Please pray that we can overcome porn

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Gabriel_Syme

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This is a prayer for all of us, and especially those of us who are too afraid to speak out. in my case I have had a long standing struggle with pornography. It used to be that I could not go a day without succumbing to this sin, and by Christ’s grace, and with the intercession of our blessed mother (both of whom when I think about it I have so painfully insulted by indulging in this sin) I have been able to substantially reduce the occurrence of this sin. still I am falling into this trap over and over and when I do, from the moment I complete the act, I feel like bitter tears are flowing inside my soul, I can only look upward in shame because the truth of the matter is what I desired was the comfort of Love rather than the twisted monstrosity I have made of it. I want to stop this, but I felt as though I have hit a brick wall and am unable to go further, I pray and still even when there have been times when it seems intervention has occurred (I’ve had the Internet go out on me, sudden chills, unexpected phone calls, hymns suddenly playing in my head, etc.) I still give in because I feel that I have gone too far and must complete the act so that this temptation may leave me, but of course it doesn’t leave for good.
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 I feel conflicted about this because I also feel called to the consecrated life, there is a growing  desire in my heart to dedicate my Life to Christ, and I am  wanting to fulfill the vows of chastity poverty and obedience but until I can tackle this hurdle I feel as though It is becoming more and more difficult to realize that call. It's depressing but I don't want to give in on this, and for the sake of our Lord I do not want to let him down when He could've easily let me pay the wages for my sins anytime he wished. I offer a moment in this post for those discerning vocations or are already in one, and are struggling in this. Please join me in prayer for them, please, pray for us.

I'm also asking for the intercession of  Mary, every time we look at pornography, we blaspheme against everything she stands for and like a drunk waking up to discover a tragedy it tears my heart up when I think about this,. and yet she finds it in her immaculate heart to look past the mountains of indignities we have hurled at her and STILL finds it within her heart to plead for us before God. I have have no reason or entitlement for which these graces come. But I am praying, not only for myself, but for each of us who is fighting this sin, out loud or in secret....
Christ have mercy on us, Christ Graciously hear us.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

It is upon your prayers and the prayers of those you have assembled that our sinful lives cling so dearly.
 
Gabriel I ask Jesus to intercede for you and for all who suffer from this propensity, for healing, peace, and for healthy outlets for creative energy.
Mother Mary please pray for all who succumb to this difficulty especially because of the availability in media and internet.

Holy Spirit please inspire and help and make faithful all who seek to follow the gospel. Father, in the name of Jesus please grant this prayer and the prayers from the hearts of all who ever fall and repent.

God bless you! God bless you also for your honesty and courage. 🙂
 
There is a website that a friend of mine said helped him some settingcaptivesfree.com/home/
It’s Protestant. I am not sure if there are any Catholic websties like that, but maybe you can find a spiritual director who will help you?
 
It’s incredibly tough, especially with all the softcore porn they put into every show after 8pm. I’m praying for you to discern your vocation, and in your struggle. God Bless.
 
Hi Gabriel

Having been in a similar place to you I offer my prayers for you and for any others who are in your position and reading this.

You have an addiction and overcoming this is difficult but you are on a journey my friend. Keep fighting the temptation but acknowledge that at times you will be weak and give in. In my case it was one day at a time and I failed many times.

You are probably finding that cold turkey is too hard right? So as a strategy try this:
  1. Give up watching the porn. You will no doubt continue to be impure with yourself for a time. This is okay for the time being so long as you first stop watching the porn. Whatever you do don’t go back to watching it.
  2. Secondly, when you find yourself being impure again, stop fantasising or recalling the images. The images you are used to seeing on the screen will still be in your head but will dissipate with time. Just get it over with and say a prayer right afterwards. Apologise and ask for forgiveness and strength to overcome this addition.
  3. After you have stopped watching the porn and fantasising start to resist as much as you can the temptation to be impure with yourself. Keep praying. By now you have not been viewing the porn so the images are getting less vivid, you have not been fantasising so all you have to do now is resist the urge to be impure.
  4. Pray to Our Lady for intercession, pray for the women in the porn that appear in your mind, pray that you wont objectify women when you see them in real life. Pray that you can see the real beauty of a woman for who she is and not what she looks like. Just know that past images you have seen will continue to haunt you.
  5. Avoid situations that remind you of porn. E.g. Television is a problem due to advertisements or programs with immodest women, internet sights with advertising or raunchy pictures of women. Even when you see a image that reminds you, do you best to look away ASAP before the thoughts and images return and the temptation follows
Make sure you are going to confession. There is nothing like confessing this sin to a priest. There are a few reasons why this is helpful:
a) it brings your sins to light
b) encourages you to resist temptation in the future
c) you know you will be back and wont desire to confess the same sins again
d) it will begin to heal you of this affliction
e) you might receive just the right spiritual advice or direction you will really need to help

I wish you luck on your journey. It is tough but when you come out on the other side you will find yourself again, no longer a slave to this sin that is eating you up inside.

God Bless You
 
Thank you Craig for your response, Yes I relize how important it is to use prayer as frequently as possible. it was through this I was able to bring this down from an everyday habit to a weekly sin. There was an incident I remembered where I was staying at a relative’s house the night before I was to go and visit a order of friars I had taken an interest in. I think that perhaps I was being tested that night because as I soon found out the cable box in that house had been completely unlocked. I was alone in the middle of the night restless because I was anticipating my meeting with the friars and suddenly while browsing the channels, in comes a barrage of porn. I immediately turned off the TV, ran to the bathroom down the hall and for half an hour was just kneeling there begging God to to keep this away from me. it took some time but the temptation stopped and I am grateful for that, because it was a phenomenal weekend. still even though i go to confession weekly getting control of this sin beyond the once a week barrier is proving to be my most difficult struggle yet.
 
Gabriel,

Your post tears at my heart and even though there is anonymity in a forum like this, it still takes courage to say what you have said. You will be continuously in my prayers along with all who fight this terrible vice.

One idea, you might consider, purchase an internet filter such as NetNanny and then set the filters not to allow “adult” content. For your password consider using some title of the Blessed Mother. Or you could take a bible and starting somewhere you are comfortable, lightly underscore one letter at random, then a couple of pages later underscore another letter and continue this way until you have a string of random letters which you can use as a password that could if necessary be decifered with time if you ever needed to adjust your filter.

There is an excellent catholic website that might be of assistance.
pornnomore.com/
:signofcross:[SIGN]praying for you.[/SIGN]:signofcross:
 
thank you folks for all your advice, support prayers and suggestions 👍 . Ive found from a general Christian perspective, the folks over at x3church.com have been supportive and helped me along the early days of this struggle, but I think that overall the single best thing I can remember that has helped me out with this has been Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the body. its a view on Sexuality that lacks those manechaen bits that I found so confusing on other Christian advice sites (as well as definitely clearing up why being impure with one’s self irrespective of porn should be frowned upon). In Particular I think Christopher West does a phenomenal job of really relating all that information in an easy to digest way. He has a book called Theology of the Body for beginners, it helped me out some and is continuing to assist in this struggle, i suggest picking it up.

In keeping with the forum guidelines though let us keep to offering prayer.

Hail Mary, full of grace
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death,

Amen.
 
I am praying for you Gabriel. I believe Craig shared with us some very good advice and pointers.

Couple of other things to consider. Porn is a monster that if you keep feeding, will never leave you alone. So you really need to turn away from it and, believe it or not, will loosen its grip on you. Also, as long as you give into porn, you will be its slave, not a good master to serve. Maybe you’ve found this out already, but once you turn from porn for a while, your head clears up and you are more able to think and concentrate on other better things. Such as prayers (rosary is great), sacraments (stick with Confession and the Eucharist), ect…

Anyway…those are from my observations. PM me if you want to talk…

Will continue to pray for you and all of us that have been there…
 
praying for you and everyone this affects. also praying for those that are in a position in the media to make a difference.

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.
 
I agree Simon, and when I said the single most important thing was the theology of the body I miscalculated, I will say ahead of this comes the sacraments and most especially the Eucharist. Fostering a devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist is perhaps one of the most important things I have ever done to fight this and its something that Only catholics can truly have. meditating upon the mysteries of Christ’s body present in the sacrament has only strengthened me if not for the cause of preventing sin then for bringing me to desire reconciliation as fast as possible. It has been a blessing for me to be fortunate enough to attend daily mass and because of the grace of this sacrament I f find it nearly unthinkable to start my day without in some way either actually (or in the case of mortal sin) or spiritually partaking of the body and blood of Christ. I urge each of you, (and I urge myself to more perfectly follow this example) to attend daily mass if you can, and try to partake of the Eucharist as often as possible.

I’ll add this wonderful prayer from Thomas A Kempis’ Imitation of Christ.
  • O Lord, I come to You at Your command in simplicity of heart, in good, firm faith, with hope and reverence, and I truly believe that You are present here in this Sacrament, God and man. It is Your will that I receive You and unite myself to You in love. Wherefore, I beg Your mercy and ask that special grace be given me, that I may be wholly dissolved in You and filled with Your love, no longer to concern myself with exterior consolations. For this, the highest and most worthy Sacrament, is the health of soul and body, the cure of every spiritual weakness. In it my defects are remedied, my passions restrained, and temptations overcome or allayed. In it greater grace is infused, growing virtue is nourished, faith confirmed, hope strengthened, and charity fanned into flame.*
 
Praying for you. From what I heard, it’s an extremely tough addiction to overcome. God bless you, and every other person in your situation.
 
I dedicated a decade of Divine Mercy to the prayers on this site today. May God heal us from the deception of pornography.
 
Gabriel_Syme said:
I agree Simon, and when I said the single most important thing was the theology of the body I miscalculated, I will say ahead of this comes the sacraments and most especially the Eucharist. Fostering a devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist is perhaps one of the most important things I have ever done to fight this and its something that Only catholics can truly have. meditating upon the mysteries of Christ’s body present in the sacrament has only strengthened me if not for the cause of preventing sin then for bringing me to desire reconciliation as fast as possible. It has been a blessing for me to be fortunate enough to attend daily mass and because of the grace of this sacrament I f find it nearly unthinkable to start my day without in some way either actually (or in the case of mortal sin) or spiritually partaking of the body and blood of Christ. I urge each of you, (and I urge myself to more perfectly follow this example) to attend daily mass if you can, and try to partake of the Eucharist as often as possible.

I’ll add this wonderful prayer from Thomas A Kempis’ Imitation of Christ.
  • O Lord, I come to You at Your command in simplicity of heart, in good, firm faith, with hope and reverence, and I truly believe that You are present here in this Sacrament, God and man. It is Your will that I receive You and unite myself to You in love. Wherefore, I beg Your mercy and ask that special grace be given me, that I may be wholly dissolved in You and filled with Your love, no longer to concern myself with exterior consolations. For this, the highest and most worthy Sacrament, is the health of soul and body, the cure of every spiritual weakness. In it my defects are remedied, my passions restrained, and temptations overcome or allayed. In it greater grace is infused, growing virtue is nourished, faith confirmed, hope strengthened, and charity fanned into flame.*
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing that prayer Gabriel. Big fan of Thomas Kempis too. May God continue to bless you and all involved with daily struggles…
 
Dear Gabriel,
I feel your pain and confusion on this issue. I have the habit of masturbation and have done this since I was a young girl. I have been inundated with sexual material since the late sixties and seventies and I started that habit when I hit puberty. I have allowed myself to experience homosexual relationships, and viewed pornagraphic written and video material. Unfortunately I have had more than enough fuel to feed my fantasies and regret having done so now that I understand more and more why sexual sins are wrong. What helped me the most about 5 years ago was reading a book by Christopher West called Good News About Sex and Marriage: Answers to Your Honest Questions. He based the book on his own life experiences and honest searching for answers. Christopher West got his information by reading Pope John Paul II writings called The Theology of the Body. This book gave me much insight into the what, why and how comes of my sexuality with relation to God and His Church teachings.
I am still tempted and do succumb to this sin even though I’m a 51-year-old women married for 25 years! Just because we understand why something is a sin, doesn’t mean we can avoid the sin altogether! As I have gone through a renewal or conversion of my dedication to Christ, Mary and the Church I have found that I am particularly drawn toward revering the Precious Blood of Jesus. As I was praying about 18 months ago a prayer suddenly entered my thoughts and I said this prayer out loud. I pray this prayer everyday of my life…sometimes several times a day…Dear Jesus, I concecrate myself to your Most Precious Blood. Help me to empty myself out, so that You can fill me up. If it be Your will oh Lord, allow me to offer You all my pains, sorrows, sufferings, joys, temptations and failings to mingle with Your Blood. And with the help of our Mother, The Blessed Virgin Mary, take this to our Father for the reparation of sinners and the conversion of souls, here on earth and in Purgatory. Especially for those involved with sexual sins!
I have been told by a few of my friends whom I have revealed my struggle, to embrace my cross of sexual temptation by giving thanks for my sexuality. I do that everyday in my morning prayers by thanking God the Father for making me a woman…giving me feelings like a woman… and I ask him to send His Holy Spirit into me so that all of my body parts may glorify Him that day! If I do succumb to temptation, I immediately (most of the time tearfully) ask Jesus to forgive me and offer up the event to Him for the reparation of sinners and conversion of souls.
All of these things have helped somewhat. I am not masturbating as much as I used to, and have avoided temptation more bravely than ever before. I have avoided TV, magazines, movies and people who joke about sex to the best of my ability. I can’t avoid everything and I think Satan makes a point of turning my thoughts around in even the most innocent events. The temptations and failings I have do cause me to pray even more for everyone who struggles with sexual sins! So consider yourself prayed for everyday, every time I say that personal prayer I told you above! Keep on keeping on and please pray for me too. I will pray for your healing and calling to religious life. Love and Prayers, Cathy14
 
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