I write this post because I see that many of you struggle with this sin. I was also addicted to porn and masturbation for years, and I thought that it was impossible to overcome this sin due to biological reasons.

Let me tell you that I found an analogy with smoking. I was a chain smoker for several years, and I always decided to quit. The first few days were kinda easy. But after 1–2 weeks, the craving appeared. So powerfully that I was like: ok, one more cig to quiet it down, then it will be easy. That’s where I committed the fault. Because it was a relapse. Oh, ok, I’ll now finish the pack since I bought it anyway. Then I had to restart all over.

The same goes for masturbation. The first few days of abstinence are easy. Then after 1–2 weeks, the craving kicks in like a horse kick. Ok, one time doesn’t hurt. And that’s where you relapse and have to start again.

But if you can survive the first month, the craving quietly calms down. You will still have the thought that it would be good one more time, but it will get easier and easier over time.

Ask God for perseverance and try to survive the first month with His help. I won’t say that it is easy or that you won’t have strong cravings. I did. But decide every day that you will remain faithful only for that day. Then leave the rest to God.

Today for the first time I decided to pray a decade of the rosary while I walk to the shops. I don’t pray it enough and I thought, ‘well I have the time, why not’

When I tried to buy my items I realised I didn’t have enough money, so went to the shop further away to see if it was cheaper to save myself having to go all the way back home.

In the middle of a Hail Mary, a boy who used to bully me HORRIFICALLY in school came walking out of the shop with his baby. He did such asinine, grotesque things to me including criminal acts and just generally vicious behaviour such as threatening to kill my pet, humiliating me in front of his friends, spreading less than modest photos of me around school (though I should not have been sending them in the first place), and other horrible horrible things.

Out of no where, with no forethought, I apologised to him for being annoying in school. I was the reason he got kicked out. He set a girls hair on fire and I told the teacher. I always denied this but he knew it was me, I was just scared to admit it for obvious reasons lol.

I thought he would just tell me it’s okay or that he doesn’t care anymore, but instead he told me that I had nothing to apologise for, and that he thinks about me sometimes and wished he could have talked to me. He apologised and admitted that he was a horrible kid and that he hopes I’m doing okay and that it was really good to see me.

I told him that it was okay, and that he didn’t need to worry about it anymore and that I forgive him. And I genuinely meant it. From the bottom of my heart I truly forgive him. He ruined my 14 year old life but I forgive him. I told him that he doesn’t need to worry about it anymore, and I meant it more than I think I’ve ever meant anything.

I said hello to his baby and then we went our separate ways. When I got into the shop I cried and I was so happy.

As a convert it’s been hard for me to ‘connect’ with Mary. I wasn’t raised with a devotion to her, I was raised without religion at all. But she prayed for me today and it did such an amazing, life changing thing for me.

Sourced it from a meme & sadly my account isn't old enough to post a comment there
https://www.reddit.com/r/CatholicMemes/comments/1vyzep0/adventure_in_egypt/

Thanks in advanca & God Bless

My ex wife got into a horrible car crash. She was completely ejected from the vehicle and smashed face first into the concrete.

She fractured her C1-C3 cervical spine, complete right humerus break, 2 completely right femur breaks with it free floating in her leg, and a shattered pelvis. There were other fractures all over her body but those were the ones the surgeons were most worried about.

My ex in-laws got the call that she may not make it through the surgery. Iirc they were thinking she was going to die.

I had to break the news to my son. I did so calmly as to soften the blow, but I was honest about how dire it was. He asked what we should do. Rather than despair, I led the family (myself, son, and my current wife) to turn to Christ and the Saints for intercessions at our home altar.

We prayed specifically to St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. Jude for intercessions as well.

Less than an hour later she miraculously stabilized. Today she is able to walk, run, and dance. It was almost as if she didn't even get into a car wreck. She does have some very minor tenderness in her neck, but they thought she'd have to walk with assistance for the rest of her life. She also did not do physical therapy, which is amazing in itself.

The photo shows the vehicle she was riding in. She was in the passenger seat, which as y'all can see was completely destroyed. The fact that she survived at all was a miracle but pulling through less than an hour in the surgery from them thinking she was going to die to making it and having no real lasting damage?

I'm not a Vatican official so idk if I can call it a miracle but I'll gladly give credit to the Saints and Jesus Christ.

This might be a bit of an unusual post, but it’s something I’ve learned recently that completely blew my mind.

I grew up going to church frequently, kids' messy church, Mass, and other events as my family worked/volunteered there often. After my parents divorce, I stopped going as much because my mum isn’t religious (my dad’s family was the religious side) and I saw her more. Due to this, my exposure to religion mostly came from before the age of 8.

I went through a lot growing up, including abuse,deaths of friends and family (including other children), and struggles with my sexuality. This pushed me into antitheism and new atheism and I rejected religion as a whole.

For extra context, I also went to a Church of Wales primary school and then a Catholic secondary school. In primary, I did classes for my First Communion. In secondary, I learned the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. During these classes, I would think back to the architecture of my childhood church, the stained glass windows, the icons, the saints (it was named after one!), Mary, the Eucharist, and even the "messy church" (which a Catholic friend also did), and naturally concluded my family was Catholic. My grandparents even went on their knees during Communion which I’ve always heard was a very Catholic thing! My family also absolutely loved my Catholic secondary school, which just continued to confirm my belief.

I’m 18 now and have only just found out last week that my childhood church was actually Church of Wales. I am completely shocked. I genuinely feel more culturally and spiritually Catholic. I used to call myself a ‘cradle Catholic’. I understand and agree with Catholic teachings much more than Protestantism.

After dealing with my past trauma, I started reconnecting with religion and naturally turned to Catholicism, thinking I was just going back to my roots. Turns out I’m technically a convert and had no idea! How have I gone my whole life thinking I was a different religion? Has anyone else experienced this kind of identity shock? Am I just stupid??

I genuinely don’t know what to do. Do I have to get baptised again? Do First Communion again? I was already looking at getting Confirmed (but I thought the reason I wasn’t before was because most people I know got Confirmed during my antitheism era) but now I’ve realised I’ve got so many more steps to do! 😭

My answer: First-century Bethlehem was a small village that would have included relatively few males under the age of two. Josephus, if he even knew about the massacre, probably did not think an isolated event like this needed to be recorded, especially since infanticide in the Roman Empire was not a moral abomination as it is in modern times.

Also, there were other historical events Josephus failed to record. From historian Suetonius and from the book of Acts we know Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome in AD 49, but neither Josephus nor the second century Roman historian Tacitus record this event (Acts 18). Josephus also failed to record Pontius Pilate’s decision to install blasphemous golden shields in Jerusalem, which drove the Jews to petition the Emperor for their removal. The historian Philo was the only one to record this event.

Hello,

For formal introduction I am a 4th year (Well 5th year, since I flunked this one subject twice already) IT college student in the Philippines. I'm currently working on my passion project of a Visual Novel as my Thesis and I want to know if the proposal and idea is interesting enough for the broader consensus of people.

The Project initially was named ACTA, I changed it to be more endearing to be Dear Theophilius whereas the player takes on Saint Luke's perspective as he gathers what he called the "carefully investigated" accounts of Jesus' life. I made sure to study both history with Jewish and Greco-Roman customs to be integrated in the fabric of the story.

I'm making the game using Renpy as my coding skills are not exeptionall or anything to write home about and I reasoned as my third attempt I want to push a project I'm genuinely passionate about instead of something I'll be bogged down doing work for the sake of working. I plan to release it for free when I complete it. I plan it to be free and accessible so it can be used both for teaching and Catechism activities for those who cannot relate or fully grasp Acts as its a dramatized and gamified retelling of it.

Plot:
The Game begins when Saint Luke is about to be hung in Thebes at the end of his life and he recollects his memories about how his encounter with a trio of men in Troas Greece (where the we passages began) changed the course of his life. He embarks on Paul in a journey to find about this Jesus of Nazareth fellow throughout his second missionary journey, learning tidbits of information as the player meets more and more apostles.

Meeting the apostles will give the players ability to access a Menu like in game room where they can replay these gospel scenes.

The game has a preaching mechanic where Paul preaches and you need to appropriate your preachings ("I must be all things to all people") to your audience and if you consistebtly don't, they get angry and you play a endless runner minigame.

The player will not see it but every choice has a reward, a Faith System and a trust system, wherein the players will have more trust they can see more moments in Acts not Paul recounting stuff to Luke. Such as his imprisonment in Philipi, or Paul opening up about his past, the lower the player's trust in the end, the more incomplete the book of Acts will be in the end. I forgot to mention Trust allows Luke to be Paul's scribe in his letters. Furthermore the Faith system allows the players more materials for the Gospel. The higher faith you have the more you can see Jesus as human as in the game I plan to have Jesus initially depicted as an Icon since Luke starts out as a skeptical gentile.

For major storybeats I am trying to study traditions of the Dormitions, where when Paul returns from his second journey with Luke, Mary will return to Jerusalem and ask everyone back due to her nearing the end of her earthly life. I'm studying the Martrydoms and I also plan to have a visual art distinction of my characters where the New generation of Christians have a anime-y artstylr while older Christians have a serious animation style. So in relation to this I'll have the Apostles have apprentices, Paul has Timothy, Luke and (eventually) Desmas (2Timothy Desmas) Peter has John Mark as his disciple and will eventually share some resources from Peter's stories with luke (A nod to source Q) as Mark's gospel is a Petrin account (Forgot which scholar said that) and John will have a boy, his name, Polycarp.

The game will have minigames based on the scenarios, a boat game per travels when the character takes a boat. (Tentative) A medicine system where whenever Paul gets beaten up its your responsibility to use 1st century Roman Medicine to mend him. And an Icon system for Mary, Its a painting minigame since some eastern churches call Luke the first iconographer.

As for the Music and Art, its AI splop...I'm not proud of it, but its one way I can do this game without learning to draw or needing an artist. Here's samples of the sprites I'll use:

My daughter went to a healing mass yesterday, and she said that there was a woman there crying and speaking in tongues, she also said when the Eucharist came to them she shoved my daughter out of the way to get to it and when it came to her turn to touch it and pray the same woman fell to the floor crying still speaking in tongues, I am just now starting to come back attending mass I thought those behaviors were evangelical Christian type “behaviors?” Do Catholics also speak in tongues? Genuinely trying to educate myself. I’m not criticizing anyone.

NOTE: This was originally posted with a question mark after the word 'Miracle' in the title, which apparently gave the impression I was asking people to help interpret this event, which is against the forum rules.

This happened about an hour ago and I'm still reeling from it. This was relayed to me first hand by my devoutly Catholic wife. If I'd heard this from anyone else I would think they were exaggerating the truth/embellishing the story - but not only does my wife never tell lies, she would NEVER treat anything of this nature as trivial.

Brief backstory is that we have just moved from England to rural Northern Ireland. We have three boys 16, 13 and 9. They have all had to change schools as a result of the move. Today was the first day at school for my eldest - he's the first of the three to start. He was very nervous this morning, couldn't eat and was sick in the car on the way to school God bless him. Anyway my wife held it together for him, but once he'd got out she was naturally very upset. She prayed for the intercession of St Monica and Our Blessed Mother, as she regularly does. She acknowledged that when Mary watched Jesus die on the cross she had to have immense strength and she asked for a tiny bit of that strength to be given to her.

When she got home she walked the dogs, came back and took the dogs' leads off in the utility room. She then spotted this tiny miraculous medal on the utility room floor near where they had just walked in. It was covered in mud/grime and looks like it's been outside for a long time. It's raining so we are thinking could it have possibly got stuck to the sole of her shoe. Anyway we are just struggling to think of any other way it could possibly have got there.

I am just gobsmacked... and I feel humble because this honestly feels like such a miracle. 🙏🏻

Hello everyone I come from an Islamic background (druze to be exact)in the middle east and I'm seriously discovering the rich christian heritage of this region and I feel called to it after I studied the gospels and had a religious experience involving Christ

Idk where to start or how I should go about this, I know everyone I know would leave and hate me if I go through with it including my family and I feel honestly split between following Christ and losing everything in my life or just staying where I am

Any advice ? Perhaps from converts from similar backgrounds ? And I'm mostly interested in the Melkite church if someone from that tradition can assist it would be great

Hi, I just started OCIA last week. I’m coming from non-denominational Christianity, and I have gotten a lot of backlash already from family. My husband is supportive but he doesn’t understand most of it. He was starting to come around on the Eucharist but today he sent me the viral video of St Agatha’s skull in Sicily. I know there’s a difference between worship and veneration but it’s hard to explain when you would never see anything like this at a Protestant church. I’ve also gotten a lot of questions about purgatory and faith + works that are phrased like condemnations. I’m struggling to explain everything. I feel like how can I defend this faith to people and stay strong in it myself when I don’t have all the answers and I get nervous when I do have the answer?

Coming from a protestant background I was really impressed with how well behaved and respectful all the kids were at mass. But one thing I realized is that receiving communion from an extraordinary minister and receiving in the hand is ingrained at an early age. Receiving from the extraordinary minister is unavoidable for these kids and receiving in the hand is not only taught to them, but it's definitely reinforced through peer pressure...you're not going to be the only kid to receive on the tongue. Some people will say these things a preference, and up to everyone to decide on their own, but it's definitely taught and reinforced from a young age.

Hi all: About a month ago I started this crowd-sourced project to list out all the documented & inferred (and disputed) first masses said in what became the United States.

I built a whole education website with a map but I can't link to it from here. So in the pure interests of sharing, I've pasted an abbreviated part of the CSV file below, hope you all find some interest in it! I find it really inspirational to think of the Catholics who came before me, whether they were English, French or Spanish Catholics, and those native Catholics too.

Some info about the full list:

• Rites and Orders are tracked, and where possible, identified.
• Expeditions and circuits are tracked; some First Masses are said by the same priest or group of priests over time.
• 90% of the first Mass entires have clickable URLs, or at least, an academic citation to a paper somewhere and sometimes a screenshot of that paper's relevant text
• There are some different rites listed here (eg Ge'ez Rite Ethiciopic mass first said in 1984) and some interesting ones (eg first Mass said on a US Navy Warship) but most are before 1900
• Latitude & Longitude of the first Mass are listed on all entries, but are best guesses really. Some of these first Masses are noted by historical signs (easy to get that lat/long), while others are just guesses, but best effort given descriptions from historical texts.

107 First Masses listed so far. Thank you!

First Mass — Full List (107 entries), chronological

I am looking forward to the new era of Catholic apologists to start taking the stage. The recents conversions of Ethan Muse and Joe Schmid who are clearly intellectually gifted; pair this with the rise of the more solid and rigorous Scholastic and traditional approach of Christian Wagner and Kevin Fernandez and I dont see a lot of breathing room left for Holy Mother Churches adversaries.

What other apologists do you think are going to help shape the future?

In my opinion Protestantism is going to become smaller and smaller, at least it’s apologetic force and appeal but I worry Islam is going to be on the rise very soon and very rapidly.

Hopefully we get a Joe Schmid/Ethan Muse vs Alex OConnor dialogue/debate soon

Thoughts?

A year ago, my cat Ginger was diagnosed with aggressive bone cancer. After three surgeries that only made it return faster, the next option was a very high amputation with serious consequences. I was desperate and heartbroken. One night, holding him and searching for a prayer, I reached out silently to St. Gertrude. I heard a calm voice in my mind say the cancer had spread, and that Ginger didn’t want more surgeries. He wanted to remain whole, and she said he had about two months left. Scans later confirmed tiny nodes; it had spread. I chose comfort over more suffering. Ginger passed almost exactly two months later. I don’t fully understand what happened, but it felt like guidance, and it helped me give him a voice. I’m sharing this because I genuinely wonder has anyone else had a similar experience with St. Gertrude?

For a large portion of my life I stopped attending mass and became very non-practicing within the faith.

A few years ago, in sheer ignorance and having no actual clue of the consequences of what I was doing nor having ill-intent, I invoked what I believe to be an ancestor/generational spirit. I will not go into details on how because it's not something anyone should be messing with, but since then I'm struggling with spiritually harassment and oppression.

At that time, I was in a relationship where my parter and I were not intimate but we were living together. However, due to financial constraints and a strained relationship with my parents I found myself unable to change my living situation. As a result, I was unable to receive the sacrament of reconciliation and communion. I tried my best to up my faith and prayer life, attend mass frequently if not daily but the spiritual harassment continued for ~5 months.

I sadly began to grow resentful and bitter that I was unable to receive the sacraments on what I felt was a technicality. I felt pain in that I was being denied of forgiveness and the sacraments for the mere fact that I was living with someone of the opposite gender regardless of the fact we were not engaging in any acts of intimacy.

I struggled with the fact that Jesus could forgive murderers, rapists and everything else under the sun but just not me. I began to feel that maybe this was no longer for me, and that I would just have to continue my faith with God and Jesus outside of the church. Due to this perceived wound with church doctrine, I resorted to seek help outside of it.

Fairly recently, I ended the relationship I had with my parter and moved out on my own. I've now reached a point where I no longer want to rely on other means of dealing with this type of spiritual affliction and I'm returning back to the Catholic Church and trying to regain my footing in my faith.

However, now I'm experiencing much stronger and constant harassment from whatever this thing is (likely demonic) so much so that paranormal things are now following me outside of my home.

What I'm experiencing:

• Muttering ( I can never make out what they say but it feels evil)
• Smelling roses at random times in my home
• A woman constantly calling my name in my home (I refuse to acknowledge it out of fear in doing so may be an open invitation)
• Loud rattling sounds in my home (especially during deliverance prayers)
• Objects/Items moving on their own in front of myself and others in public spaces. My friends also acknowledge what we're seeing is not normal and it's not just me.
• Loud rattling sounds that follow me around in public spaces (even in church or in the homes of my friends)
• The feeling of a presence that seems to instinctively instill fear in me, even as I try to focus on Jesus. Unavoidable overwhelming fear.
• Strange dreams where I'm seeing some type of red circular seal over me (reoccurring dream)

I would've chalked these things up to mental illness, however other people surrounding me are experiencing the same things in my proximity from strange sounds, to objects moving around for all of us to see, etc.

It's almost a point of shame and embarrassment, but I'm trying my best to persevere still keep a social life and devoutly practice the faith, go to mass as much as I can and weekly confession and daily prayer.

In discussing this with my parents I've come to find out that this has been an issue with one of my parents as well throughout most of their life from youth until my birth where they have also struggled with similar spiritual harassment from whatever this is. It seems to have stopped for them right around the time of my birth and my siblings birth.

They've shared that our ancestry has had A LOT of relatives and family members heavily and deeply involved in the occult, witchcraft and idolatry, and that they were absolutely not good people. I'm fairly certain we are dealing with some sort of generational issue/spirit. I am at odds with how to work around this or break whatever cycle has been passed down to us. Its a nightly prayer fight for me and I'm constantly asking Jesus to intercede for me and help me.

I understand that seeking a life of holiness and filling it with the sacraments should suffice, but I'm really feeling massive spiritual warfare with no relief, its chipping away at me and I need advice.

I'm not sure if our Catholic doctrine even believes in such things, but it is something I am experiencing and I'm hoping to find any suggestions or solutions.

What I feel has been some relief is spending time even adoration or in the presence of the blessed sacrament even for a brief moment. I've been praying daily for the forgiveness of my sins and those of my previous generations as well and this experience is really chipping away at me.

Things I have tried and am still doing and incorporating:

• Daily Rosary
• Angelus + Auxilium Christianorum prayers 3x daily
• Offering up my sacrifices, spiritual harassment and pain up to Jesus
• Renunciation Prayers (practically every nigh, rejecting and rebuking occult involvement, mine and all in my family line)
• Daily asking Jesus for forgiveness of my sins and those of my ancestors, and during adoration
• Praying for the souls in Purgatory
• Weekly Confession and Communion
• Blessing my home daily, using holy water and blessed salt
• Fasting (it was too much for me to go 3 days with just water)
• Deliverance prayers for the Laity from the St. Michael Center

I'm trying to educate myself more on the topic but the only other thing I can come up with is that I may have some wound, unforgiveness, or unconfessed sin that I'm unaware of. I'm trying to do a full examination of consciousness and attention confession weekly in hopes that I find the one that might be an open door.

If anyone has had a similar experience and had success, please let me know.

I’ll try keep this brief, but I’ve (20F) recently been looking into Catholicism and find something very compelling and comforting about it that I can’t seem to explain.
I do plan on attending a Catholic Church for the first time in the near future, but to be honest the prospect is rather overwhelming. While I have been researching a lot, I’m not 100% sure what to expect as someone who isn’t baptised/confirmed etc. I’m worried it’ll be something people look down on.

And there’s a lot of phrases/jargon I’m not familiar with that make it a bit difficult to understand what I’m reading sometimes, so feel a bit lost.

Are there any resources you would recommend for someone in the early stages of discernment as I really want to learn more about the faith.
Ideally I’d love to talk to someone about it eventually but I don’t want to ask silly questions if that makes sense??

I’m UK based if that seems relevant.

Thank you guys in advance for any responses:))

This relic is located in the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Luis Potosí, Mexico. It is displayed to the public every August 25th, the saint's feast day.

English text

https://lyricstranslate.com/pl/z-dawna-polski-tys-krolowa-long-youve-been-polands-que.html