Masturbation or celibacy?

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I don’t understand what you are saying and I’m willing to just move on
 
We are not like a salmon. That is true.
We are not like any other mammals, as they have seasons where they mate biologically.
Humans are unique because we mate 12 months out of the year from a biological standpoint.
At this point issues of human biology arise furthur. Biologically, we are designed to procreate, perhaps as our primary biological feature. Like all biological creatures. To be fruitful and multiply. One can will an alteration of biology. I am just saying you cannot make a statement that it is healthy.
I am not going to conjecture as a doctor would about mental illness, but I know that it exists and can be related to celibacy . I think it irresponsible and unfair to the issue to conjecture about other causes and issues of the sort.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
If someone is really going to get depressed over a lack of sex, then I think the person should see a counselor. I also would suspect there is a lot more going on that may be contributing to the depression.
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Someone might not be depressed so much over a lack of sex as over a lack of close companionship and intimacy and those I believe really are human needs. And the relationships that someone has with their friends cannot usually be a replacement for a close and intimate sexual relationship.
 
A couple of useful scriptural verses to ponder:

1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
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Sirach 15:15-20
15 If you will, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
16 He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.
17 Before a man[a] are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him.
18 For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything;
19 his eyes are on those who fear him, and he knows every deed of man.
20 He has not commanded any one to be ungodly, and he has not given any one permission to sin.
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Is it easy to overcome? No, but it is doable. Ultimately it’s a decision to choose God over self, and we need to recognise and avoid the triggers to this behaviour. It requires vigilance. There is a way to avoid doing it and we need to find that way out.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
Masturbation … is an intrinsically disordered act that, if committed knowingly and with full consent, is a mortal sin.
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Masturbation a harmless action. It may even be beneficial for males. It helps the prostate stay healthy, so says my Dr.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
Masturbation … is an intrinsically disordered act that, if committed knowingly and with full consent, is a mortal sin.
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Irishmom2 said:
Will you answer to your doctor or to God when you die?
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Bravo, @Irishmom2. Profaning the Blessed Sacrament and uttering a stream of blasphemies, just to cite two examples, might be “harmless actions” from a physical health standpoint, but that doesn’t make those things right.
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Dray said:
Is God really calling us to celibacy for the rest of our lives, including masturbation?
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  1. Celibacy means “state of being unmarried.” The word you are looking for is “chastity.”
  2. Yes, God demands all of us to be chaste and be committed to chastity - including married people (who are not permitted to engage in every sexual fantasy/act imaginable)
Sometime we fail and that’s what confession is for. However l, the important thing is that we do our best to avoid sin

God Bless
 
‘May be beneficial‘ is not the standard. We don’t do sinful things because they may be beneficial. You have to get to therapeutic or medically necessary before amputations become acceptable. Masturbation, as a misuse of the body, would be on that level.

Also, just to head off misunderstanding, therapeutic doesn’t mean recommended by a doctor, it means a treatment for an existing condition. Removing an appendix because of appendicitis is therapeutic. Removing it before you ever get appendicitis is merely prophylactic.

To my knowledge, there is no serious condition that can be treated by ejaculation.
 
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i was taught masturbation is a mortal sin at Catholic school. You can’t really accidentally do it.
 
Hi @Dray!

Thank you for sharing so genuinely and vulnerably in this forum!

To be honest, I do not have a perfect solution to leading a chaste life, abstaining from masturbation! Quite the opposite, I am very easily tempted by lust! I actually enjoy the physical pleasures from masturbation a lot, so much so that I used to do it very very often in a day.

It will be so untrue to claim that I am victorious over the sin of lust and able to abstain. Because every moment of my life, I am very fearful of losing my steadfast love for Christ, and committing a sin. I am fearful that my prideful side will lead me to more and more sin, and derail me from God and His people (including all of you).

But, these are some concepts that always run through my mind, in my prayers, in times of temptations! Hope that some of these may resonate with you! It helped me to abstain since July till now, but I am always very wary of lust and pride even as I am typing now.

1. An endless cycle of suffering: Masturbation grants such a short-lived pleasure that subsequently results in a immense and magnified level of suffering and pain
  • Pain from the fact the pleasure is so short-lived, and the next pleasurable episode is so long later.
  • Pain from the fact that I am still lonely and lustfully yearning for more.
  • Most impactfully yet mysterious, a pain from a deeply-seated guilt, a guilt that I did something wrong.
2. Why guilty? I am not hurting anyone? Or maybe I am hurting God and myself - hurting the image of Christ in me, the true identity of who I am, hurting Jesus Christ who lives in me and me in Him.
  • This marked the enlightening point for me I feel. I begin to see who I am and who I am called to be.
  • I am called to be in communion with God. When I receive the body of the Resurrected Christ into me during Holy Communion, Jesus actually lives in me in that very presence moment. And remains living in me always!
  • So, when I am masturbating, is it solely me doing what I want? Or, is it Jesus Christ living that moment of life with me? Am I hurting myself and Jesus at that moment, the true self as a child of God? Maybe this explains the mysterious guilt in me?
3. After I gain some victory over being chaste, my life will be all filled with joy and happiness??!? Quite the opposite, my life still has lots of struggles! Struggles with shame of wet dreams, frustration with temptations that are not in my will, struggles with many other things in life…
  • Yet, I found a sense of transcendent peace, a peace from God by His grace. Peace defined as a sense of completeness, a sense of consistency with my identity as a child of God, a sense of peace with the image of Christ in me, and with God!
  • This peace that guides me to change other aspects of my life to take shape within this broken, yet Godly-sacred vessel of life that God gave to me! To orientate to God every moment of my life!
So, truly…
PEACE BE WITH ALL OF US ALWAYS!
GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US AND LIVING IN US!
LOVE GOD & HIS PEOPLE IN YOUR BEST CAPACITY,
TRUST THAT GOD WILL COMPLETE THE REST!
 
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Celibacy is preferable to fornication or to remarry for St Paul preferred that men remain single and devoted to Christ.
 
Chewing your nails is a natural act that has clear roots in grooming behavior. Nevertheless it is destructive both physically and mentally.
 
2342 Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life.The effort required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence.

2352 To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.
 
After the birth of our third child, I went four years without relations with my wife (due to significant health and other concerns which could arise from another pregnancy), without falling. So it is possible, thanks be to God. I know it was due to God’s grace, as I could never have done it before my conversion. It got easier as time went on. Sometimes I think that intermittent continence is more difficult.
 
Dray said:
Thank you. This is very helpful stuff. I know God knows we will sin, that we are imperfect. But, yes, it feels wrong almost to confess my sins and ask for absolution knowing that I am too weak to avoid masturbation. I really do try and I pray for the strength, but I continually fail. I know we all have our weaknesses, but I guess I just feel as though everyone struggles with this. Maybe that’s just my projection though. I suppose that is kind of the point though. We have all fallen and God knows we will fail, we are just called to do our best and beg for forgiveness when we inevitably fail.
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One thing to remember is that if one is in the state of sanctifying grace, God gives with it the sufficient power to remain in that state of grace, with the individuals cooperation. In other words, one will not be tempted beyond resistance. So, is some cases the sin is not a mortal sin, although grave matter, because it is not willful.

Catechism of the Catholic Church
2352 … To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.

7135 Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.
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