TODAY’S WORD…

Flee from sexual immorality.

– 1 Corinthians 6:18

REFLECTION…

Flee from sexual immorality – this is the route one must take when tempted sexually. We must not stay and savour it.

Temptations against other virtues can be overcome by putting up resistance, but in this case, as St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, “one does not win by putting up resistance, because the more one thinks about the thing, the more influenced one becomes; one wins by fleeing – that is, by avoiding unclean thoughts completely and by avoiding all occasions of sin”

St John Mary Vianney gives us five clear steps, which will keep us morally pure: “The first is to be very vigilant about what we look at, and what we think and say and do; second, to have recourse to prayer; third, to frequent the sacraments worthily; fourth, to fly from anything which might tempt us to sin; fifth, to have great devotion to the Blessed Virgin. If we do all that, then, no matter what our enemies do, no matter how frail this virtue be, we can be quite sure of holding on to it”

PRAYER…

My Lord and my God, create in me a clean heart

and a constant, firm attitude to flee from temptation.

Lord, purify my mind;

protect my eyes;

and strengthen my determination to overcome temptation.

I earnestly wish to be pure in thought, word and deed.

Lord, fill my heart and my innermost being with the fire of Your Holy Spirit,

that I may serve only You with my mind and my body.

For this I pray. Amen.