Thread 33610128

How do I be a better Catholic? Any time I try bring myself to do something to get better I just get tangled up in my own sin again. I'm stuck addicted to porn and unable to bring myself away from it. I can't seem to muster myself to go to confession. What do I do?

>>33610128 (OP)
Go to confession, pray, seek refuge in God. Especially in the moment of sin, that’s the best time for it, don’t let the devil fool you to hide yourself from God. God forgives.

>>33610128 (OP)
Multiversal Church. Don't worry. Shhh. Hey, hey, hey. It's alright now. It's alright now. Jesus loves you… peek-a-Protestantism is cancelled too! peek-a-Protestantism is cancelled too! Let's be Christians.

>>33610128 (OP)
I have found that confession is the most powerful tool. Obviously, we feel shame asking God for forgiveness for jerking off, but you'll get another reason not to watch porn when you confess to a prudish 60 y/o priest. Also, pray to St. Michael to fight off the lustful demons attacking you

>>33610128 (OP)
true contrition means to honestly turn away from sin, otherwise there was not a contrite heart to begin with.

I find myself beating myself up too much for sins in my past, sins forgiven by the lord. I turned away from the sins, but I feel responsible still. Is there any way out of this?

>>33610128 (OP)
Not Catholic, but a lot of the practices of ascesis found in Orthodoxy can help develop one's ability to resist temptation.

Some examples include strictly maintaining morning and nighttime prayers. Consistency is more important than length. Psalm 50/51 LXX/Masoretic is a great one to add each day along with the Creed, doxology, and intercessions.

Fasting is a great way to develop control over one's passions. This can go well beyond the "fish Friday" fasting that is seen in modernity. Struggling over the entirety of Lent without being able to eat almost all meat, fish, eggs, or dairy refines one's willpower. Our standard fasts are essentially vegan foods only every Wednesday and Friday save feast days and Pascha.

Something else that I have found amazingly helpful too is to have a prayer rope / bracelet. I have one that has 33 knots which represents all the year's of Jesus' life. Any time I'm stressed or tempted I will go through the rope with the Jesus Prayer. It takes only a couple minutes.

"O Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

I am sure as a Catholic, you could use that or something that is more toward your leaning, perhaps something venerating the Theotokos (Virgin Mary).

That said, you should confess as soon a possible. Reconciliation is vital, as is being able to participate in the Eucharist.

>>33610128 (OP)
>try to be good
>lapse into sin
>feel guilty
>repent and determine to do better
>lapse again
>feel even guiltier

That's what being a good Catholic IS!

>>33610128 (OP)
>>33611588
please do NOT listen to this guy
„orthodox” ascetic practices are often derived from hindu idolatry such as mantra
hesychasm is essentially hindu worship with the name of Jesus

Catholic here. From what you describe I can tell that you suffer from lack of discipline first and foremost. When you wake up, say your morning prayers first and then the rosary in Latin. If you can, say all formulaic prayers, at least the basic ones like Pater Noster, Gloria Patri, Ave Maria and Credo, because demons hate Latin and any other ancient liturgical language. Say your evening prayers as well, with a genuine and contrite heart, this is the most important, because many words have no value if you don't mean them.

Read ascetic and spiritual literature daily, San Juan de la Cruz, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, naturally, also the Bible, especially if you haven't read it from start to finish.

Ora et labora, my brother. Don't think too much about it. Do what is right and chastity will follow supernaturally by the grace of God. Worked for me.

>>33612763
>please do NOT listen to this guy
>„orthodox” ascetic practices are often derived from hindu idolatry...

This is libel. Orthodox practice is derived from ancient temple worship. Fasting and prayer came from this source, not paganism, and is espoused both in scripture and tradition. The Apostle Paul encourages frequent prayer:

"Pray without ceasing." - 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV)

The origins of the Jesus Prayer can be seen manifested in the Gospel According to Luke among others.

"And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." - Luke 18:38 (KJV)

A more exacting formula including use in continual prayer is seen in epistles from St. John Chrysostom (born ~350 AD) along with early saints like Macarius the Great.

Jesus himself clarifies proper fasting:

"Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." - Matthew 6:16-18 (KJV)

Ascetic practices are meant to help one gain greater control of their passions so that they can better cooperate with the energies and Grace of God.

You also don't know the consequence of what you are claiming. Are you implicating Byzantine Rite Catholics as being heterodox? They practice similar asceticism.

>>33612913
This seems to be a well reasoned post and probably more apt to OP's inclinations being from a Roman Catholic poster. There seems to be a lot of wisdom here.

>>33610128 (OP)
While you may not be Orthodox, a prayer book that I use has a prayer to say before using the internet.

"Be the helper of my soul, O God, for I walk in the midst of many snares. Deliver me from them and save me. You are good and You love mankind”

God bless.

>>33613169
saying hesychasm is idolatry doesn’t mean I’m rejecting Eastern Catholics.

It’s a jab at Eastern Orthodoxy’s heretical essence-energies doctrine, officially dogma since 1351, which splits God into a “lower divinity” of energies that’s “transcended to an infinite degree” by the essence, as Gregory Palamas says: “The super essential essence of God… transcends them [the energies] to an infinite degree” (Triads).

That’s polytheism, plain and simple, and it denies the one God, who Jesus says is united: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

Eastern Catholics aren’t stuck with this garbage—they’re part of the true Church.

Hesychasm’s navel-gazing and breathing tricks, like “rest your beard on your chest and focus… on your navel” (Pseudo-Simeon), is just pagan yoga nonsense, chasing a fake “uncreated light” that’s not God but a demonic delusion.

Palamas even claims some uncreated energies “have a beginning and end” (Triads), which spits on God’s immutability: “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6).

Barlaam called it superstitious and heretical before ditching Orthodoxy for Catholicism.

You’re confusing Orthodox heresy with Eastern Catholic rites.

Hesychasm’s a delusional idolatrous psyop, and it’s pathetic you can’t see that

>>33613199
Curious that St. Gregory Palamas is venerated as an accepted saint by Eastern Rite Catholics.

"...it is enough to recall here the moving commentary which Saint Gregory Palamas makes on it in one of his homilies: "

Weird. Pope John Paul II called him a saint in his own homily in Turkey. Straight on the Vatican's site.

"2. The hesychast controversy marked another distinctive moment in Eastern theology. In the East, hesychasm means a method of prayer characterized by a deep tranquillity of the spirit, which is engaged in constant contemplation of God by invoking the name of Jesus. There was no lack of tension with the Catholic viewpoint on certain aspects of this practice. However, we should acknowledge the good intentions which guided the defense of this spiritual method, that is, to emphasize the concrete possibility that man is given to unite himself with the Triune God in the intimacy of his heart, in that deep union of grace which Eastern theology likes to describe with the particularly powerful term of "theosis", "divinization".

Precisely in this regard Eastern spirituality has amassed a very rich experience which was vigorously presented in the famous collection of texts significantly entitled Philokalia...

...How many things we have in common! It is time for Catholics and Orthodox to make an extra effort to understand each other better and to recognize with the renewed wonder of brotherhood what the Spirit is accomplishing in their respective traditions towards a new Christian springtime."

Pope John Paul II seems to be a lot more charitable toward the practice of hesychasm than you are.

I can only imagine what is going to be said in the near future as Pope Leo has met multiple times already with the Ecumenical Patriarch.

>>33613236
Look, Eastern Rite Catholics might venerate Palamas as a historical figure, but that doesn’t whitewash his heretical Palamite nonsense—splitting God into essence and energies like some pagan idol-worshipper.

John Paul II’s 1979 homily, oozing with ecumenical mush, tosses a bone to hesychasm’s “good intentions” while admitting “tension with the Catholic viewpoint.” He’s not endorsing Palamas’ blasphemous essence-energies garbage, which dares to say God’s essence “transcends [the energies] to an infinite degree” (Triads), shredding the unity of the Godhead that Our Lord proclaims: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

Charity doesn’t mean swallowing heretical lies; John Paul II was just playing nice for dialogue, not canonizing that theological slop Eastern Catholics reject by holding fast to the true faith.

As for “Pope Leo” having met the Ecumenical Patriarch multiple times in 2025, those cozy chats don’t cleanse Orthodoxy’s gross errors, like claiming uncreated energies “have a beginning and end” (Palamas, Triads), which spits in the face of God’s immutability: “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6).

Barlaam exposed this superstitious, demonic nonsense for what it was—heretical—and bolted to the true Catholic Church. Hesychasm’s navel-gazing tripe, like “rest your beard on your chest and focus… on your navel” (Pseudo-Simeon), is nothing but pagan yoga masquerading as prayer, a devilish trick to mislead souls.

You’re desperately clutching at quotes to prop up this false theology with your diabolical rhetoric. It’s a pathetic display, and you know it’s indefensible in the light of truth

>>33613314
>Eastern Rite Catholics might venerate Palamas as a historical figure...
As a historical figure...on the liturgical calendar. With a divine liturgy, troparion, and prokeimenon. You can chant along (music provided).

>He’s not endorsing Palamas’ blasphemous essence-energies garbage
Melkite Catholics follow the EED doctrine and accept the uncreated light. Melkite Catholics are in full communion with Rome. Are they heterodox?

>>33610128 (OP)
Just go to confession, retard. That's what its for

4chan wont help moron. smartest catholic.
moids will feel bad abt porn but not rape and battery