As an 18 year old male I have been struggling daily with a pornography addiction for 4 years. I have gone two days without it after minor surgery and I have been saying the "Jesus Prayer" constantly and praying to Our Lady. Please pray that God can give me strength to break this spiritually destroying habit. I don't even want to look at it any longer but I've been saying that for years. This is the longest I have gone without looking at it that I can remember and it may just be the medication that has lowered my sex drive but I hope I can stop.

Thank you, I need all the prayers I can get...

Your Brother In Christ

  :rahrah:

I have gotten into trouble giving advice about this before, so let's hope I have improved.

BE VERY RIGOROUS about giving up porno.  Don't treat it lightly as some kind of minor battle.  Give it your full attention and treat it as a war to the death.  Like the saint who jumped into a thorn bush to quell his desire for a woman.  I once laughed at that, out of pride, because for a while it has been fairly easy to be celibate.  God punished me by sending me pangs of the flesh.  

Burn yourself or whip yourself if you have to.  Don't make excuses like "God will keep forgiving me."  That may lead to a habit of sin and eventually loss of faith.  Get scared; you should be scared.  The saint who jumped in the thorn bush, he had it easy, he wasn't being bombarded with the most graphic images of this woman, unless they were in his imagination.  Don't minimize what you are dealing with.  Porno is intensely addictive.  It shows things humans were not meant to see, a false impression of male-female relations is given.  In my case I think it made me somewhat misogynist, or at least extremely mistrustful of women, seeing them behave like that -- another reason why porno is so devastating.

Overcoming this vice is like building a muscle.  If you are at the point where the curiosity builds and builds and builds to the point where you are nearly sweating with anticipation, and you manage to fight through it, you will get the graces to manage it more easily next time.

In return for my prayers for you against lust, pray for me against sloth, since I am 34 and have never had a job.  Well, I was trying to be an artist, but now I have to get a real job, and I have a debilitating fear of the world, that I'll never get hired, etc.  

You have hit Luther on the nail head, Spouse.  His inability to control his lusts led him to re write the Faith.   People will often ditch the Faith rather than control themselves.

Yeah, I thought of him.  Bet we could make a huge list.  Seems to me Our Lady once said that more souls go to hell because of sins of impurity than anything else.  That's why porno is given such a push from hell.

  Another way it can lead to the loss of faith (esp in women)is this: you watch or read those dirty materials all carrying liberal and modernist messages, telling you about selfishness, independance and disobedience. But instead of delight, you feel nausa because you are wired to in a way that you need to feel admiration for someone in order to have any real attraction to them. There is a part of you that needs submission and a feeling of being protected. As no amount of dirty material or romantic novel is capable of satisfying this need (actually they are the opposite), there is a great chance that such people get intreseted in islam, hasidism or any such religion with huge emphasis on male leardership and protection. (and not rose water wishy washy version of christianity.)

I wish everyone that had problems like this, and I suppose that mean all of us in some way or another, would take advantage of the promise I posted about St. Gertrude the Great and what Jesus told her.  

I put my prayer on for Matto, to use to help his father.

I know it would work for Adam, as it has never failed me, ever.

Forgive my ignorance madam, what was it that Our Lord promised St. Gertrude again?

Ignorance!  NEVER

God made a promise concerning St. Gertrude the Great.

 BTW, she is the only women with the title of Great.
 
The promise is; now read carefully; Whosoever thanks God for the graces bestowed upon St. Gertrude, and asks a favor of God, the favor must be the will of God.  As long as it is the will of God, it will not be refused.

No doubt about it, that it is the Will of God, what YOU, Adam are asking God, but you must have confidence when you pray to God, for anything.  St. Gertrude always had confidence.

I altered this prayer for you, but you can change it around yourself with your own words. I will post a little about St. Gertrude here, but later on today, you should also know something about her, if you don't already.  Not saying you don't, just a suggestion.

Suggested prayer below:

Teach me, O dearest Lord to please You in all things, most merciful One, engrave Thy wounds in my heart with Thy most precious blood, that I may read in them both Thy grief and Thy love.  I thank Thee for the many special graces bestowed upon your Saints, and in particular those bestowed on St. Gertrude the Great. I beg you to hear my request for ------?------- and all I am obligated to pray for.

 Please O dearest Lord I need your help now with ---?----

I desire and need a natural aversion to evil and an attraction toward good.  Please allow your holy Mother to give the special graces to flow freely to those who ask, may I now humbly ask for them.
 
Heal my soul with Thy precious blood, that I might participate in Your sufferings and sorrows and for the same end – expiation of my past sins and sins committed in the world today. Amen