Impure Thoughts - Mortal Sin?

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Father Larry Richards, in one of his talks on Confession, discussed this issue. He told a joke about a man in the confessional. The priest asked him, “Did you entertain any impure thoughts?” The man said, “Oh, no, Father - THEY entertained ME!” 😃

It seems like just a funny little story but it helps my conscience distinguish between fleeting thoughts and sexual fantasies. If it gets to the point where the fantasies are entertaining you, you’ve crossed the line. But if they are just passing thoughts which you reject, not a huge thing.

Sometimes it does seem the harder you try to push them away the faster they come. Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet helped me with this. It helped me trust more in Christ’s mercy and less in my own “will power.”
 
Contarini said:
But every form of Christianity has its weaknesses. . . .
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Paramount among among Anglicanism’s weaknesses is not its discouragement of the examination of conscience, but it’s inability to turn bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord. That’s a *serious *weakness, one that should give more pause than tendencies toward scrupulosity or laxity.
 
ChristinaM said:
Father Larry Richards, in one of his talks on Confession, discussed this issue. He told a joke about a man in the confessional. The priest asked him, “Did you entertain any impure thoughts?” The man said, “Oh, no, Father - THEY entertained ME!” 😃

It seems like just a funny little story but it helps my conscience distinguish between fleeting thoughts and sexual fantasies. If it gets to the point where the fantasies are entertaining you, you’ve crossed the line. But if they are just passing thoughts which you reject, not a huge thing.

Sometimes it does seem the harder you try to push them away the faster they come. Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet helped me with this. It helped me trust more in Christ’s mercy and less in my own “will power.”
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A fantastic talk by Fr. Richards…here is where you can get it for free: catholicity.com/cds/confession.html
 
What’s an impure thought? Is it a disparaging thought about someone, or a thought of saying something vulgar, or a sex fantasy or any of the above or what? I need to know in a hurry. Thanks.
 
To me impure thoughts seem to be all of the above - they fit into many different categories - if one would call them that. i tend to think of impure thoughts as the ones more sexual in nature or unclean whereas I think violent thoughts or thoughts about hurting others are negative thoughts. Although any thought that isn’t good or holy or PURE can be impure thoughts - a wide spectrum are to me anyways.
 
nobeerinheaven said:
Paramount among among Anglicanism’s weaknesses is not its discouragement of the examination of conscience, but it’s inability to turn bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord. That’s a *serious *weakness, one that should give more pause than tendencies toward scrupulosity or laxity.
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But the latter is evident to me, whereas the former is not!

Edwin
 
nobeerinheaven said:
melissa09, you may have problems with scrupulosity. Many scrupulous people deal with problems of obscene “random thoughts” and worry these thoughts count as mortal sins. As long as one does not want them and rejects them, they are not mortal sins. I’d advise you to look into the condition of scrupulosity, and see if descriptions of the condition seem to describe you.

This, for instance, has helped scrupulous people that I know.
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That was awesome! I found out that I suffer from scrupulosity! It described almost all of my problems! Am I supposed to be happy about this?
 
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