Category: Charity

For the last month, I have been going through some very severe temptations of the flesh.  Please pray for me.  This is effecting me in every part of my life.  This is very embarrassing to write about.  But for this reason, I am writing about the extreme temptations of the flesh that we men have to go through and of which women, (although they have their own temptations too), can never really understand.

Only men can truly understand the extreme difficulty for a men to be chaste.  

 

God made us men physically and psychologically different from women.  The greatest disadvantage we men have, (and  it is God given), is that our private parts are outside of of our bodies and for this reason can so easily lead self abuse.  Women do not have this problem, (as I already stated, they have their own temptations).  That is why we men need to be extra vigilant when it comes to this built in terrible propensity to self-pleasuring ourselves.

The second thing is that we are psychologically designed, (again by God), to be aroused by sight.  This also is a great danger for us because all day long we are inundated with visual things, or immodestly dressed women, that can cause sexual attraction and arousal.  This is where we need to be very vigilant.

As soon as a we notice that a sight is causing sexual attraction, that is a signal for our eyes and mind to turn away immediately.  This is called ‘custody of the eyes‘.   It is helpful to replace the sexually loaded vision or thought with a holy thought and image like the beauty of the Virgin Mary.

Many women, who dress immodestly, blame men for having dirty minds for having noticed their body parts they have put on display.  Over and over I hear men telling me that they are having bad thoughts while in church from the sexy way the women dress while attending Mass.  I have never heard a women say that she has bad thoughts during Mass because of how the men dress at Mass.

As a priest, just imagine what it is like to give Holy Communion, the Body of Christ, right above a woman showing off her chest.  It is especially obvious when they kneel down to receive Holy Communion.  It is simply charity to us men for women to dress modestly.

I think that most of us men are embarrassed to admit our sexual temptations.  Once, when I ran St. Francis Catholic Kitchen in Santa Cruz, California, a protestant minister friend told me that men are slightly sexually aroused over a hundred time a day from visual things.

Yes, we priest and men need to be very very chaste and pure.  We need to do everything possible to never sin.  That is why viewing pornography is so horrible.  It excites what is already built into us and turns it into a monster.  And, when all said and done, we are responsible for any sin of the flesh, in spite of the X rated society we live in.

The devil’s first attack on us men is through our sexual weakness!

We need to always keep this in the forefront of our minds.  We need to ask Jesus, Mary and the Angels to help us be pure.  We need to go to confession regularly, especially if someone is fighting the vices of masturbation, adultery, fornication, pornography or using prostitutes.  Confession is a medicine waiting to be administered to the sick soul.  But recovery is a torture and take a lot of time and struggle.

I know that women have different struggles and temptations.  They to have to contend with concupiscence as well,  but it is in a different way from us men.  They need to understand our weakness and help us to be holy and pure.  We need to understand their weakness and help them be holy and pure.  Many women say they are weak when it comes to sexual advances for men.

Many years ago my friends would sing this German song at parties.  The words are in English but the accent is German.  This is the English West country version that is suppose to teach you the names of the the body in English.  As you sing the song, you point to the various parts of the body.

With my hands on my head, what have I here
This is my brain boxer my teacher dear
Brain boxer, nicky , nicky, nacky, noo
That’s what they taught me when I went to school

With my hands on my head, What have I here
These are my eye blinkers my teacher dear
Eye blinkers, brain boxer, nicky , nicky, nacky, noo
That’s what they taught me when I went to school

continues in the same vein with
nose wiper (obvious!)
tea strainer (mouth)
chin wagger (um..chin!)
bread basket (tummy)
back acher (back)
TROUBLE MAKER (one guess!)
wind breaker (bottom)
knee knockers (knees)
globe trotters (feet)

Although the gift of our sexuality is from God and is from which wonderful children come, nevertheless it is over and over a TROUBLE MAKER.

We are so blessed to be traditional Catholics and to know that sex is sacred and to be carefully housed in the Holy Sanctuary of Matrimony to produce other souls for God’s kingdom.