Catholic OCD: Unwelcomed and Impulsive Thoughts. Are Thoughts Powerful?

Unless you are Doctor Spock in the Start Trek series or a Jedi Knight in the Star Wars fantasy movies your thoughts have no power. That is to say your thoughts do not have the magical power you might imagine and fear. Your thoughts are only capable of producing and enabling feelings and emotions within you. Even though they are your thoughts, you are unable to project your thoughts as a form of energy outside of yourself for good or bad. Your thoughts have no power to produce the action or the reaction of any other person, event, or circumstance.
Unless you share the content and/or the context of your thoughts with another person your thoughts are also unknowable to anyone. There is no one who can read your mind and there are no recording devises that are able to transcribe your thoughts. Again, with the exception of the emotions and feelings they produce within you, which may provide a clue to your thinking and your interpretation of the meaning of the thought at best, your thoughts are yours and yours alone

[@patmartin6114]

Thank you so much for helping us folks with OCD who want to be Catholic despite the cross we have been designated. God bless you father! 🙏

[@ellenmiller5797]

THANK YOU Father Santa. Thank you for making these videos to support and help us. Please keep making them. I look forward to them as I always hope to hear a word that will help to ease my mind. And they do. So thank you!

[@Fraevo10]

“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8)

[@RobinBorden]

This is one of the most helpful and hopeful discussion of thoughts and OCD. Thank you father, Thank you.

[@signlanguage7624]

I agree with your father and people on here fighting that is just evidence of their own scrupulosity and religious OCD. They can’t let go and they have to always be in control.

[@maryhornsby9441]

Thank you for the good talk, Father.

[@tomvogel2507]

This is something ive been struggling with. I am so relieved by this talk. Thank you.

[@luciabardini5715]

thank you so so much! please don't stop making these videos, they are a true blessing!

[@tareynonderko5312]

Thank you, Father. I think this has been the most helpful video I have come across!

[@concylourenco3751]

Ocd has made my life miserable. No socialism. All fear. No peace to pray. Suffering for 16 years and on. Inspired of medications no cure. Can't pray. Can't hear mass. Can't enjoy anything. While eating, sleeping, walking talking every time I'm suffering. Why not anyone can cure me please please please please please. Somebody please cure me. It's worse than a prison.

[@maryoary3195]

I’m so sorry I hear how much pain you are in. I will pray for you tonight. I believe there is beauty to your suffering

[@concylourenco3751]

@@maryoary3195 thank you so much

[@DavidFlores-h3l]

I’m so sorry friend, I will also keep you in my prayers 🙏🏽❤️

[@ytbe-u6w]

Please listen to the father's advice I suffer the same illness, but maybe we need to trust more in God, he knows we don't want to have those thoughts, and is so hard I am writing rn wile I am crying but I have experienced peace before when I tried to ignore my thoughts with the help of the Lord, hope everything gets better. God bless you!

[@DoxieMama09]

Wonderful video. Thanks Father!

[@ievans5019]

Thank you for your kindness

[@jesse7747]

I needed this i suffer from ocd

[@Starrdust1221]

I'm scared after seeing this because I showed a pastor some of my blasphemous intrusive thoughts (OCD related) & my husband because this has put me into a major depression. The thoughts won't stop & keep getting worse & more violent/sexually immoral/ condemning/harmful. I'm terrified of of offending God! I'm not a perfect person, I don't go to church or know if I'm saved. I want to be, I've said out loud I believe in God, Jesus is LORD, & asked him to be my Savior but I still haven't been baptized, I would like to be soon though! I'm scared of committing the unpardonable sin with my thoughts, & have accidentally thought "gd" in my thoughts. I pray for forgiveness for it & all these thoughts but I'm terrified of them.

[@Salutaris13074]

If you have listened fully to this video then this Priest should be allaying your fears about your thoughts - particularly at the end of the video - what he says about thoughts is in fact very re-assuring and I somehow think that you must have misunderstood what is being said if it has made you depressed and fearful. Are you aware that at the very moment of Baptism literally ALL of the sins you have ever committed during your lifetime, no matter how bad they are - are all literally washed away and forgiven? You need to speak to a Priest so you can be helped, and you definitely need to be Baptized.

[@luciabardini5715]

pls get baptized, get to know jesus more and bcs. i am catholic i can assure you that mary will help you, just try! and pls get a christian therapist as soon as possible! I will pray for you.

[@Brian17177]

Your thoughts aren't sins, they are intrusive thoughts common to people with ocd and scruples. I deal with them myself. Get Baptized for sure, are you thinking of becoming Catholic?

[@GarrettLeute]

My friend the only unforgivable sin is to be obstinate in rejecting the mercy of God all the way until death, every other sin is pardonable and your mind should be at ease. Satan wants us to live in fear. Our Lord wants us to live in faith and confidence in his mercy. The Sacraments of the Catholic Church are from Christ freely given to us as a way to grow into deeper union with him. Be at peace and know of my prayers. Baptism will change your life! The Holy Trinity will come to dwell in your soul.

[@gaddes79]

I'm a baptist but I've always wanted to visit a Catholic Church.

[@alexandrebergamo6539]

Thank you father

[@Shlomayo]

How can thoughts not be sinful, when we say in the Confiteor that we have sinned in THOUGHT, word, and in deed: Peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere.? "For perverse thoughts separate from God" Wisdom 1:3

[@alexchu8381]

How to prevent the sharing of the context of your thoughts with someone else. Thank you father. God bless

[@NickyMetropolis1313]

The sharing is usually a form of checking or seeking reassurance. It only helps for a short term stint and then a new thought or feeling will come up. But the seeking reassurance is a part of the condition /Disorder of religious scrupulousity. To engage with these so-called safety behaviors is not in itself a sin. It's part of your condition. The way you stop checking is to accept that at some point you must live with the uncertainty and uncomfortable feeling. Ignore the feelings of anxiety, do nothing. When you start doing this, the feelings will fade and oftentimes you will see them as silly and you might laugh at how you used to worry. It will take trial and error and practice. You will fail probably many times (as we all do), and you will simply need to begin again. It is much better to do nothing than any compulsive behaviors meant to help you in the moment.

[@terrydillon1427]

Thank you! WOW!

[@Dasherman87]

Hey father, I was always taught and heard that thoughts could be sinful venially at least. And recently I came across people saying that thinking sexual stuff about a person was a grave sin if you very deliberately thought about it. Is this true? Obviously it might not be good to think that cause it’s a big temptation but is that at all it is a temptation if I don’t attempt to act out on it? Is it a grave sin if there is an action on my lust instead of just thoughts

[@erric288]

Experiencing a thought which contains content of a sexual or otherwise sinful nature, is never a sin. If you decide, by an act of the will, to hold on to the thought so as to derive some pleasure from it, I'd say we've moved into the category of venial sin. For you to even desire the sinful pleasure the thought generates indicates an attachment to that sin so I'd say there are intervening factors that reduce your culpability to the level of venial (implying resistance to the attachment). For something to be mortal it requires full knowledge that the act is gravely sinful and full consent of the will (with no hesitancy, pause, or attempt to resist). So for someone trying to live a holy life, moving toward union with God, you're not going to accidentally commit a mortal sin. If it's even a question, the answer is no, it's not mortal. Temptations are not sins, imperfections are not sins, fleeting emotions and physical sensations are not sins, placing oneself in a near occasion of sin is not a sin (it's just a bad idea lol).

[@user-gr6ch5ty5q]

I too struggled with this

[@Catholicmillennial]

Thank you Fr

[@Prudexans]

What if i keep thinking about having sex with Saint Mary? Or if i think day and night about killing everyone around me? These doesn’t have necessarily to invoke feelings too, it may be only rational thoughts, although sometimes it also brings some sort of emotion. Are these thoughts not sinful? May I just think whatever, no matter how bad or bad feelings inducing? Are tou really that sure that thoughts are not sinful? But then at what point does our interior become able to do something sinful? At which point may things like thoughts become sins?

[@catholicocd]

The only purpose of the content of your thoughts is to produce the anxiety that the OCD requires. It has nothing to do with sin. It is a disorder.

[@Prudexans]

Interesting. But still, when does these thoughts actually cross the line into sin?

[@laurenlooolll]

@@Prudexansi experience similar thoughts, unfortunately. the more weight you give the thoughts, the more you will think them. sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish if something was an intruive thought vs. did i willingly think this, but either way they are just thoughts. Jesus loves us so much and understands the inner workings of our minds much more than we do. trust in His mercy, and do not condemn yourself based on these thoughts. i met with my priest about these thoughts, and he told me that thoughts are not sins. i hope you can find some peace and happiness 🩷

[@winnieandlilo6825]

I think they are sin when you know you should not have them but you think them anyway and find pleasure in them. Like you will know you are doing this

[@NickyMetropolis1313]

​@@PrudexansThe thoughts attached with a terrible action I would argue is when sin arrives. A horrible sin like murder for example probably begins with a thought. In your case you have perhaps more random and intrusive unwanted thoughts than those with a normal conscience. The thoughts alone especially due to your state are not sins in and of themselves. When the thoughts are connected with an action, observable measurable action then it's something different. For example thinking about murder and then murdering someone. But random intrusive thoughts, even though they feel freely generated and entertained, are not sins. Your condition makes the thoughts feel entertained, feel freely generated and makes them as scary as possible to get YOUR attention and rob you of peace.

[@SinvaldoCdesouza]

Hi father how can i contact you for some guidance about and you generate the 10 thoughts on your mind thank you im desperate for help

[@catholicocd]

[e-mail]

[@photosusa]

Father i have sexual and blasphemous thoughts when i read the Bible or pray or do something about God. HELP!!! Do I sin??

[@Big_G5654]

Tell your priest that you are having your prayers invaded, they will guide you

[@NickyMetropolis1313]

This happens to me too. The devil is after all of us that's true. But he could be using this disorder to get to you. Scrupulosity wants you to have anxiety and wants you to stop all the things that you enjoy doing. Scrupulosity will attack everything that you love and it wants ultimately to isolate you.

[@WomanofGod1773]

But what about saints? Im sure its just ocd foolin me but

[@srdiaries.]

Same I also have blasmpohobic thought about saints and suddenly get angry on them I don't understand what to do

[@ceceliajones3213]

St Teresa of Liseaux, she had these intrusive thoughts

[@lacanian_lifter]

If I had heard this perspective 20 years ago, I’d still probably be a Christian today

[@joshualopez9175]

Well if you don’t mind me asking, what do you think of Christianity today?

[@KristenWoodburn]

But God knows our thoughts?

[@klartyaabiakl7431]

God knows everything but that doesn’t make it a sin that he knows the thoughts that ur having unless if u like that thought and u day dream about it but as he explained we are humans and most of the time we cant control our thoughts and we might have bad thoughts but it doesn’t mean that you accepted the bad thought which doesn’t make it a sin.

[@NickyMetropolis1313]

God does know our thought but he also knows that human beings have random thoughts that just pop into your head. Sometimes an entire train of thought will come and go and you won't realize it until after. This is kind of like daydreaming. Sometimes I thought will go into your head and then you will realize it and you will think oh that's a strange thought that's terrible. Just brush it off it's a random unwanted intrusive thought and you didn't consent to it at all. It's not a sin at all. It's not even a venial sin. It's just something that happens to all living human beings.