Dear God,
I’m addicted to Netflix and I need your help to quit. This may seem like a funny request to the world, but Netflix is destroying my time for prayer. Lack of prayer in the spiritual life is like a man without hands and feet. He won’t get anywhere. I do not want to remain stagnant in my spirtual life. Unless my Virtue of Temperance is stronger, I need to stay away from Netflix. Please do not be disappointed in me, Lord, for asking this one exception: when my wife wants to watch Netflix with me. Her temperance is much stronger, and she would be a saintly example for me.
I needed to look up CCC 1805 to remind myself of the Four Cardinal Virtues:
- Prudence: the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it
- Justice: the virtue that consists of the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor
- Fortitude: the virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good; the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life
- Temperance: the virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods
Although I am not necessarily strong in the first two virtues, I know that I’ve often failed to resist watching Netflix. The temptation to be lost in an episode or movie, or the excuse that I’d learn something from a documentary, is too great. God, I need help to grow in fortitude. If I cannot resist Netflix, how can I hope to overcome the devil’s stumbling blocks on my path to become holy?
So for the next 40 days and 40 nights, my God and Savior, I would like to stop watching Netflix. Even if my wife wants to watch a movie, I’ll suggest that we play a board game. Lord, I know that I cannot succeed without your help. I pray that the Holy Spirit will have mercy on me and give me the strength to glorify you, Lord. I humbly ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
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