THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER
I fought to escape the grips of pornography for nearly a decade. My efforts began to gain traction the moment I began to develop a consistent prayer life. I remember the defining moment when the tide turned...
I had just lost a battle to pornography and was sitting in my bathroom feeling so disgusted with myself that I began to cry. That was the moment that I realized I was completely enslaved to pornography. I gave up. I admitted that I couldn’t do this on my own. I needed help.
I finally pushed my massive ego aside and let God into my life. I prayed -really prayed- for the first time in years. I asked God to get me out of the porn cycle.
My wife was pregnant with our first child at the time and I went into the newly decorated baby’s room and laid face down on the floor tearfully begging God for the grace to be free from my addiction before my son was born.
Not only did God answer my prayers, but I have literally not fallen into the porn and masturbation cycle since that moment. (Be advised, those kind of results aren’t the norm.) It wasn’t as easy as praying the porn away, but this was the beginning of my fight for purity with the help of God’s grace.
God is patiently waiting for you. Let him in! After allowing God into my life I have little desire to return to the slavery of my past sins. I am FREE! You deserve freedom as well and I firmly believe that freedom from sexual sin IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT A SOLID PRAYER LIFE.
Here are my 7 prayer suggestions:
# 1 Fasting:
Why is fasting important? Well, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert, and if He did it, then it must be important! In fact, when the apostles were unable to expel a demon from a boy, Jesus told them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:29) Porn is a serious problem that REQUIRES fasting!
Fasting accompanies prayer like protein powder accompanies bodybuilding. Pumping iron without protein is okay, but it will take much longer to achieve body builder-sized muscles.
The same is true for our spiritual workouts. Many of us walk around with wimpy souls in need of some prayer protein. So give fasting a try and I guarantee you will make some serious spiritual gains!
You don’t have to fast only from food. You can fast from many things like TV, phone, computer, etc. Temporarily sacrifice something good and offer it up as prayer for yourself and others.
By training yourself to sacrifice little pleasures, you will be able to sacrifice big pleasures when love demands it…AND LOVE WILL DEMAND SACRIFICE!
Every day you unknowingly train yourself to be a lover or a user. Love will inevitably come pounding on your door demanding self-denial for your beloved. Are you prepared to participate in the depths of authentic sacrificial love, or will you be left fluttering on the surface with the countless others who think superficial love is as good as it gets?
Let me let you in on a little secret… The treasure is found in the depths. Don’t be afraid to deny pleasure for the sake of love because the love of pleasure can ruin the pleasure of love.
Include some fasting into your prayer life because prayer and fasting go together like... peanut butter and jelly, milk and cereal, ketchup and French fries…I think you get the idea.
# 2 The Rosary:
The rosary is not just a therapy tool for old ladies with arthritis; it’s a powerful spiritual weapon!
One of America’s most renowned exorcists, Father Gary Thomas, was interviewed about demons. He affirmed the power of Mary’s intercession during exorcisms. He said the Mary prayers are even sometimes more powerful than the exorcism rite itself. The rosary is a powerful spiritual weapon. [1]
Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme, a bishop from a terrorist infested region of Nigeria, recalled a vision he had a few years ago while praying before the Blessed Sacrament in his chapel. Jesus appeared in the vision and handed him a sword to defeat the terrorists. When the bishop was handed the sword, it turned into a rosary. [2]
I carry a metal ring rosary in my pocket at all times. Some refer to this type of rosary as a “brass knuckles rosary” because it looks like it could double as a self-defense weapon. My friend, a military veteran, took this concept a step further by having his rosary made out of bullet shell casings. The rosary is powerful spiritual weapon and we must never forget it. Is it a coincidence that there are ten beads in a decade of the rosary and ten letters in the words “P-O-R-N-W-E-A-P-O-N”? I think not. My recovery from pornography was stagnant until I utilized the powerful intercession of Mary. Pray the rosary!
If the rosary seems like too much…start off slow. Remember, prayer and weightlifting are similar. You don’t begin by lifting huge amounts of weight. You gradually work your way up. The same is true with prayer. You will gradually build stronger prayer muscles with time.
If you’re a rosary beginner, many saints recommend starting with three Hail Mary’s in the morning and three Hail Mary’s at night. This is powerful because there is one prayer to honor each Person of the Trinity.
# 3 The Mass:
The Mass is an amazing opportunity to witness
and participate in Christ’s saving sacrifice.
God literally gives us his flesh and blood in the Eucharist. Take advantage of this amazing gift and the abundant grace it brings.
The Mass is also a time to bring our prayer intentions to the foot of the cross. Go to Mass, worthily receive the Eucharist, and offer your prayers to all those struggling with the sin of pornography.
# 4 The Chaplet of Divine Mercy:
This prayer is derived from the diary of St. Faustina, which contains her personal encounters with Jesus. Here is an excerpt of what Jesus said to St. Faustina during a vision:
“My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners. If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them.” [3]
God is waiting to give you the grace to be a saint. All you have to do is ask!
If the Chaplet of Divine Mercy prayer seems too long, start by saying the phrase, “Jesus, I trust in You,” three times every day at 3:00pm, which is the hour that our Lord died on the cross. Even if you don’t fully trust in Him yet, say it anyway with the added petition of asking God for the grace to trust in Him.
# 5 The Intercession of the Saints:
Asking a saint to intercede for you is like hiring sexual purity security. Because the saints are united with God in Heaven, their prayers are more closely united with Him as well. Take advantage of their powerful intercession! Here are some Saints to whom I regularly ask for prayers:
St. Maria Goretti
She was an eleven year old Italian girl murdered by a man who attempted to rape her. The killer, who stabbed Maria fourteen times, later had a massive change of heart and converted to Catholicism. Guess who helped him convert. St. Maria Goretti!
St. Maria interceded from heaven and spoke to him in a dream. Ask her to pray for the conversion of your heart.
St. Vitalis of Gaza
He was a monk who became a saint by using what little money he had to purchase prostitutes! He used his “purchased time” to preach to the prostitutes about their dignity. Many women left lives of prostitution and found God with the help of St. Vitalis.
Ask him to pray that you can see the dignity of every woman.
St. John Paul II
He survived multiple assassination attempts during his papacy and lived a heroic life of virtue. He also spoke with a brilliant understanding of love, sexuality, and the human person. Ask him to pray for your greater understanding of love.
St. Maximilian Kolbe
He was a priest who voluntarily died in place of a stranger while imprisoned in a German death camp during World War II. He is the patron saint of the imprisoned and addicted. Ask him to pray for your freedom from the slavery of lust.
It can be difficult to ask for help, especially when it comes to our desires, but remember the words of Jesus: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
# 6 Silence:
God likes to whisper. So if you want to hear the voice of God you MUST silence your heart and mind.
Fight for silence!
One can easily get used to the noisiness of our world where the music is always playing, the TV is always on, and the phone is always ringing. I think our society has become uncomfortable with silence. Every moment is filled with noise!
Turn it off and experience the sound of silence. Just think, even non-religious people observe a moment of silence after a death or tragedy. Why? Because the silence is where God speaks and EVERYONE is searching for God. Seek Him in the silence.
Make an effort to quiet your heart and mind during prayer. My favorite place to sit in silence is in front of the Blessed Sacrament at church. Go, sit, and be transformed!
#7 The Scriptures
If you ever get discouraged that you can’t hear the voice of God during prayer don’t worry. God is there… I promise.
An easier way to hear God’s voice is by reading the Bible. God speaks to us directly through the scriptures. Read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and He will likely put a word or phrase on your heart that speaks directly to you.
Don’t let the Bible be the old dusty book that sits on the top shelf of the closet. Open it up!
If you have a cell phone, you have a bible. There are apps that have the Church’s daily readings. Some of the apps even read them to you!
The same readings are read at every Catholic Church around the world. Talk about “universal!”
There are literally no barriers between you and the Bible. Download a Catholic Bible app or log onto usccb.org and read the Bible. God is waiting to communicate with you through His Word.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV4FpKX5HNU
[2] http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/after-vision-of-christ-nigerian-bishop-says-rosary-will-bring-down-boko-haram-78382/
[3] Faustina. Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Stockbridge, MA: Marian, 2015. 165+. Print.
I fought to escape the grips of pornography for nearly a decade. My efforts began to gain traction the moment I began to develop a consistent prayer life. I remember the defining moment when the tide turned...
I had just lost a battle to pornography and was sitting in my bathroom feeling so disgusted with myself that I began to cry. That was the moment that I realized I was completely enslaved to pornography. I gave up. I admitted that I couldn’t do this on my own. I needed help.
I finally pushed my massive ego aside and let God into my life. I prayed -really prayed- for the first time in years. I asked God to get me out of the porn cycle.
My wife was pregnant with our first child at the time and I went into the newly decorated baby’s room and laid face down on the floor tearfully begging God for the grace to be free from my addiction before my son was born.
Not only did God answer my prayers, but I have literally not fallen into the porn and masturbation cycle since that moment. (Be advised, those kind of results aren’t the norm.) It wasn’t as easy as praying the porn away, but this was the beginning of my fight for purity with the help of God’s grace.
God is patiently waiting for you. Let him in! After allowing God into my life I have little desire to return to the slavery of my past sins. I am FREE! You deserve freedom as well and I firmly believe that freedom from sexual sin IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT A SOLID PRAYER LIFE.
Here are my 7 prayer suggestions:
# 1 Fasting:
Why is fasting important? Well, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert, and if He did it, then it must be important! In fact, when the apostles were unable to expel a demon from a boy, Jesus told them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:29) Porn is a serious problem that REQUIRES fasting!
Fasting accompanies prayer like protein powder accompanies bodybuilding. Pumping iron without protein is okay, but it will take much longer to achieve body builder-sized muscles.
The same is true for our spiritual workouts. Many of us walk around with wimpy souls in need of some prayer protein. So give fasting a try and I guarantee you will make some serious spiritual gains!
You don’t have to fast only from food. You can fast from many things like TV, phone, computer, etc. Temporarily sacrifice something good and offer it up as prayer for yourself and others.
By training yourself to sacrifice little pleasures, you will be able to sacrifice big pleasures when love demands it…AND LOVE WILL DEMAND SACRIFICE!
Every day you unknowingly train yourself to be a lover or a user. Love will inevitably come pounding on your door demanding self-denial for your beloved. Are you prepared to participate in the depths of authentic sacrificial love, or will you be left fluttering on the surface with the countless others who think superficial love is as good as it gets?
Let me let you in on a little secret… The treasure is found in the depths. Don’t be afraid to deny pleasure for the sake of love because the love of pleasure can ruin the pleasure of love.
Include some fasting into your prayer life because prayer and fasting go together like... peanut butter and jelly, milk and cereal, ketchup and French fries…I think you get the idea.
# 2 The Rosary:
The rosary is not just a therapy tool for old ladies with arthritis; it’s a powerful spiritual weapon!
One of America’s most renowned exorcists, Father Gary Thomas, was interviewed about demons. He affirmed the power of Mary’s intercession during exorcisms. He said the Mary prayers are even sometimes more powerful than the exorcism rite itself. The rosary is a powerful spiritual weapon. [1]
Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme, a bishop from a terrorist infested region of Nigeria, recalled a vision he had a few years ago while praying before the Blessed Sacrament in his chapel. Jesus appeared in the vision and handed him a sword to defeat the terrorists. When the bishop was handed the sword, it turned into a rosary. [2]
I carry a metal ring rosary in my pocket at all times. Some refer to this type of rosary as a “brass knuckles rosary” because it looks like it could double as a self-defense weapon. My friend, a military veteran, took this concept a step further by having his rosary made out of bullet shell casings. The rosary is powerful spiritual weapon and we must never forget it. Is it a coincidence that there are ten beads in a decade of the rosary and ten letters in the words “P-O-R-N-W-E-A-P-O-N”? I think not. My recovery from pornography was stagnant until I utilized the powerful intercession of Mary. Pray the rosary!
If the rosary seems like too much…start off slow. Remember, prayer and weightlifting are similar. You don’t begin by lifting huge amounts of weight. You gradually work your way up. The same is true with prayer. You will gradually build stronger prayer muscles with time.
If you’re a rosary beginner, many saints recommend starting with three Hail Mary’s in the morning and three Hail Mary’s at night. This is powerful because there is one prayer to honor each Person of the Trinity.
# 3 The Mass:
The Mass is an amazing opportunity to witness
and participate in Christ’s saving sacrifice.
God literally gives us his flesh and blood in the Eucharist. Take advantage of this amazing gift and the abundant grace it brings.
The Mass is also a time to bring our prayer intentions to the foot of the cross. Go to Mass, worthily receive the Eucharist, and offer your prayers to all those struggling with the sin of pornography.
# 4 The Chaplet of Divine Mercy:
This prayer is derived from the diary of St. Faustina, which contains her personal encounters with Jesus. Here is an excerpt of what Jesus said to St. Faustina during a vision:
“My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners. If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them.” [3]
God is waiting to give you the grace to be a saint. All you have to do is ask!
If the Chaplet of Divine Mercy prayer seems too long, start by saying the phrase, “Jesus, I trust in You,” three times every day at 3:00pm, which is the hour that our Lord died on the cross. Even if you don’t fully trust in Him yet, say it anyway with the added petition of asking God for the grace to trust in Him.
# 5 The Intercession of the Saints:
Asking a saint to intercede for you is like hiring sexual purity security. Because the saints are united with God in Heaven, their prayers are more closely united with Him as well. Take advantage of their powerful intercession! Here are some Saints to whom I regularly ask for prayers:
St. Maria Goretti
She was an eleven year old Italian girl murdered by a man who attempted to rape her. The killer, who stabbed Maria fourteen times, later had a massive change of heart and converted to Catholicism. Guess who helped him convert. St. Maria Goretti!
St. Maria interceded from heaven and spoke to him in a dream. Ask her to pray for the conversion of your heart.
St. Vitalis of Gaza
He was a monk who became a saint by using what little money he had to purchase prostitutes! He used his “purchased time” to preach to the prostitutes about their dignity. Many women left lives of prostitution and found God with the help of St. Vitalis.
Ask him to pray that you can see the dignity of every woman.
St. John Paul II
He survived multiple assassination attempts during his papacy and lived a heroic life of virtue. He also spoke with a brilliant understanding of love, sexuality, and the human person. Ask him to pray for your greater understanding of love.
St. Maximilian Kolbe
He was a priest who voluntarily died in place of a stranger while imprisoned in a German death camp during World War II. He is the patron saint of the imprisoned and addicted. Ask him to pray for your freedom from the slavery of lust.
It can be difficult to ask for help, especially when it comes to our desires, but remember the words of Jesus: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
# 6 Silence:
God likes to whisper. So if you want to hear the voice of God you MUST silence your heart and mind.
Fight for silence!
One can easily get used to the noisiness of our world where the music is always playing, the TV is always on, and the phone is always ringing. I think our society has become uncomfortable with silence. Every moment is filled with noise!
Turn it off and experience the sound of silence. Just think, even non-religious people observe a moment of silence after a death or tragedy. Why? Because the silence is where God speaks and EVERYONE is searching for God. Seek Him in the silence.
Make an effort to quiet your heart and mind during prayer. My favorite place to sit in silence is in front of the Blessed Sacrament at church. Go, sit, and be transformed!
#7 The Scriptures
If you ever get discouraged that you can’t hear the voice of God during prayer don’t worry. God is there… I promise.
An easier way to hear God’s voice is by reading the Bible. God speaks to us directly through the scriptures. Read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and He will likely put a word or phrase on your heart that speaks directly to you.
Don’t let the Bible be the old dusty book that sits on the top shelf of the closet. Open it up!
If you have a cell phone, you have a bible. There are apps that have the Church’s daily readings. Some of the apps even read them to you!
The same readings are read at every Catholic Church around the world. Talk about “universal!”
There are literally no barriers between you and the Bible. Download a Catholic Bible app or log onto usccb.org and read the Bible. God is waiting to communicate with you through His Word.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV4FpKX5HNU
[2] http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/after-vision-of-christ-nigerian-bishop-says-rosary-will-bring-down-boko-haram-78382/
[3] Faustina. Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Stockbridge, MA: Marian, 2015. 165+. Print.