1. Receive Holy Communion as often as possible, if possible daily. Attend Mass everyday if possible, even if you cannot receive communion. Make frequent acts of spiritual communion when you cannot receive communion. Here is what I mean. Desire union with our Lord and love Him. Hence express that desire and ask Him to enter into your heart.
Here are two examples
Quote:
My Jesus, I believe that Thou art present in the Blessed Sacrament. I love Thee above all things and I desire Thee in my soul. Since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. As though thou wert already there, I embrace Thee and unite myself wholly to Thee; permit not that I should ever be separated from Thee.
Quote:
In order to facilitate a practice of such great excellence, ponder what I have to say. When the priest is about to give himself Communion in holy Mass, do you, keeping composed externally and internally, excite in your heart an act of true contrition, and humbly striking your breast, in token that you acknowledge yourself unworthy of so great a grace, make all those acts of love, of self-surrender, of humility, and the rest, which you are accustomed to make when you communicate sacramentally, and then desire with a lively longing to receive your good Jesus, veiled in the sacrament for your benefit. And to kindle your devotion, imagine that most holy Mary, or some saint, your holy advocate, is holding forth to you the sacred particle; figure yourself receiving it, and then, embracing Jesus in your heart, reply to Him, over and over again, with interior words prompted by love: “Come, Jesus, my Beloved, come within this my poor heart; come and satiate my desires; come and sanctify my soul; come, most sweet Jesus, come!” This said, be still; contemplate your good God within you, and, as if you really had communicated, adore Him, thank Him, and perform all those interior acts to which you are accustomed after sacramental Communion.
God bestows grace even outside the Sacrament to those who desire it through right intention.
2. Frequent ejaculations - um, I should explain. An ejaculation is a short prayer. An example "My Jesus I love you", "Jesus, make my heart like Thine", "Jesus, Mary, Joseph, be with me", "St. Joseph, pray for me". Or even just devoutly saying the names of our Lord and Lady. Do this especially when tempter.
3. Get to know your guardian angel. Invoke him frequently.
Angel of God, my guardian dear,
to whom His love commits me here,
ever this night (or day) be at my side,
to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.
Or even "My guardian angel, be with me"
4. St. Michael the Archangel. Pray to him
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who wander throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
If you cannot remember this prayer, that is fine. Invoke him in your own words, he is the Angel scripture has casting Lucifer down
5. Do not try to combat impure images, that will just make them stay in your mind more. Distract yourself, through prayer and even through wordly distactions. If in the day or evening, get up, talk to people.
6. If disturbed by such thoughts while trying to sleep, get out of bed and pray for those who might be dying now and need your prayers.
7. Pray before being tempted. Here is what I mean, if there is a place or a time where you are usually tempted, then before that arrives, if it cannot be avoid, pra
y. Don´t wait until the enemy is upon you!
8. Pray when tempted. Again even something as simple as "Hail Mary, Hail Mary, etc" or "Stay with us, O Lord" or just "Jesus"
9. If you have any sacramentals (blessed scapulars, rosaries, holy water, etc) use them often.
10. If there is a "ritual" involved, break it. That is, if you have a set pattern of behavior that is associated with it, change your behavior. Try to change things up so as to break any association with it If there is a place or person that sets you off, avoid them if possible, otherwise minmise contact and pray before entering the place or meeting the person
11.
I cannot stress this enough: do not obsess over it. If you do fail, the worst thing you can do is to beat yourself up for that. What you do when you do that is you keep it with you, you build stress and frustration. Stress and frustration can lead to impure thoughts, as a release. Likewise anger.
12. In connection with 11, sometimes there are other causes, like stress, anger, loneliness. These may mitigate guilt, but you should try to work on them if they lead you to this sin.
13. While tempted, imagine that Mary and Jesus are looking right at you. Would you do this in front of your mother on earth? But yet in doing it you are doing it in front of God, His Mother and the host of angels and saints.
14. VERY IMPORTANT. You mention going to 5 different priests for confession. I know how frustrating it is when a priest doesn't bother to give any direction (they ought to give some direction in confession, when possible of course), or doesn't say anything new, or gives what seems like trivial advice. Even if the quality of direction in confession ought to be better, it can never be more than minimal. You need a spiritual director. He can be the same as your confessor, or different. It might even be a priest not close by, but that you trust. Or even not a priest, but a friar or nun. But spiritual direction, consistency, is important.
15. FAST and ABSTAIN. Friday abstinence is a good practice. Any mortification (within reason) that can be kept up. Maybe choose a day of the week to fast. Besides the spiritual benefit, certain foods lead to higher sexual drives. Abstaining from meat and other rich foods will help. Not all the time (unless you are called to that), but cutting down will help. This is connected with 14. Listen to a spiritual director, and follow his advice on penance. There will be greater merit than a penance voluntarily chosen, because you mortify your will by submitting it to another in choosing said penance. Besides, you want something that will be sustainable and not harmful. Outside eyes help
Lastly, and this is the hardest thing to hear. It will get harder before it gets easier. If you do this almost daily you are very strongly habituated, not only spiritually, but psychologically and physically to the act. Your very body will be geared for it.
I cannot stress this enough. You, by yourself, cannot win this battle. Only God can win this battle through you, with your will surrendered to Him. One must realize they are helpless before sin before they can fully understand what it is to rely on God. Also, don't try and set unrealistic goals. Work to avoid temptations and run away (distract yourself, go outside, be with people, PRAY) when they occur. Don't dwell on them. Don't dwell on falling. Don't set goals that will lead you to be disappointed in yourself ("well I last 3 days the last time, this time I am aiming for 5 days"). Simply resign yourself to this, that this is combat and until you are dead you are not out of the fight. Don't despair if you went a few weeks but fell again, or start falling more often again. Seek your director as a soldier would his commander. Get up, and keep moving forward. Trust in God.
I recommend very strongly "Spiritual Combat". At the very least, some spiritual reading
there is one method that actually will work,
ReplyDeleteyou have 2 pray in tongues for about 8 hours a day, and fast of course,
i suggest reading franklin hall's book abc's of fasting, and reading the how 2 book, Walking in the Spirit by dave Robenson, from tulsa OK.
and remember .. it's a mortal sin, just like adultry , and if you can not axcess the power of grace in this area , what makes you thinks you have the axcess of grace in any area of your life.
and remember if the roman catholic system, this sin may send you to hell, so not only will you have a misery life, trying to combat the sin that so "easly besets you.. Heb 21;1, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run