“Do you want to be healed?” (Jn 5:6)
Consider: Most men have heard stories of accidents that severely damage or destroy a man’s genitals, and men react viscerally because such stories remind them of one of their deepest fears: the loss of their manhood.
This loss of manhood is no longer a rare story but an increasingly common occurrence, as excessive pornography use has led to an epidemic of erectile dysfunction among young, otherwise healthy men.
Realize: Research shows that disordered habitual pornography consumption and compulsive masturbation condition the brain through extreme novelty and artificial stimulation, training sexual arousal to depend on perverted fantasy rather than the natural attractiveness of a real woman. Over time, this conditioning is associated with the development of erectile dysfunction, as erections become weak, unreliable, or absent even with a real woman, replacing attraction, spontaneity, and confidence with anxiety, numbness, and fear of failure. This is not merely psychological but learned bodily conditioning, because pornography separates arousal from relationship and reality, leaving the body increasingly unable to respond as it was designed to do. Men who habitually rely on pornography for sexual excitement and stimulation face a real and serious danger of damaging or losing their sexual function.
Resolution: Today, I practice Heroic Sexual Self-discipline so I can preserve my sexual function and experience the joy of Chastity.
Almighty Father, I accept with awe that You have given me the thrilling gift of sexual function, the possibility of beautiful and intimate union with my wife or future wife, and the miraculous capacity to become a father, a gift ordered toward love, fidelity, fruitful marriage, and the generous transmission of life according to Your holy design. I now more fully recognize the evil and danger of misusing my sexual capacity for selfish and self-indulgent pleasure and how such misuse can cause me to lose this great gift from You. I respect and honor the remarkable natural sexual response You have created, and I hate how pornography can damage or destroy my sexual capacity. I pray that, with Your healing and my firm resolve to avoid pornography, I may regain, preserve, and rightly use my full sexual function according to Your will. Jesus: Thank You for this wonderful blessing!
Examine: How can pornography usage lead to a loss of sexual function?
Pray: Holy Spirit, help me build the Virtue of Self-control (a part of Temperance) so I can battle against the temptation to view pornography and live a life that properly uses my sexual function as You intended. Amen.