can’t hate the sin, try hating what it does to your relationship with Christ.

Notworthy
 
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Siena:
One thing I did? I started going to daily mass. You can’t go through with it when you know you just recieved the Lord that morning, and you are going to recieve him again the next morning. Recieving Him so often gives you the confedence to really lean on Him when it gets rough.

Oh- Eucharistic adoration helps. A lot.🙂
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:amen:
 
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Isidore_AK:
Self-Flagellation? 😃
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Or lighter forms of it every now and then, such as denying yourself comfort food or even skip a meal, put up with a splitting headache without painkillers, etc, just to tame the flesh and submit it to your will, not the other way around.

To correspond God’s love is He asks.

:blessyou:
 
You need to see that after a person is baptized with the Holy Spirit, and gets to know God, that person can’t sin. Read the following Scriptures carefully

Galatians 5:16 “Let me put it like this if you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence…”.

(1 Corinthians 6:9-19) “You know perfectly well that people who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God: people of immoral lives, idolaters, adulterers, catamites, sodomites, thieves,
usurers, drunkards, slanders and swindlers will never inherit the kingdom of God.”

(Romans 6: 10 - 11) “When He died, He died, once for all, to sin, so His life now is life with God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Jesus Christ.”

(Romans 8: 4) “He did this in order that the law’s just demands might be satisfied in us, who behave not as our unspiritual nature but as the Spirit dictates.”

(Romans 8: 5) “The unspiritual are interested only in what is unspiritual, but the spiritual are interested in spiritual things. It is death to limit oneself to what is unspiritual, life and peace can only come with concern for the spiritual.”

We know that anyone who has been begotten by God does not sin, because the begotten Son of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.” So then, brothers, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live.”

Hebrew give us some understanding that it isn’t the person who can’t sin, but the Holy Spirit who lives in a person who won’t let the person sin. Paul does a good job of explaining all this in Romans 7& 8

(Romans 8: 9 - 13) “Your interest, however are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made His home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to Him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then He who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit living in you.”
 
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