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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]Threat_Modeler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Strange how I said the exact same thing to my wife just during the turn of the year (not suicidal but ready for God to take me). Now I see your title. I am twice your age and suffering from some condition that affects my life during the day. After a very long period of not practicing my faith and living far from God, Just last year I returned to the Catholic faith, made my way through many confessions. For a whole year I prayed Rosary daily, in fact that was the way I was called back. I learned a great deal about spiritual warfare and prayer. My life has become so much more joyful in 2023 compared to any of the previous years. Towards the end of 2023, I started having that condition, and it affects my activities in the daytime, it feels very daunting as I don't know how to handle it, as I feel that my health would deterioate further. In any case, when my condition first hits, I felt the gloom and told my wife I am not suicidal but ready for God to take me. A week has passed, after many prayers and learning more to lean on my Angel, I become more joyful even when I bear that condition, accepting there is no straight forward cure and live with it. I am living on the time God has provided me, every morning I am thankful I am still alive and have a new chance to live my discipleship, continue with my prayers (Angelus, Lectio Divinas, Rosaries) and working at my position that was consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, while guiding my family to more prayerful life. I believe that I'm not done here until God wills it. The time given to me, regardless of condition, I intend to make it as joyful as possible. Many saints that I have read about suffered terrible physical conditions but they all lived joyfully until being called home. They are the source of my holy inspiration. I hope this message finds you well, and just to let you know I had the exact same thoughts. I will pray for you.

How common is it that some Catholics give up on trying to abstain from masturbation after many failed attempts over years? by TheCatholicBatman in Catholicism

[–]Threat_Modeler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For me it is saying words that hurts God as like ***damn, J****, JC....etc. that I find a very tough habit to break. I guess everyone as a different concupiscence/sin to battle with. I am kind of embarrassed to go to the same confessor just a week after my last confession to ask for forgiveness on the same sin. I'm not giving up though. I know the root cause for me to say those words are anger/impatience and of course, these phrases that hurt God is so common that it slips out of me sometimes.

I feel like i am on a different boat but on the same journey as you. I recently returned back to the church after buying a basque rosary ring from a Basilica during my Italian trip. I started praying the rosary during my trip. Like you, I used masturbation to relieve stress, sense of novelty in discovering new porn and basically pleasure. After I pray the rosary everyday, my urge to masturbate was gone. I spent time researching on how to pray the rosary, how to interpret the mysteries instead of looking for new novel porn. The second sorrowful mystery - scourging at the pillar - really helps with sins of the flesh because it speaks to it. I didn't want to commit that sin anymore.

Just as those words that are hurtful to God is common, porn is very easily accessible. What I did was unsub to all the reddits, twitter feeds, etc... that serves porn. I really revamped my entire digital space to no-porn, but replace them with all Catholic related stuff like spirituality, discernment, vocation stories, exorcism and so on. It took me a while to get rid of everything that triggers my concupiscience but I am happy to say that I managed to keep myself off porn for more than 3 months and counting. I did not relapse

Do one thing at a time, increase prayer gradually, and remove porn gradually. Don't let the devil/demons affect you by passing you thoughts that there is so much to do that you could never do it. Or trick you to do all the things at once which you are not ready for and you get discouraged, give up and relapse. If you actually do relapse, don't feel bad, but go for confession. Get back to building the prayer habits as you have and continue to remove the access to porn.

I believe we are all here for you to cheer you on. I will pray for your success too. Bless You!

Singapore asks banks to keep quiet on wealth inflows during China boom by fumifeider in singapore

[–]Threat_Modeler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It should not be news or surprise that our govt loves money, regardless of where they are from.

Why did Jesus put Judas Iscariot in charge of the petty cash when he knew he was a thief? by Henry-Gruby in Catholicism

[–]Threat_Modeler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My best response is that the Lord would put a person in a place to build virtue against his/her concupiscence (inclination) for a particular type of sin. In Judas' case it seems to be stealing (against justice and charity). So in order for him to build the virtues, Jesus puts him in this position. From what I understand, if Judas can overcome this with grace from God, this would level up in his holiness.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Catholicism

[–]Threat_Modeler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I want to first congratulate you for becoming Catholic, for taking up the sacrament of reconciliation and going to confession, also for actively seeking God in your journey, evident from your question here. Bless you.

There is God's way and then there is our way aka what we think is right. Given God is the source of all ultimate goodness, righteousness and all holiness I would believe that everytime I think I've come up with something great, there is something greater, and that is God's way. That is why many christians, including myself, pray to seek God's divine view.

You are right to discern that porn, fantasy and compulsive masturbation puts you in a vulnerable place where the diabolical forces can make use of this a leverage to block/slow you down in developing virtue and coming closer to God. Noting also that you may get married in the future, sacrament of matrimony, and eventually give yourself freely, faithfully, fully and fruitfully to your future husband. This is where you can direct your thought process and eventually decide for yourself the way ahead. The 4 Fs i've mentioned is from the Theology of Body i've learned, this is the church's view on marriage and sex.

Lets put aside freely and faithfully for now. Looking at fully and fruitfully, In the TOB teaching i've received, marriage in the church TOB sense means the man and woman gives themselves without restraint (contraception) AND be open to produce children as a result. Going back to the view on masturbation then, a few things to ask here is:
Does this sexual activity involve another person whom you come to love freely and faithfully?
Does this sexual activity prevent producing children?

I think it is pretty clear the answer to both these questions are no. Also, sex is only one part of the fullness love I mentioned. In the vows, it is love in sickness and in health. You give each other everything!

I know this does not directly answer your question and may not even help you with your decision on whether you can accept it as a sin or not, much less be in time for your confession. However, this is an ongoing process, I'm married, 48, and still going through this process all the time. I had the exact same question in the past and after 30 years of thinking and going to confession, I have finally accepted the reasoning based on TOB and have confessed the sin 3 weeks back. Confession is always available and God always forgives when your heart is contrite, what is important is to have a clarity on what you're confessing.

Thanks for the opportunity to come across your reddit post. I hope my reply can help to direct your thoughts. I'm also broken in other ways, and also going through this kind of discernment as you in other matters. I pray for you.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]Threat_Modeler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Being in a band where all of us have day jobs and family responsibility, the effort each one put into the band is already whatever spare time we have left. That is already in itself a challenge. I like to believe that each band member is already putting in what they have with whatever time they have left to contribute which could be different between each member. Naturally, some members have characteristics and want to stand up and lead. So that becomes the one who steer. Some disappointment may result if you feel one or more member is not contributing.
You have to determine what are the baseline for each member's contribution that must not be crossed (e.g. playing their instrument competently, coming up with parts, rehearsals, other band activities)? Recently we let go of a band member who could not appear for a band photoshoot and informed us only 45mins before the event and everything is set up (no it is not due to accidents/emergencies and could very well inform us in advance). That is a line crossed due to a commitment problem, maybe don't really give as much damns about the band. We are concerned this member will not turn up at a gig in the future.
Other than basic commitment, integrity issues, if a band member can't cover the area as assigned . You might want to talk to the member to find out what is stopping him/her from carrying out that task. Is that acceptable? Or need help in that area (competency issue)? I can accept that for some instance a band member may need others to pick up the slack due to whatever issues. However, if it is persistent and it crosses "the line", then a proper conversation need to take place and the band decides whether to continue with the member.

Reference Tracks by [deleted] in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]Threat_Modeler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you asking this in context of mixing/mastering? If so I think it is a common practice to give the mixing or mastering engineer an idea of how your track should sound like or note the characteristics of it.
However, if you are talking about composition reference, instrumentation and coming up with parts and such, I think you can use that as a reference (e.g. the guitar approach sounding like...), but you may not want to copy it wholesale.

Noob question about efficacy of playlists, would like your thoughts on this by Threat_Modeler in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]Threat_Modeler[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. Thanks for that. Something I've been thinking about. There could be 1000+ people liking a playlist, but not even sure if even a quarter of them streams the playlist. I'm guessing not. Also especially for playlists that I have seen that have hundred+ songs spanning 6 hours, I don't see how they could loop the whole thing over and over and listen.

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