Salvation is NOT by faith alone!

I converted to Catholicism because I no longer believed that my salvation could be secured by "faith alone."

Instead, I had to accomplish an actual work - by my own free will - to cooperate with God's mercy and grace that were given to me, in order to not continue a dreadful pattern of wrecking His salvation with my habitual sins.

Specifically, I had to stop masturbating. The only way I could do this was by physical mortification - sleeping on the floor, which I do to this day (with some lapses).

This is the paradox of authentic Christian salvation: it is truly God alone Who saves, but He cannot do it without our cooperation. In my experience, faith is not merely an assent to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but it entails an important "work" on our part - namely, genuine sorrow for and repentance from sin. We all have to reach a point where we would rather die than commit the same grave sin again, and thus resolve to do everything in our God-given power to avoid such sin or even its near occasion.

This is serious, serious hard work: it's not as simple as making a personal resolution. It requires radical measures: I mean things like cutting off your Internet access for 6 months so you won't look at pornography again.

Now, of course, we should never confuse the means with the end. Some people won't have to sleep on the floor, or cut off their Internet for a while, in order to come to the same place: a deep loathing of one's sexual impurity. But the underlying basis for every path of deliverance from sin is the same: it must fully involve one's free will in the pursuit of a holy hatred for the filth that is sin and, on its flip side, a holy flame of love for the beauty of sanctity.

How, then, can be we sure (or more sure) that we have truly been saved? Only when not even a hint of adultery, fornication, or any kind of sexual deviance, no matter how seemingly trivial, can ever hold any sway over our souls for more than a few tense moments.

Because once in Heaven, we will see chastity and unchastity plainly for what they really are: the former a glowing young virgin of indescribable pulchritude and fragrance, the latter a horrid-looking, putrid old witch.