When there is a temptation then a few seconds may pass before recognizing it and making a decision. Note that in the Baltimore Catechism the criteria are expressed in a slightly different form: a grievous matter, sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will. Partial consent occurs if one does not immediately reject the thought, it awakens in the mind an affection or liking for it. (Venial)If you unsure you committed the sin of lust or not then does that make it not a mortal sinbecause you didn’t have full knwledge? I’m talking more about looking at an attractive woman because sometimes I’m unsure if I looked at her normal or lustfully.
Two things to consider: avoid the near and voluntary occasion of sin, and avoid masturbation (physical and psychic). There may be some appreciation of beauty that is not stimulating; it can be a slippery slope.I know it’s hard for you to understand the situation online and your not a priest but I just like to know before confession. Do you think it was mortal if I was on social media and an attractive woman caught my eye in a bikini. I then clicked on her post and may have looked at her lustfully but I’m not rly sure.(is looking at her behind a mortal sin if I think it is attractive? That’s where my confusion comes in because it’s most likely venial to stare there but does it become mortal?)
Direct stimulation of the sex organs outside of sexual intercourse. The self-stimulation can be physical, by means of some external object, or psychic, by means of thoughts and the imagination. It is a grave misuse of the procreative faculty and when done with full consent and deliberation is a serious sin. The sinfulness consists in setting in motion the generative powers while preventing them from achieving, their natural, divinely intended purpose.