Dear Robert:

The Church warns against any severe mortifications. If you feel called to do anything severe, from wearing a hair shirt to self-flagellation, you must seek out a wise spiritual director and obey his advice about this.

While sins are forgiven in the Sacrament, the consequences remain. That is what you are likely referring to. Those consequences can be physical, such as losing a leg in an accident due to the sin of drunk driving, or attachment to sin, or even demonic bondage.

To receive a plenary indulgence, which removes all temporal consequences of sin, and thus brings you directly into heaven if you receive this at the time of your death, requires the usual requirements for a plenary indulgence, but most noted is that it includes that one be free from any attachment to sin, even venial sin. That is a tall order, but possible.

St. Paul explains how we can do this:

(2 Cor 10:3-6)  For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

We have divine power, by God's grace, to destroy the strongholds of sin in our lives. We accomplish this by taking captive every thought. We can do this only by God's grace since we inherent concupiscence, which gives us the tendency to think about sin. With His grace, and our hard work and discipline we can work toward the perfection of freedom from any attachments.

We must remember God's promise:

(1 Cor 10:13)  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

It is possible to be holy. God says so.

(Eph 1:3-4)  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

(1 Peter 1:14-16)  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

It would be a cruel father to require his child to do something that was not possible. God is not cruel, He is a perfect Father, thus we can know and be assured that holiness is possible.

This holiness, however, does not mean we are free of improper thoughts, but when those thoughts come we take them "captive in obedience to Christ." It also does not mean that temptations will not come, but we can accept God's way of escape and thus endure the temptation and not sin.

While doing these things will work to remove attachments to sin, there is yet another and higher level of sanctification to which we need to aspire -- Christian Resignation to the Will of God and abandonment of our own egos and to the pleasures of this world.

All this is doable.

I would recommend beginning with Christian Resignation and Abandonment to God. We have a pamphlet, with prayers, to help people do this.

Also, the Litany of Humility will help to abandon our ego to God.

Although this is not about demonic attachment, I advise everyone to go through the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. The subjects discussed in those steps are subjects that all of us must deal with, even if we have no demonic problems.

Then read and do spiritual exercises. Begin with Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales. Next, see if you can find someone to take you through the Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. If you cannot find anyone, go through them on your own. You can buy the Exercises or get them in an online version.

St. Louis de Montfort is another good source. He said we should mortify...

“1) a certain natural activity that inclines you to hurry and to accomplish much; 2) changing moods that rule you and displease your neighbor; 3) your tongue, which always wishes to talk, laugh, mock etc.; 4) a tendency to lack religious modesty in your bearing, which makes you act like a child, laugh like a fool, jump around like a juggler, and eat and drink like an animal.”

But he also advised something that we should keep in perspective:

Although what is essential in ... devotion consists in the interior, we must not fail to unite to the inward practice certain external observances. “We must do the one, yet not leave the other undone” (Mt 23:23); because the outward practices, well performed, aid the inward ones; and because they remind man, who is always guided by his senses, of what he has done or ought to do; and also because they are suitable for edifying our neighbor, who sees them; these are things which inward practices cannot do.

In addition, our Rule of St Michael may be of some use to you:

IV. Life of Penance and Mortification

18. St. Louis de Montfort wrote: "If we would possess Wisdom we must mortify the body not only by enduring patiently our bodily ailments, the inconveniences of the weather and the difficulties arising from other people's actions, but also by deliberately undertaking some penances and mortification such as fasts, vigils and other austerities practiced by holy penitents."

19. Mortification in its fundamental essence is Self-sacrifice, Self-denial, and Self-discipline. It is Morte, meaning death – death to the Self. Out of love for Christ and in recognition of our own inadequacy, we must sacrifice ourselves, give ourselves up to Christ. Acts of Mortification are thus behaviors, devotions, and activities that assist us in this offering up of ourselves sacrificially to our Lord and Savior. It is as Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

20. One of the first sacrifices and crosses we take up is to be obedient to His commandments and to His Church. Submitting ourselves, taking up our cross, to His faith, morality, and way of life as taught by the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition, and as interpreted and taught by the Magisterium of the Church, is an act that is contrary to human nature. Our natures demand self-determination in all things. Christ demands submission to His determination, to His will. Our human nature does not desire the self-denial required to take up the cross.

21. After the sacrifice we make to Christ to be obedient to His commandments and to His Church, we, as Brothers and Sisters of St. Michael, next offer our sacrifice to the Rule of St. Michael through which we have made Profession in a more profound consecration of our lives to Christ.

22. In fulfilling our duties to the Rule of St. Michael, however, we must always remember that one of the most important and difficult mortifications in our lives, according to St. Montfort, is that we fulfill the duties of our state in life. This is true penance in that most of us have desires to do something other than what we are called to do according to our state in life. For the Secular Oblate a desire may be to live more like a monk spending great amounts of time in prayer or before the Blessed Sacrament. The duties of family and work preclude such intensity. For the contemplative Hermit a desire may be to involve themselves in more active ways in the worldly and secular community. The duties of prayer and seclusion in the cloister of eremitic life preclude this. For the active hermit in the semi-eremitic life the desire may be to cloister oneself completely. The duties in the active apostolate preclude that. Celibate brothers and sisters may have desires for marriage. The celibate life precludes this. In whatever state of life we are called, our penance is to live that life faithfully and with fidelity despite temptations to do otherwise.

23. We need to bring our wills into submission to the law of love, to Christ, by performing various acts of penance and mortification – within the limitations of our state in life. While this includes denying and disciplining ourselves against sinful temptations and desires, and perhaps conducting penitential mortifications to subdue those fleshly desires, or to pay recompense for sin, this is not the only purpose or value of mortification.

24. Mortification is also a means of self-sacrifice and self-discipline of non-sinful aspects of our human natures so that we may attain, through the grace and mercy of Christ, ever higher degrees of spiritual maturity and holiness. The Apostle Peter reminds us of God's directive: "for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy,'" To do this we must pursue holiness. "Pursue" is an active verb; it cannot be done with status quo religiosity. We must go an extra mile, do more than is required or that is necessary, perform more than minimum requirements, go beyond the mere avoidance of sinfulness, if we are to gain this higher goal which brings us into the holiness God calls of us.

25. Paul said that "'Everything is permissible for me' -- but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me'–but I will not be mastered by anything" (1 Cor 6:12). Through self-discipline we control our desire to have, do, think, or feel something in favor of a greater and more beneficial thing, deed, thought, or emotion. Through sacrifice we give up something that we may have a right to expect, possess, or to do so as to not be mastered by it.

26.These circumstances may not have to do with sin at all, but with a higher call to holiness as taught by the Beatitudes – to turn the other cheek, to loan without expectation of return – or it can be about the image and witness we give to others for the greater glory of God.

27. Such circumstances may involve perfectly acceptable behaviors or desires but may more prudently be sacrificed or resisted through self-discipline for the "better part of valor." Paul demonstrated this in the story he tells about eating meat offered to idols. Although eating the meat was acceptable, some people may have been scandalized by it, thinking Paul was sinning himself and advocating the sin for others. Thus Paul's freedom to eat the meat was not going to master him, causing him to childishly "demand is rights" in a display of self-centered "freedom." When in the company of people with such immature or unknowledgeable beliefs, he accepted the responsibility for his freedom and refrained from eating – the glory of God and the mission to evangelize was more important.

28. Brothers and sisters should constantly reflect upon their own behaviors and beliefs that are not a part of the essentials of the faith, not subject to the absolute and binding teachings of faith and morals declared by the Church, to see if they may be stumbling blocks to weaker brethren. We should never allow our freedom in Christ to "eat meat", which has nothing to do with essentials of the faith, to get in the way of our witness and testimony to unbelievers or to weaker and less mature brothers and sisters.

29. It is through penance and mortification we are called to live a life of daily self-denial, self-discipline, and continuing conversion, not only to fulfill God's call to holiness in our own lives, but so others might turn daily to the comfort of the Spirit of Christ in their lives, too, fundamentally and essentially, but also that they might begin their pursuit of holiness.

30. According to our charism of Penance and Mortification, Brothers and Sisters of St. Michael are therefore, at a minimum, to fast according to the laws of the Church with special attention, because of our specific charism to this, to days and periods of penance and mortification set aside by the Church – such as Fridays, Ash Wednesday, and Lent.

31. Brothers and sisters are also encouraged, if they are able, as an additional spiritual exercise and mortification, to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays of each week. Further, in respect for the Presence of our Lord and for ancient traditions, members are encouraged to fast three (3) hours before receiving the Holy Eucharist as they are able and as circumstances allow.

32. Other mortifications (self-sacrifices and self-disciplines) should be made as are appropriate to an individual member's circumstances, spiritual health and maturity, and spiritual struggles.

33. In the spirit of the St. Michael Charism, all members, including those of us in the secular state, should always search for ways to mortify our fleshly desires and rebellious wills, to submit our human natures to Christ, and to offer up our freedom in Christ in sacrifice and self-discipline for the sake of others and for the greater glory of God. In doing so we shall receive spiritual strength for our souls and many graces for our lives. Through mortification, and by the grace of Christ, we shall, therefore, continually grow in submission and profound consecration to our Lord, and in the process find within ourselves the presence of the holiness of God that comes when our minds truly become one with the "mind of Christ."

34. The Saints show us many examples of mortifications. We can learn much from our older brothers and sisters who have gone before us. But, in determining mortifications for oneself, St. Montfort advises that no exceptional or severe mortifications should be undertaken without the advice of a wise director of souls.

This should get your started in your journey. The final advise is to persevere. Perseverance is the key to the Christian life. It was perseverance that made the Saints, Saints.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary