My history again?

It happens, that is why I asked. If you ask this from your heart in the morning first thing with your other prayers it will be helpful. And always give thanks for a day free of the vice in the evening. I will be praying for you.

 

Sometimes we have to accept that God permits us to be tempted in order to perfect our will and love. Instead of looking at temptations in terms of fear and anxiety, pray to see them as opportunities to say yes to God and no to sin. Pray for the grace to say yes to God. We have to believe that God is bigger than our temptations: He can overcome them.

Ask the Holy Spirit to come in and support you with His presence. Make spiritual acts of communion with Christ.


A monk once said to a drunkard if you get the temptation to drink then read a chapter of the gospel. The guy then asked, what if the temptation is still there? The monk replied, read another chapter. Keep reading until it goes away.

 

If you want the grace of not wanting to fall then read what God says about how to obtain this grace here: Matthew 26:41

And as far as I know God didn't give any other instruction how to get such a grace. If anybody knows what other remedy to conquer temptation God gave to us then inform me.

 

When I remember to do it, I try to use my imagination to place myself in some scene of the Passion of Christ; I then ask Him to stay with me and not let me go.

 

Your symptoms are normal, the devil fears you are sweeping your house clean and he doesn't want to vacate the premises. Take these temptations as a sign that you are on the right path and take heart. Your recognition that you forgot to pray when tempted is a good one and you know how to correct it going forward. God only asks that you regularly, reaffirm your choice of His love, over evil temptations. Pray from your heart until the temptations are gone and the grace will accrue to you.

 

Hey @Mara43,

How are you doing today?

 

Prayer to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary

(Composed by Berthe Petit)

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, dwelling pure and holy, cover my soul with your maternal protection so that being ever faithful to the voice of Jesus, it responds to His love and obeys His Divine Will.

I wish, O, my Mother, to keep unceasingly before me your co-redemption in order to live intimately with your Heart that is totally united to the Heart of your Divine Son.

Fasten me to this Heart by your own virtues and sorrows. Protect me always.

 

I wonder about Matthew 18:9,10. I don't suggest we follow those words literally (and I don't think that is what Christ intended) but I do think that stopping ourselves from looking at the slightest temptation is a means to protect our hearts and minds, if not purify them. What do you think?

 

Be assured it gets easier with each day. Pray from your heart, this is the balm and the cure. Whenever you can, attend Blessed Adoration and sit in peaceful silence with Our Blessed Lord.

 

God loves you so very much and here you have just another bit of proof of that.

 

Personally, I always understood Matthew 18:9,10. in a similar way as you write above. So it would be avoiding porn and all porn substitutes - avoiding the occasion of pmo sin but I have just checked how ancient church and commentaries understood the line and it occurred that I was mistaken.

So - Matthew 18:9,10. is about some people (even our close friends) who make a stumbling block for our faith / life according to faith. We should cut them off our life in order not to fall in their sins, lack of faith or heresy. It's because verse 9 is rather some development of the verse Matthew 18:6 - '' But whoever shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. ''

Look for example at this commentaries:

Chromatius of Aquileia, AD 407

in cutting off a hand or foot or in plucking out an eye, it is clear that family relations or unbelieving ministers and leaders of the church are signified..... if hands or feet of this sort, that is, any priest or deacon, either through heretical faith or through depraved living, has become a stumbling block to the church, the Lord orders that such a man be plucked from the body of the church and thrown out. The example of his life and heretical doctrine endangers all the body of the church


John Chrysostom, AD 407

This is not said of the limbs of the body, but of friends whom we esteem as limbs necessary to us; for nothing is so hurtful as evil communications.


Theophylact of Ochrid, AD 1107

Hand, foot, and eye understand to mean friends whom we rank as dear as our own members. And even though it may be these, our close friends, who harm us, we must disregard them as gangrenous members and cut them off, lest they harm others as well as themselves.

The source: https://catenabible.com/mt/18/9



That's why the time has passed when I alone (like Protestants) tried to analyse the meaning of the Bible verses. This has always been the task of our church. Now I always check how a passage or a verse is understood by our church. I don't want to fall in a pit by a mistaken understanding.