Hi, J. —

I'm not picturing this too successfully but any time you deliberately stimulate your sexual organ to obtain pleasure, that is a grave sin. I would also add that if you deliberately and directly do something for purposes of obtaining sexual pleasure through orgasm, that, too, is a grave sin.

If, on the other hand, for some reason I can't conceive of at the moment, you needed to exercise in a certain way, and unavoidably it had a risk of causing an orgasm which was not deliberate, then that might be legitimate but I would discuss it with your confessor first.

Such a situation is difficult because you are going to have a very powerful desire to do the exercise for the wrong reason, even if the exercise is, in and of itself, good or even necessary.

Discussing this with your confessor would probably be a good idea anyway (if you intended to do it) since it requires careful discernment of motives and details, and so forth, that we can't get into here.

Eric

J. —

At the sake of getting too graphic, there are a couple of points that need to be addressed.

Self stimulation or masturbation is sin. Deliberately trying to achieve a male orgasm outside the act of intercourse is also a grave sin.

That said, within the context of marital love, foreplay is not a sin.

In the process of foreplay, if a male happens to assist his own stimulation, in preparation for intercourse, I don't know if the Church would considered it sinful.

John