Breaking Free

How to break attachments: (1) Identify them (examen, self-knowledge), (2) Starve the bad dog (stop feeding the attachment), (3) Feed the good dog (replace with virtue), (4) Use the contrary counsels of John of the Cross: incline to the harder, the less pleasant, the less comfortable — not as punishment but as training. (5) Do it with love for Christ, not willpower alone. (Ep 643, 644)

To appreciate the full significance of this teaching, it helps to situate it within the broader framework of the Catholic spiritual tradition. The great masters of the interior life — Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, and Ignatius of Loyola — each brought their distinctive charism and experience to bear on questions like this one. Their convergent testimony, spanning centuries and diverse vocations, gives this teaching a depth and authority that goes far beyond any single author's perspective.

Understanding "breaking free" requires attending to both its doctrinal foundations and its practical implications. The Catholic tradition insists that authentic spiritual knowledge is never merely theoretical — it must be tested in prayer, refined through experience, and ultimately verified by its fruits in the life of the soul. This is why the Church's greatest teachers on the spiritual life are not only theologians but saints — men and women who lived what they taught, and whose writings carry the authority of verified experience.

At the same time, the tradition is careful to anchor experiential testimony in sound doctrine. The Doctors of the Church do not simply report their own experiences; they interpret those experiences in light of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Church's magisterial teaching. This integration of experience and doctrine is one of the defining characteristics of Catholic spiritual theology, and it is what gives the tradition its remarkable combination of depth and reliability.

The richness of the tradition becomes apparent when we listen to the voices of the masters themselves. Each brings a distinctive perspective to this teaching, yet all converge on its essential truth.

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

Evenire tamen plerumque solet ut, non amissa caritate, et inimici nos ruina laetificet, et rursum eius gloria sine invidiae culpa contristet; cum et redeunte eo quosdam bene erigi credimus, et proficiente illo plerosque iniuste opprimi timemus. Sed ad hoc servandum est discretionis examen, ne cum nostra odia exequimur, fallamur sub specie utilitatis alienae.

(Source: catena_aurea_matthew.txt)

St. Teresa of Avila writes:

Fray Antonio nevertheless persevered, and bore all contradiction in peace, and ‘the persecution of evil tongues ’ (ch. ii. 15) never shook his good resolution. The other friar was Fray Juan of S. Mathias, afterwards and now known as S. John of the Cross. He had been received into the order in the. house of S. Anne in Medina del Campo in the year 1563, when he was about twenty-one years of age,.

(Source: book_of_foundations.txt)

St. Francis de Sales writes:

SPIRITUAL FLOWERS A soul dedicated to God entirely, in act and in will, deserves that God should give Himself entirely to her—St. John of the Cross. We ought always to have our eye fixed upon the Will of God alone, recognising it, and with all joy, or at least courage, following it carefully in all our actions.

(Source: 06_selected_letters.txt)

St. Ignatius of Loyola writes:

Consequently, one who knows that he is of a choleric temperament must go strongly armed, even in regard to the smallest details about to be discussed with others, with examen and other precautions, to endure and not to lose his temper with the other party, especially if he knows that other to be weak in self-control.

(Source: letters_and_instructions_v1_oleary.txt)

The Church Fathers writes:

In hac ergo terra regnum bonorum non tam illis praestatur quam rebus humanis; malorum uero regnum magis regnantibus nocet, qui suos animos uastant scelerum maiore licentia; his autem, qui eis seruiendo subduntur, non nocet nisi propria iniquitas. Nam iustis quidquid malorum ab iniquis dominis inrogatur, non est poena criminis, sed uirtutis examen.

(Source: De_Civitate_Dei_complete.txt)

The Catechism (PD) writes:

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were also illustrated by St.

(Source: deharbe_catechism.txt)

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

: Vel iste servus qui unum talentum accepit et in terra recondidit, populus est in lege persistens, qui propter invidiam salvandarum gentium in terra acceptum talentum abscondit: in terra enim talentum abscondere, est novae praedicationis gloriam sub obtrectatione corporeae passionis occultare. Sequitur post multum vero temporis venit dominus servorum illorum, et posuit rationem cum eis.

(Source: catena_aurea_matthew.txt)

The Church's doctrinal tradition provides authoritative grounding for this teaching. Proposition T2.O.006 (sententia_certa) states:

The consequences of original sin in each person include a darkened intellect, a weakened will inclined to evil, disordered concupiscence, subjection to suffering and bodily death, and a general diminishment of the natural powers — though free will itself is not destroyed.

• Scripture: ['For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and...
• Aquinas: ['Through the sin of our first parent, his descendants are deprived of grace, and the powers of the soul are left in a manner weakened and...
• Councils: ["If anyone says that since Adam's sin the free will of man is lost and extinguished... let him be anathema.", "If anyone says that the whole man,...
• Fathers: ['By the greatness of the first transgression, our nature had fallen and deteriorated, and was changed for the worse... Not that free will was...

Additionally, proposition T4.G.005 (de_fide) affirms: The grace of justification can be lost through mortal sin. The justified person is not assured of final perseverance without a special privilege of God.

For the engaged learner, understanding "breaking free" opens a path to deeper prayer and more fruitful cooperation with grace. The sources cited above show that this is not abstract theology but a lived reality that has shaped the spiritual lives of countless saints and ordinary Christians across two millennia.

The practical challenge is to take this teaching into one's own prayer and daily life. This might begin with reflective reading of one or more of the sources quoted above, followed by prayerful consideration of how this teaching applies to one's current spiritual situation. The tradition consistently emphasises that spiritual growth comes not from accumulating information but from allowing truth to penetrate the heart through prayer, sacramental life, and faithful practice.

As St. Francis de Sales reminds us, the devout life is possible in every state — what matters is not extraordinary circumstances but extraordinary love applied to ordinary duties. This teaching invites precisely that kind of response: a deepening of one's relationship with God through understanding and practice, sustained by the rich resources of the tradition.