Chapter XXXII. What we should do when we have Fallen into this Sin of Impurity

IF through misfortune, or wilfulness, you have fallen into this sin of the flesh, the remedy (lest you add sin to sin) is to have recourse with all possible speed, without any further examination of conscience, to confession; and putting aside all human prudence, speak frankly, and lay bare all your disease, taking whatever medicine and counsel may be given you, however bitter or painful it may seem to you.

Delay not, though a hundred, nay, a thousand reasons for delay may suggest themselves; for if you delay, you will fall again, and the second fall will produce further delays; so that delays causing relapses, and relapses fresh delays, before you have confessed and forsaken your sins, years will have elapsed.

In conclusion, then, to avoid this shameful sin, I advise you once more to fly, if you would not fall.

And if thoughts come into your mind, no matter how slight they may be, regard them seriously, and fly from them no less than from the greater. And though from your quickness in resisting them, you are quite clear that they are light sins, still confess them, and reveal your enemy to your confessor.

And if you have fallen, go at once to confession, and do not let shame hinder you from doing so.