“The two shall become one flesh.” (Mk 10:8)
Consider: Methamphetamine is a highly addictive drug that delivers an intense artificial chemical high, rapidly rewiring the brain and severely damaging a man’s ability to experience pleasure in normal, beautiful, everyday realities.
Pornography can act in a disturbingly similar way, addicting some men to intense artificial sexual highs that gradually rewire the brain and erode attraction to, interest in, and delight in the natural beauty of real women.
Realize: Research shows that repeated exposure to pornography delivers extreme novelty, exaggerated sexual imagery, and rapid sexual stimulation that can condition a man’s sexual desire toward artificial and virtual cues rather than the living presence of a real woman. Over time, this conditioning can raise the brain’s threshold for arousal and weaken responsiveness to natural intimacy, so that a real woman may no longer reliably awaken desire. As a result, growing numbers of pornified men struggle to feel attracted to or aroused by their wives, not because their wives lack natural beauty or sexual attractiveness, but because their minds and bodies have been conditioned to respond to fantasy rather than reality. This can damage marital intimacy and deeply wound a woman’s self-esteem.
Resolution: Today, I practice Heroic Sexual Self-discipline so I can preserve my natural sexual attraction to women, reserve my sexual capacity for my wife, and experience the joy of Chastity.
Almighty Father, I give You thanks for creating man and woman so that they might become one (Gen 2:24), for calling them to fruitfulness through the marital union, and for giving them a natural, beautiful sexual attraction toward one another. I am deeply sorry for every time I turned to the evil of pornography, knowing that it can warp my mind, rewire my brain, and distort my desires toward perverted sexual images, leaving me psychologically less attracted to real women and physically less responsive to them. I ask You to help me turn away from pornography forever and heal my brain and body, so I may regain natural sexual desire, purified and rightly ordered by Chastity. I love You, Holy Spirit, and trust that You will restore my mind and heart to the good, true, and beautiful.
Examine: How can pornography damage my attraction to real women?
Pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Perfection of Chastity, help me build the Virtue of Observance/Courtesy (a part of Justice) so I recall and honor the astounding way You have created men and women to have a beautiful and natural sexual desire for each other, and always guard against degrading and damaging myself through pornography. Amen.