How To Stop Sinning!

[springbreeze]

Dear friends

A meditation

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**How To Stop Sinning!
By the late Father Kilian McGowan, C.P. Used with permission, from the Passionist Priests, to help spiritually guide the layman.

Our quest for God in this life may be summed up into two basic movements of the human spirit: First-to live unto God, and secondly-to die unto sin. Our perfection as Christians consists in a wholehearted and practical love of God; and sin is the only real obstacle to this perfection.

The Catechism tells us that sin is a thought, desire, word, deed or omission against the law of God. This cold language unfortunately fails to dramatize the betrayal of God’s love that is found in mortal sin. For mortal sin is far more than a transgression of God’s law; it is a rejection of God Himself. It does much more than gravely damage the soul cast in God’s likeness; it actually evicts the Adorable Trinity from its residence in the human heart. It is wholesale disaster for the follower of Christ.

I believe that every sincere Christian instinctively realizes this, even though he may not be able to spell out the theological effects of mortal sin. It’s not surprising, therefore, that we priests are often asked this question: "Father, why is it that no matter how much I resolve not to commit serious sin, I keep falling back into the same old sin?’

First, let’s take a look at the very key world “resolve”. What is a sincere resolution? It’s not a half-hearted hope to do better. It’s not a wishy-washy intention to do God’s will. It’s a firm determination!! Note those two words: FIRM and DETERMINATION. A firm determination is a demanding leader that is resolved to use every possible means to achieve victory. Here the victory is to be won by total warfare against that enemy we call “sin.”

The first weapon is PRAYER. Not just morning and night prayers, or rosaries and novenas. But prayer with or without words-at ALL times and in ALL our needs. Our Lord warned us to pray without ceasing and to pray least we fall into temptation.

Under this leading may we include the thought of the Presence of God-one of the greatest bulwarks against temptation; and meditation on the life and suffering of our Blessed Lord. Many saints have said that it is impossible to meditate daily on the Passion of Jesus and still hold onto a habit of serious sin. One or the other must go!

A second means is the SACRAMENTS. Each sacrament produces a certain spiritual effect in your soul. The sacrament of Penance not only destroys sin in the soul of a well-disposed penitent; it actually and really weakens the tendencies that lead one into sin. Because it attacks the disease of sin at its source, we can quickly see how this spiritual therapy must be used to maintain or regain spiritual health.

To explain how the Eucharist helps in this warfare against sin would take volumes. Suffice to say that it heals the scars of sin, infuses new spiritual energy into the campaign, and recalls the wandering inclinations of our heart and soul to God. It does all this in a very direct way-by bringing the Savior Himself into our hearts. Of all remedies, this obviously will ever be the greatest, because It gives you ALL that God has to offer.

Now, you may pray often-you may receive the sacraments frequently-even daily, but still that is not enough. You must also avoid the OCCASIONS OF SIN. This is the third means. Without this you have no firm determination to avoid sin. Occasions are, of course, those persons, places and things which you know from past experience have been the cause of your spiritual downfall. Don’t kid yourself into believing that you can still love God and hang onto these occasions of sin!

We have seen briefly what sin does to us. To see what it did to God, take up your crucifix. That’s the price our Lord was willing to pay to deliver you from the slavery of sin. What are you willing to do to avoid that slavery and to show a grateful love? We should start with a firm determination to avoid mortal sin. But before you do-if you haven’t already-ask our Blessed Savior for the firmness and determination!**

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God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

 

[FiremanFrank]

The Catechism tell us that sin is a thought, desire, word, deed or omission against the law of God.

Hmmmm.

** “a thought”

“a desire”**

So to realistically answer the question then, of “How To Stop Sinning” …

** We must die.**

 

[LCMS_No_More]

I’d like to see where the definition of sin includes the word “desire” in the catechism.

 

[Spooky7272]

FiremanFrank:

Hmmmm.

** “a thought”

“a desire”**

So to realistically answer the question then, of “How To Stop Sinning” …

** We must die.**

I belive the key words here are against the law of God

 

[johnq]

LCMS_No_More:

I’d like to see where the definition of sin includes the word “desire” in the catechism.

2553 Envy is sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to have them for oneself. It is a capital sin.

2539 Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:

2536 The tenth commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods:

2380 Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations - even transient ones - they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. 171

2351 Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.

Does this help? Makes me realize how bad of a sinner I really am. BTW there were more.

 

[Grace_and_Glory]

FiremanFrank:

Hmmmm.

**“a thought” **

"a desire"

So to realistically answer the question then, of “How To Stop Sinning” …

We must die.

Well, we must die to sin, and to the desire for sin within us.

What I do to avoid sinning is this: I ask God to show me my sin. When He does, I tell Him that I don’t want this sin, because it keeps me from Him. I tell Him that I’m likely to fail, because although I don’t want to be attached to the sin, the habits of a lifetime take time to break. I ask Him for His forgiveness and for the grace to overcome the sin. When I find myself committing the sin, I interrupt myself, repent, and ask for God’s grace. Sometimes I’ll have to do this many times within a day, or even an hour, but I get in the habit of saying no to sin. Even so, it often seems like in the moment, I have very little power to make myself stop sinning. Over time, I find that God’s grace has done its work, and the sin has less control in my life.
This strategy really works. One thing I’ve noticed about it is that it results in me doing very little work. God does all the work, and I get the benefit of being free from sin. All I have to do is say ‘yes’ to God. What a deal!

 

[Bootoo]

Springbreeze,

Thanks for your good thoughts. I really want to stop sinning, and come to this forum for help in that. And your words do encourage me.

 

[LCMS_No_More]

2553 Envy is sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to have them for oneself. It is a capital sin.

2539 Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:

2536 The tenth commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods:

2380 Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations - even transient ones - they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. 171

2351 Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.

Does this help? Makes me realize how bad of a sinner I really am. BTW there were more.

So, the OBJECT of the desire is also important as well as its “orderliness.” Also, I’m sure that there’s also the little issue of the act of the will involved. For example, let’s say I passively see (not actively look at) a person who is attractive and my body responds APART FROM MY WILL and a sexual thought enters my brain. If I “take that thought captive to Christ” and banish it, is it sin or is it virtue? I would argue that stopping a temptation to sin is virtue, but there are some who would say that the body’s autonomic response to visual stimuli is not only sin, but it’s mortal sin, even though you didn’t WILL for it to happen. It makes no sense and creates a situtation where one is not only extremely scrupulous, but could lead to despair.

Then again, sometimes it seems that some WANT people to go to hell so they can watch and applaud.

 

[Grace_and_Glory]

LCMS_No_More:

So, the OBJECT of the desire is also important as well as its “orderliness.” Also, I’m sure that there’s also the little issue of the act of the will involved. For example, let’s say I passively see (not actively look at) a person who is attractive and my body responds APART FROM MY WILL and a sexual thought enters my brain. If I “take that thought captive to Christ” and banish it, is it sin or is it virtue? I would argue that stopping a temptation to sin is virtue, but there are some who would say that the body’s autonomic response to visual stimuli is not only sin, but it’s mortal sin, even though you didn’t WILL for it to happen. It makes no sense and creates a situtation where one is not only extremely scrupulous, but could lead to despair.

LCMS_No_More–You’re right about this. Or, if you’re not right, you and St. Ignatius of Loyola are wrong together. He says there are actually “ways of meriting in the bad thought which comes from without.”

"There are two ways of meriting in the bad thought which comes from without, namely:

First Way. A thought of committing a mortal sin, which thought I resist immediately and it remains conquered.

Second Way. The second way of meriting is: When that same bad thought comes to me and I resist it, and it returns to me again and again, and I always resist, until it is conquered.

This second way is more meritorious than the first.

A venial sin is committed when the same thought comes of sinning mortally and one gives ear to it, making some little delay, or receiving some sensual pleasure, or when there is some negligence in rejecting such thought.

There are two ways of sinning mortally:

First Way. The first is, when one gives consent to the bad thought, to act afterwards as he has consented, or to put it in act if he could.

Second Way. The second way of sinning mortally is when that sin is put in act.

This is a greater sin for three reasons: first, because of the greater time; second, because of the greater intensity; third, because of the greater harm to the two persons."

 

[springbreeze]

Dear friend

Thank you for lovely and wise replies.

Every time the temptation to sin is avoided or thrust out of the mind, that is an exercise of virtue by the grace of God.

Each time a soul exercises this they grow in virtue.

How to stop sinning? Will it and then ask God for the grace to conquer it and by God’s grace causes an increase in virtue.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa