{"id":152774,"date":"2015-11-13T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-why-is-it-so-tough-to-stop-sinning\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T15:18:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:18:51","slug":"ask-a-priest-why-is-it-so-tough-to-stop-sinning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-why-is-it-so-tough-to-stop-sinning\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAsk a Priest: Why Is It So Tough to Stop Sinning?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<address>Q: Even David in his great glory sinned. Even the apostles failed. Peter denied Christ three times. Some of them doubted the Resurrection even after seeing him walk on water, perform miracles (healing the blind, raising the dead). If sin is a choice, why can&#8217;t even the most faithful Christian stop sinning? Is it really that difficult to be a decent human being? You are in control of your thoughts, emotions and deeds. If it were that easy, why do people fail? Why can&#8217;t people simply make good choices? -I.O.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/p>\n<p>A: Your observations and questions bring to mind that quote from St. Paul, \u201cWhat I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate\u201d (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/romans\/7:15\" rel=\"noopener\">Romans 7:15<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The short answer to your questions could be this: Original sin has done serious damage to our human nature. It has darkened our intellects, weakened our wills, and disordered our passions.<\/p>\n<p>God hasn\u2019t given up on us, fortunately. He gives us grace to raise us up, but we need to do our part. That means we need a life of prayer, sacrifice, and a willingness to try to learn our faith better. If this seems like hard work, well, it is. But it is made easier by God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, life is a battle. The devil wants to drag us down, but Christ wants to lift us up. Christ is much more powerful than the devil, but that doesn\u2019t mean we will glide through life. Which is why we need to commit to serious spiritual warfare.<\/p>\n<p>(For more reading, see an <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com\/ask-a-priest-how-can-i-take-baby-steps-in-overcoming-my-sins\/\" rel=\"noopener\">earlier Q&amp;A<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com\/ask-a-priest-how-can-i-take-baby-steps-in-overcoming-my-sins\/\"><\/a>. For a helpful retreat guide on the theme, see <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com\/anatomy-temptationa-retreat-guide-david-goliath\/\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;The Anatomy of Temptation&#8221;<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com\/anatomy-temptationa-retreat-guide-david-goliath\/\"><\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>I hope this helps. God bless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: Even David in his great glory sinned. Even the apostles failed. Peter denied Christ three times. Some of them doubted the Resurrection even after seeing him walk on water, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":145952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3718],"tags":[3854,3855,3725,3295,3767,3131,3856,3802,3730,3731,3478,4569,3949,3771,3733],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-152774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-a-priest","tag-ask-a-catholic-priest","tag-ask-a-priest","tag-catechesis","tag-catholic","tag-devil","tag-evil","tag-mass-sacraments","tag-original-sin","tag-philosophy","tag-prayer-spiritual-growth","tag-sin","tag-spiritual-warfare","tag-temptations","tag-the-anatomy-of-temptation","tag-theology"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.8 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cAsk a Priest: Why Is It So Tough to Stop Sinning?\u201d - Regnum Christi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-why-is-it-so-tough-to-stop-sinning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cAsk a Priest: Why Is It So Tough to Stop Sinning?\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Q: Even David in his great glory sinned. 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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith &amp; Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152774"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=152774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}