‘In the second place, the sin of impurity produces obstinacy of the will.
“Once fallen into the snare of the devil, one cannot so easily escape it,” says St. Jerome.
And according to St. Thomas, there is no sin in which the devil takes so much delight as in impurity; because the flesh is strongly inclined to that vice, and he that falls into it can be rescued from it only with difficulty.
Hence the vice of incontinence has been called by Clement of Alexandria “a malady without remedy;” and by Tertullian, “an incurable vice.”
Hence St. Cyprian calls it the mother of impenitence.
“It is impossible,” says Peter de Blois, for him that submits to the domination of the flesh to conquer carnal temptations.”
Father Biderman relates of a young man, who was in the habit of relapsing into this sin, that at the hour of death he confessed his sins with many tears and died, leaving strong grounds to hope for his salvation. But on the following day his confessor, while saying Mass, felt some one pulling the chasuble; turning round he saw a dark cloud, which sent forth scintillations of fire, and heard a voice saying that was the soul of the young man that had died; that though he had been absolved from his sins, he was again tempted, yielded to a bad thought, and was damned.’
Wisdom and prayers of saints 