Is this good confessional advice from a Priest?

[4EverHis]

the way I was taught; feelings are not sins UNLESS we encourage them. It’s our choices that are sins.

for example…

let’s say you’re feeling really angry with someone… if you don’t give in to this feeling, pray for that person, pray to get over the anger, and don’t act on it in any way… you haven’t sinned. If you act on it however or even just enjoy feeling that way, then you are sinning. If instead of fighting the anger (or lust, or whatever) you dwell on it willingly, you are also sinning.

it seems to be what your priest said too, only in different terms
maybe what he was trying to say is that temptation is not sin. You can be tempted but if you say ‘no’, you haven’t done anything wrong.

God bless.

 

[KingTheoden]

My understanding is that your priest is right. My pastor gave me a very similar talk a few weeks ago.

I think we can sometimes control the quantity of temptations by distracting ourselves with productive pursuits, but they will come without any fault of our own. For me, I know that obsessing over something mundane can erupt into an actual fault.

As another poster wrote, say something like “Get behind me satan!” and don’t worry about it. Remember, in the Garden, Jesus was so overcome thinking about the sins of the world that he perspired blood. So they sure can be intense, but temptations or thoughts of sin are not your fault.

I think the grey area comes in when we voluntarily cause something. For example, purposefully going out of our way to stare at something provocative to run out scenarios in our head is a little different than a thought coming to mind about the attractiveness of a friend. But again, I really wouldn’t hyper-analyze!

 

[Curious]

I agree with your priest, as many other posters, and received similar advice from my parish priest. There was a certain Protestant minister years ago who said

“You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building a nest there!”

You can’t stop every little thought that comes into your brain, but you can stop yourself from dwelling on it, building fantasies around it, making out with it.

And I don’t think it’s bad that you came here to ask this. The advice that a priest gives in the confessional isn’t infallible. It’s okay if you’re confused about something to ask around about it. That’s what this place is for. I don’t think it’s sad that the poster came to “ask a bunch of strangers on the internet” or whatever. For some people, this is their community of fellow Catholics, for whatever reason. Maybe they go to a parish where there’s only a handful of people, maybe their parish is huge and they’re shy and don’t know anybody, and maybe, as in my case, they have a fabulous parish but have a psycho work schedule and the church is a bit of drive away and they can’t be nearly as involved as they would like. Thank God for the internet. And thank God for this community.

Curious