I have my entire life prayed Hail Mary's in a formal rosary or as prayers ushering forth in times of need or even woken up at night to find myself praying to the Blessed Mother for her intercession. Several months ago I started formulating in my head what a "Hail Jesus" prayer might look like set in parallel to the phrasing of the Hail Mary. I am posting it below and I'm not sure if I would say it in the same format of Credo, Paters and Gloria Patris' as the regular rosary uses.
"Hail Jesus, Fullness of Grace, You are the Lord, First-born are You among all creation, and blessed is the fruit of Your Cross, Salvation.
Holy Jesus, Son of God, intercede for us sinners at the right hand of the Father, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."
I welcome any comments regarding constructing an over all format for praying this to Our Lord, ie. following the layout of the current rosary and meditating on the same mysteries of Our Lord's and our Lady's lives.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sunday, December 2, 2007
What about Cain? or Cain Redeemed.
Jesus is the New Adam because by this one man's obedience all are redeemed (Rom. 5:17). By His sacrifice on the Cross, Jesus is the New Abel offering to God the first fruits of all creation, Himself. Mary is seen as the New Eve because in her fiat she said yes to God through the angel Gabriel, while Eve said no to God and yes to the ancient serpent, Satan.
What about Cain? Who is a type of Cain in the New Testament? Our minds may immediately jump to Judas. Judas was the holder of the purse and the Gospel of John tells us that he was stealing from it (Jn. 12:6). He gave up Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Cain killed Abel out of jealousy because God was not pleased with Cain's sacrifice. Judas was not pleased with Christ's sacrifice of giving up worldly power and proclaiming a Kingdom that was "not of this world." Cain was filled with self pity but had no remorse for his actions. Judas was filled with despair over what he had done and committed suicide apparently without seeking forgiveness from God. But is that where it ends? Is there no redemption for Cain planned for from the foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4)?
Looking more closely we might see the chief Apostle Peter and his denial of Christ as being similar to Cain's denial of any knowledge of his brother's whereabouts. Cain asked God "Am I my brother's keeper (Gen 4:9)?
God told Cain, "And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand" (Gen. 4:11). Peter "began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, 'I do not know the Man' (Mt 26:75). The cock crowed convicting Peter of his treachery and he went out and wept bitterly. Both are accursed by what they have done, but Peter did not despair and deny Christ again by believing his sins could not be forgiven. The Gospel of John tells that Christ asked Peter three times if he loved Jesus more than the other apostles. Three times Peter confessed his love for the Lord, and three times Jesus responded to him "feed my lambs" or "feed my sheep(Jn 21:15-17)". Here is Cain redeemed.
Where else is Cain Redeemed in the New Testament? There are several other examples. I will only look at two others.
The pharisee Saul was killing followers of the Way. He was the instigator in Stephen's martyrdom and was feared by the Christians. We know the story of how Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus and how he was struck down blind. He heard the voice of Jesus say, "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?" He was given his sight back and a new name Paul. With his new name he had a new mission, Apostle to the Gentiles. His writings give us the majority of the text of the New Testament. Saul was Cain to Stephen's Abel. He confessed Christ crucified all the way to the court of the emperor of Rome where he received his crown of martyrdom. Cain is redeemed.
Finally, there is one other who ran away. Perhaps the same young man who ran away naked in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mk. 14:51). The disciple whom Jesus loved even ran away from him. Somewhere Cain was found by Eve and brought to the ground where the blood of Abel cried out to God for justice. Somewhere John the Evangelist was found by Mary the Mother of the Redeemer and brought to the foot of the Cross to seek his redemption. The blood of Jesus gave the earth a once for all response to the unholy taste for blood it received from Abel's murder (Gen. 4:10-11). The blood of Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant which "speaks more eloquently than that of Abel", now redeems all of creation (Heb 12:24).
What about Cain? Who is a type of Cain in the New Testament? Our minds may immediately jump to Judas. Judas was the holder of the purse and the Gospel of John tells us that he was stealing from it (Jn. 12:6). He gave up Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Cain killed Abel out of jealousy because God was not pleased with Cain's sacrifice. Judas was not pleased with Christ's sacrifice of giving up worldly power and proclaiming a Kingdom that was "not of this world." Cain was filled with self pity but had no remorse for his actions. Judas was filled with despair over what he had done and committed suicide apparently without seeking forgiveness from God. But is that where it ends? Is there no redemption for Cain planned for from the foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4)?
Looking more closely we might see the chief Apostle Peter and his denial of Christ as being similar to Cain's denial of any knowledge of his brother's whereabouts. Cain asked God "Am I my brother's keeper (Gen 4:9)?
God told Cain, "And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand" (Gen. 4:11). Peter "began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, 'I do not know the Man' (Mt 26:75). The cock crowed convicting Peter of his treachery and he went out and wept bitterly. Both are accursed by what they have done, but Peter did not despair and deny Christ again by believing his sins could not be forgiven. The Gospel of John tells that Christ asked Peter three times if he loved Jesus more than the other apostles. Three times Peter confessed his love for the Lord, and three times Jesus responded to him "feed my lambs" or "feed my sheep(Jn 21:15-17)". Here is Cain redeemed.
Where else is Cain Redeemed in the New Testament? There are several other examples. I will only look at two others.
The pharisee Saul was killing followers of the Way. He was the instigator in Stephen's martyrdom and was feared by the Christians. We know the story of how Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus and how he was struck down blind. He heard the voice of Jesus say, "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?" He was given his sight back and a new name Paul. With his new name he had a new mission, Apostle to the Gentiles. His writings give us the majority of the text of the New Testament. Saul was Cain to Stephen's Abel. He confessed Christ crucified all the way to the court of the emperor of Rome where he received his crown of martyrdom. Cain is redeemed.
Finally, there is one other who ran away. Perhaps the same young man who ran away naked in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mk. 14:51). The disciple whom Jesus loved even ran away from him. Somewhere Cain was found by Eve and brought to the ground where the blood of Abel cried out to God for justice. Somewhere John the Evangelist was found by Mary the Mother of the Redeemer and brought to the foot of the Cross to seek his redemption. The blood of Jesus gave the earth a once for all response to the unholy taste for blood it received from Abel's murder (Gen. 4:10-11). The blood of Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant which "speaks more eloquently than that of Abel", now redeems all of creation (Heb 12:24).
From the mercy seat of the cross, God Incarnate says to His Mother, "Woman, behold your son", and to John he says, "Behold your Mother" (Jn. 19:26-27). Eve is given back her first born son Cain. The first child to be conceived in sin is now , in type, redeemed. Our abortion from Eden is now undone in Mary's adoption of John as her own son. John is the New Cain who represents all of us as the Church with Mary as our spiritual mother in the order of grace. Through His Cross and Resurrection and by the power of the Holy Spirit we become God's children. From the throne of grace, the King of kings addresses God as His Father and commands us to take Mary as our mother. Let us follow his example and command.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Birth of the Prophets and Martyrs
No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at him. But he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and every one enters it violently. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one dot of the law to become void. Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery"(Luke 16:13-18).
This passage from Luke comes after the parable of the worldly steward and before the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. At first appearance it looks like the author was stringing together some unrelated quotes from Jesus. What does love of money, entering the kingdom of God violently, the law not passing away, and divorce have to do with one another?
The Pharisees preferred the appearance of being holy to actually being holy. The temple taxes imposed and the cheating of the people by the money changers who took the money for the cost of the animal of sacrifice were found "abominable" by Jesus. The writing of a bill of divorce by a man to his wife leaving his wife and children in poverty, while the man would go off and attempt marriage with another was abominable in the sight of God. The killing of the Prophets who witnessed to God's Law was an abomination. Love of Mammon (power, money, social status, convenience, infidelity, etc ...)is the opposite of Love of God (humility, gratitude, fidelity, service, justice, mercy, etc...).
Blessed Jose Escriva quoted in the Navarre Bible Commentary says that the entering of the kingdom of God through violence has to do with violence against the things of world, the flesh, and the devil within us. "It is a violence used to fight your own infidelities, a boldness to own up to the faith even when the environment is hostile...This is the attitude of those who fight their passions and do themselves violence, thereby attaining the Kingdom of heaven and becoming one with Christ" (The Navarre Bible: Matthew, p 114). (The commentary for Luke refers one over to the Matthean commentary.)
Jesus also said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mk 8:34). To be a disciple is to be able to be crucified with Christ and live so that "now not I but Christ lives within me" (Gal. 2:20). To live with Christ is to die to greed, lust, pride, infidelity, uncharitableness, etc... Jesus calls us to death to selfishness so we may have life in His and thus our selflessness.
It is not likely that we will be put to death for witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We will go through the martyrdom of self denial if we are going to be part of God's kingdom. Sin must be aborted from our lives if we are to have rebirth in the Spirit, the Blood and the Water. "For whatever overcomes the world is born of God" (1 Jn. 5:4a).
This passage from Luke comes after the parable of the worldly steward and before the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. At first appearance it looks like the author was stringing together some unrelated quotes from Jesus. What does love of money, entering the kingdom of God violently, the law not passing away, and divorce have to do with one another?
The Pharisees preferred the appearance of being holy to actually being holy. The temple taxes imposed and the cheating of the people by the money changers who took the money for the cost of the animal of sacrifice were found "abominable" by Jesus. The writing of a bill of divorce by a man to his wife leaving his wife and children in poverty, while the man would go off and attempt marriage with another was abominable in the sight of God. The killing of the Prophets who witnessed to God's Law was an abomination. Love of Mammon (power, money, social status, convenience, infidelity, etc ...)is the opposite of Love of God (humility, gratitude, fidelity, service, justice, mercy, etc...).
Blessed Jose Escriva quoted in the Navarre Bible Commentary says that the entering of the kingdom of God through violence has to do with violence against the things of world, the flesh, and the devil within us. "It is a violence used to fight your own infidelities, a boldness to own up to the faith even when the environment is hostile...This is the attitude of those who fight their passions and do themselves violence, thereby attaining the Kingdom of heaven and becoming one with Christ" (The Navarre Bible: Matthew, p 114). (The commentary for Luke refers one over to the Matthean commentary.)
Jesus also said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Mk 8:34). To be a disciple is to be able to be crucified with Christ and live so that "now not I but Christ lives within me" (Gal. 2:20). To live with Christ is to die to greed, lust, pride, infidelity, uncharitableness, etc... Jesus calls us to death to selfishness so we may have life in His and thus our selflessness.
It is not likely that we will be put to death for witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We will go through the martyrdom of self denial if we are going to be part of God's kingdom. Sin must be aborted from our lives if we are to have rebirth in the Spirit, the Blood and the Water. "For whatever overcomes the world is born of God" (1 Jn. 5:4a).
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Divorce as the source of abortion
"Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mt 19:4-6).
The fruit of a covenantal relationship with God is Jesus Christ and thus our salvation through being born again of the Spirit and water. The fruit of a covenantal relationship with our spouse is children when God chooses to bless us with them.
In the divorce of Adam and Eve from God's way and the resulting abortion from Eden, spiritual death brought about the natural consequence of physical death--the divorce of the soul and the body. The abortion of Cain's soul took place in his conception in sin and the consequence of his being ripped from the womb of original justice and innocence was the murder of his brother Abel. God still walked among men even after the fall and Cain still had a choice to do good as Abel did, but Cain's pride and jealously were the seeds of his and his brother's destruction.
When a man and a woman divorce from each other, the third person formed in their communion of love, the child, is effected in a very real and horrible way. The incarnation of the parents' love is ripped apart inside. The one flesh of their parents is put asunder and so is their heart. The children are spiritually and emotionally aborted by the very selfish act of divorce. Their lives are literally ripped apart on many levels.
It also follows that when sexual intercourse is divorced from marriage for only recreational use, physical abortions of unwanted preborn human beings take place. When the unitive and procreative purposes of marriage are divorced in the sexual act, the salvific purpose is aborted. Artificial contraception enters into many marriages because of ignorance on one level and a deep mistrust of God's providence on another. People who are in uncommitted, fornicative relationships are more likely to abort their children.
Women don't want children or men don't want children; one does and the other doesn't. The women don't feel like they have any "choice" except abortion because there is no support from the man or there is pressure from the man to kill the offspring unintended by their selfish use of each other. The reasons go on and on why people kill their own children, but the main reason is sin. Sin defined as a divorce of a human being's will from the Divine Will is the cause of all abortion: analogical, spiritual, and physical.
Despite our sinfulness, there is a loving God who will even now take us back to himself as Hosea kept taking back Gomer. Also in the book of Joel God declares his love for us. Even now if you return to God will all your heart and rend your hearts and not your garments...God will save us and take us back. He will heal our abortiveness and forgive all our iniquities.
The fruit of a covenantal relationship with God is Jesus Christ and thus our salvation through being born again of the Spirit and water. The fruit of a covenantal relationship with our spouse is children when God chooses to bless us with them.
In the divorce of Adam and Eve from God's way and the resulting abortion from Eden, spiritual death brought about the natural consequence of physical death--the divorce of the soul and the body. The abortion of Cain's soul took place in his conception in sin and the consequence of his being ripped from the womb of original justice and innocence was the murder of his brother Abel. God still walked among men even after the fall and Cain still had a choice to do good as Abel did, but Cain's pride and jealously were the seeds of his and his brother's destruction.
When a man and a woman divorce from each other, the third person formed in their communion of love, the child, is effected in a very real and horrible way. The incarnation of the parents' love is ripped apart inside. The one flesh of their parents is put asunder and so is their heart. The children are spiritually and emotionally aborted by the very selfish act of divorce. Their lives are literally ripped apart on many levels.
It also follows that when sexual intercourse is divorced from marriage for only recreational use, physical abortions of unwanted preborn human beings take place. When the unitive and procreative purposes of marriage are divorced in the sexual act, the salvific purpose is aborted. Artificial contraception enters into many marriages because of ignorance on one level and a deep mistrust of God's providence on another. People who are in uncommitted, fornicative relationships are more likely to abort their children.
Women don't want children or men don't want children; one does and the other doesn't. The women don't feel like they have any "choice" except abortion because there is no support from the man or there is pressure from the man to kill the offspring unintended by their selfish use of each other. The reasons go on and on why people kill their own children, but the main reason is sin. Sin defined as a divorce of a human being's will from the Divine Will is the cause of all abortion: analogical, spiritual, and physical.
Despite our sinfulness, there is a loving God who will even now take us back to himself as Hosea kept taking back Gomer. Also in the book of Joel God declares his love for us. Even now if you return to God will all your heart and rend your hearts and not your garments...God will save us and take us back. He will heal our abortiveness and forgive all our iniquities.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Assumption Day
The Assumption is not only Mary's being taken into heaven body and soul by her Son Jesus. It is her resurrection. Since Mary had no stain of original sin and she never committed personal sin there was no reason for her to die. She probably would have suffered death only to perfectly imitate her Son.
The psalm says, "You will not let your beloved know decay." This I interpret to mean both Jesus'Resurrection and the resurrection of Mary. In the case of Mary it points to her beginning, her Immaculate Conception in the womb of St. Anne. It also points to her falling asleep incorruptible and being awakened by her Son to be taken to heaven body and soul, dwelling in everlasting glory. There are numerous saints who have been granted an incorruptible body after their soul has departed. These signal graces point to the bodily resurrection of the dead.
After so much death in the twentieth century by 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed as dogma that Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul at the end of her earthly life. I heard someone say once that he did this to offer hope to a beleaguered and despairing world. A world that has seen so much death and destruction of innocent people needs to believe in world without end.
Mary our hope,
ora pro nobis!
The psalm says, "You will not let your beloved know decay." This I interpret to mean both Jesus'Resurrection and the resurrection of Mary. In the case of Mary it points to her beginning, her Immaculate Conception in the womb of St. Anne. It also points to her falling asleep incorruptible and being awakened by her Son to be taken to heaven body and soul, dwelling in everlasting glory. There are numerous saints who have been granted an incorruptible body after their soul has departed. These signal graces point to the bodily resurrection of the dead.
After so much death in the twentieth century by 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed as dogma that Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul at the end of her earthly life. I heard someone say once that he did this to offer hope to a beleaguered and despairing world. A world that has seen so much death and destruction of innocent people needs to believe in world without end.
Mary our hope,
ora pro nobis!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
The Womb of the Confessional
"For a priest to restore a soul to grace from mortal sin in the sacrament of confession is a greater miracle than the creation of the world at the beginning of time." St Augustine
The death of a soul is a horrible thing. We act in ways which are "unbecoming". We regress into an endless cycle of self, solipsism ad nauseam. We literally turn away from God and try to run to whatever will satisfy the whim of our appetite next.
If you want to see the effects of sin: on your soul, and consequently on Jesus Christ, look at a Spanish crucifix that shows every stripe, wound, and drop of blood. It resembles an abortion, which is what mortal sin does to a soul--it aborts the soul. There is a miscarriage of innocence, goodness, truth, beauty, and justice.
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Is. 53:4-6).
Only by the one acceptable sacrifice of the perfect, unblemished, pure, Lamb of God, can our sins be taken away. Jesus Christ came that we might have life and have it to the full. He came to give His life as a ransom for the many. Through His Life, Death and Resurrection we have Eternal Life and share in His Resurrection.
In the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, God became a man. In that Holy of Holies was formed the marriage of God and Man. Once more God and Adam walked and conversed in Eden without shame between them. The radical friendship of God to man His creation was restored in the Incarnation, Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus was first born of the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Next He rose from the dead and was born from the Womb of the Tomb. Now especially in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist, He rises in us as He raises us from the life of sin we led (or death of grace in our souls). Jesus calls to our inmost selves and cries in a loud voice stricken with grief over what has happened to us, "Lazarus, Come out!"
He says to the Community of Believers, "Unbind him!" God gives us each other in the family of the Church to help one another come into the life of grace and away from a life of deadly sin.
At the Creation of the cosmos, the Spirit hovered over the waters and God spoke His Word and all that is came to be by the power of that Word. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Holy Spirit hovers over us and the Father speaks His Word Jesus Christ deep within the womb of our being and we are born again in Him as He is born again in us.
"For a priest to restore a soul to grace from mortal sin in the sacrament of confession is a greater miracle than the creation of the world at the beginning of time." St Augustine
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Temptations and the Womb of the Heart
In the first chapter of the Epistle of James, the Apostle tells us that the man who endures trial will be rewarded with a crown of life. He warns us that the temptations we endure are not from God, who never tempts people or can be tempted.
"... But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death " (Js.1:14-15).
Within the womb of a man's heart is where evil desires conceive and give birth to a sin which in turn gives birth to the death of our souls. James enjoins us submit ourselves to God in humility and to resist the devil and he will flee from us (Js.4:7). In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean but what comes out of him. "What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander" (Mt. 15:18-19).
Everything in us which is not of God must be renounced and given up. "Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up" (Mt. 15:13). When we allow evil desires to take root in our minds and our hearts, we are only a short way from committing the act. Jesus said that it is not enough to refrain from committing an act of sin, but the thought being carried out in our heart is enough to make us guilty of the sin. He said this explicitly in regards to anger and hatred against our brothers and lust against our sisters (see Mt 5:17ff).
Jesus advises it is better to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands and enter the Kingdom of Heaven blind and lame than to be tossed whole into the fires of hell (Mt. 5:29-30). Practically what this means is that if you have a problem with pornography throw out the television and computer, or at least don't have these things in your bedroom with closed doors and hearts closed to God's grace.
If you have a problem with anger ask God for the grace to forgive those who have injured you and say a prayer for them. It is also helpful to say nothing unkind about them, and if possible say something nice about them or do something kind for them. Chesterton said the reason God tells us to love our neighbors and our enemies is because often times they are the same people.
God's Word must be planted in our hearts and bring forth the fruit of the Good News, Jesus Christ. If we are pure of heart, we shall see God because we will be open to God and closed to the world (open only to the Life of God). God's Holy Spirit overshadows us and brings us forth as adopted son's and daughters, because the Holy Spirit always conceives God's Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ within us.
"Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures"(Js. 1:17-18).
If Christ is truly within us, we are driven by the Spirit to the wilderness of our hearts. Temptations come to us from the evil one who seeks to sow weeds in us among the wheat sown by the Spirit. If we resist him and submit ourselves to God the devil who also believes in God trembles in fear of our faith and will flee from us. If Christ is truly within us we are driven by the Spirit to act as Christ acted becoming "doers of the Word".
"Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
...he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.
If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" (Js. 1:21-27).
Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed; even though it is the smallest of seeds, it grows into the largest of plants.
May our roots be deep and our branches wide!
"... But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death " (Js.1:14-15).
Within the womb of a man's heart is where evil desires conceive and give birth to a sin which in turn gives birth to the death of our souls. James enjoins us submit ourselves to God in humility and to resist the devil and he will flee from us (Js.4:7). In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean but what comes out of him. "What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander" (Mt. 15:18-19).
Everything in us which is not of God must be renounced and given up. "Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up" (Mt. 15:13). When we allow evil desires to take root in our minds and our hearts, we are only a short way from committing the act. Jesus said that it is not enough to refrain from committing an act of sin, but the thought being carried out in our heart is enough to make us guilty of the sin. He said this explicitly in regards to anger and hatred against our brothers and lust against our sisters (see Mt 5:17ff).
Jesus advises it is better to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands and enter the Kingdom of Heaven blind and lame than to be tossed whole into the fires of hell (Mt. 5:29-30). Practically what this means is that if you have a problem with pornography throw out the television and computer, or at least don't have these things in your bedroom with closed doors and hearts closed to God's grace.
If you have a problem with anger ask God for the grace to forgive those who have injured you and say a prayer for them. It is also helpful to say nothing unkind about them, and if possible say something nice about them or do something kind for them. Chesterton said the reason God tells us to love our neighbors and our enemies is because often times they are the same people.
God's Word must be planted in our hearts and bring forth the fruit of the Good News, Jesus Christ. If we are pure of heart, we shall see God because we will be open to God and closed to the world (open only to the Life of God). God's Holy Spirit overshadows us and brings us forth as adopted son's and daughters, because the Holy Spirit always conceives God's Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ within us.
"Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures"(Js. 1:17-18).
If Christ is truly within us, we are driven by the Spirit to the wilderness of our hearts. Temptations come to us from the evil one who seeks to sow weeds in us among the wheat sown by the Spirit. If we resist him and submit ourselves to God the devil who also believes in God trembles in fear of our faith and will flee from us. If Christ is truly within us we are driven by the Spirit to act as Christ acted becoming "doers of the Word".
"Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
...he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.
If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world" (Js. 1:21-27).
Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed; even though it is the smallest of seeds, it grows into the largest of plants.
May our roots be deep and our branches wide!
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