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Anonymous Allie wrote:

Hi, guys —

I was looking up pictures of God so I can meditate on them as I pray. Some of these pictures show Jesus stripped of His clothing because He was going to suffer on the Cross.

Well, I was worried I was going to look at Jesus sexually, so I told my eyes not to look when I saw another picture of Jesus that way, but my eyes did look. That said:

  • Is this a form of sin or mortal sin?

I didn't mean to offend Jesus this way. Please tell me what I should do if I find myself in this type of situation again!

Thank you for your time and patience.

Allie

  { Is it a sin to have sexual thoughts while meditating on pictures of Jesus stripped of His clothing? }

Eric replied:

Dear Allie,

You said:
Well, I was worried I was going to look at Jesus sexually, so I told my eyes not to look when I saw another picture of Jesus that way, but my eyes did look. That said:

  • Is this a form of sin or mortal sin?

Only if you freely and intentionally looked for the purpose of stirring up lust, and it certainly doesn't sound like you did, so don't worry.

These thoughts are probably demonic in origin, to try to get you to avoid meditating on the cause of our salvation, so when this happens, try saying, out loud,

"Spirit of Lust, I command you in the name of Jesus to leave me and go to the foot of the Cross and receive your sentence.", 

and see if the thought goes away. Or try,

"Get thee behind me, satan."

If that consistently does not work, find an image that is less sexually arousing,
e.g., the Cross of San Damiano or something like that.

Eric

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