"Rough-Around-The-Edges" Catholic

[Tonks40]

Hi everyone!

I was pondering about this today, and I’m thinking, "Hey! I must be a rough-around-the-edges Catholic. By this I mean faithful to the Church, doing his/her best to live a Catholic life, but every once in a while, succumbing to the world and the not-so-moralistic culture. I find that I’m at times injecting sarcasm while talking about my faith (maybe some way of “softening” the Truth to those outside of the Church); peeking a glance at some morally-offensive tv program - and actually enjoying it, slipping one-too-many “f”-bombs, etc.

Are there others out there that find themselves in the same boat? Is this cyclical? What have you done in order to curb some of these temptations, whether in action, thought, or deed? A lot of times, these situations occur spontaneously. What do you do to bring yourself back to being mindful of God and Christ?

At the end of my day, my examination of conscious turns into quite a long list!

Thanks & God Bless!
Tonks40

 

[ArAnMike]

My suggestion:

1. If you are not doing this already, start your day with prayer. Start off small, like one decade of the rosary, and then keep adding a little more at a time.
2. At moments of temptation or even right after the sin recite (verbally or mentally) the Jesus prayer: O Jesus, son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner. Repeat until the temptation goes away.

 

[Katie1723]

I would suspect that there are a lot more like you than would care to admit. I always thought of myself as a bit “rough around the edges”. I carry a rosary in my left front pocket. Have for years. When I am dealing with a problem, knowing it’s there gives me comfort. If I can, I pray it too. And yet my “guilty pleasure” is sitting down Wednesday night at 10 PM and watching “Rescue Me” I don’t think it makes me a bad person. It makes me human. And for those of you going :tsktsk: , I don’t want to hear that you are better than me because all you watch is EWTN, because I do too. So don’t go getting on that moral high horse.
And, Tonks, I have been known to let the “f” bomb fly too.And so has just about everyone else. So, no , you are not alone. Most of us are just “traveling incognito” and thinking we are better. But in reality, we are all human. And I like it that way too.
Kathy

 

[Biblioassistant]

I think most of us are rough around the edges Catholics. We often start with good intentions, and then slack off. We all have our little sins and bad habits. I’m lazy, I sometimes neglect my prayers, and I spend a lot of time reading romance novels (and no I am not going to stop - I like them). The trick is to keep our bad habits and little sins from becoming mortal sins. It’s something most of us struggle with everyday.

For me, I try and say prayers in response to outside visual and auditory cues. When I hear a siren or a bell I pray. When I pass a roadside cross or memorial, I pray. When I pass a funeral or a church I pray. Just keep on keeping on. Thank God, I am not one to swear - of all the bad habits in the world that’s one I was not afflicted with, and for no merit of my own. But I’ll admit I wish I wasn’t so lazy and inclined to procrastinate.

 

[TOP]

I have a good reason to be faithful , yet I still have to go to confession every two weeks. I’ve had to go twice within a couple of days of each other before. I have thorns and bad habits. I think alot of people do. Didn’t JPII go to confession weekly? Didn’t St. Paul have a thorn and he heard Christ! Jesus said “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”, when Paul asked to be relieved of this? If we went by looks, my tattoos alone would get me kicked out of church. It’s a pilgrimage, not an easy trail or wide gate. I try to do a daily act of contrition. Sometimes I just talk with Jesus, tell Him my apologies and ask for help in certain things. Recently, I had some terrible temptations. Its was almost overwhelming. I told myself, because of my past I deserved it and found shelter in the sacred heart. This is the first time I have been able to do this. It relieved the temptation enough so I could think rationally. I just told Jesus , I wasn’t able to do it without Him and He sheltered me enough to overcome it. A couple of days later, I realized how irrational the temptation was. Sometimes, Mary is the one I “fly unto thee”. God Bless, Tim

 

[Alphonsus_John]

Hi everyone!

I was pondering about this today, and I’m thinking, "Hey! I must be a rough-around-the-edges Catholic. By this I mean faithful to the Church, doing his/her best to live a Catholic life, but every once in a while, succumbing to the world and the not-so-moralistic culture. I find that I’m at times injecting sarcasm while talking about my faith (maybe some way of “softening” the Truth to those outside of the Church); peeking a glance at some morally-offensive tv program - and actually enjoying it, slipping one-too-many “f”-bombs, etc.

Are there others out there that find themselves in the same boat? Is this cyclical? What have you done in order to curb some of these temptations, whether in action, thought, or deed? A lot of times, these situations occur spontaneously. What do you do to bring yourself back to being mindful of God and Christ?

At the end of my day, my examination of conscious turns into quite a long list!

Thanks & God Bless!
Tonks40

Having been a sailor and still being in the reserves, I probably can be to colorful language like Haydn is to music. It comes upon me sometimes when I least expect it, but at least it is 80-90% of the time when I’m on reserve duty.

I don’t think “swear words” in and of themselves are bad, but if used to shock or offend they are sinful. Of course blasphemy is sinful.

Second all the advice about prayer being the best weapon against the world.