Laurentius, I can't give you an intellectual answer, but I can say that this sounds like a huge temptation to me and, if I may add, maybe a bit of self-love and pride?

Our Lord is merciful and will accept our fear of hell as sufficient.  The Church has, as long as I can remember, taught this.  Perfect contrition is hard to attain for most of us.

This is an assault on you to keep you from going to confession.  Go!  And put your trust and confidence in the Sacred Heart!

Thank you Alexandria, you have a point God is indeed merciful ... but he is also just, and I cannot see how God would be just to reward my selfish fears of hell or desires for heaven, especially when the chief commandment is love of God ... it seems to me he would have to shrug off justice to forgive me, which would be against his nature.

I think fear of hell and the loss of heaven can be present in our contrition, but if some love of God is not present, I cannot see how in justice God can forgive us, our love of him does not have to be perfect, but it must be there, and it must be for his own sake and not for his gifts that we love him.

And you don't understand that the first degree of charity (love of God) is evinced by the avoidance of sin.  In other words, if you find yourself trying to avoid sin and its near occassion, that is evidence that supernatural charity exists in your soul.  It's not perfect love, but it is the beginners love nonetheless.  

For that matter, the same argument could be used to say "Out of humility, I'm not going to try to save my soul, because I don't deserve heaven." or "living a life of virtue is more predictable and pleasant, so I will forego that to mortify my self-love".

Doing God's will and mortifying your passions WILL lead to more happiness on earth -- at least the most important kind of happiness, which includes peace of soul. Moreover, you also have a chance at happiness hereafter.

God did implant in each of us the desire for happiness. That is to be found primarily in heaven. But, as St. Teresa of Avila said, "Heaven is on the way there."

On the other hand, those who lead a life of sin and vice often have horrible sufferings here (unquiet conscience, guilt, envy, regret, unfulfilled lust, etc.) AND they end up in Hell. You could say, "Hell is on the way there" as well.

So it's not self-love to follow God's plan for us -- even if that makes life better for us here AND hereafter. It's more like a win-win situation. It's what a wise person would do.

Matthew

The Prodigal Son returned because he was hungry -- not due to some lofty, completely-purified motive.

Welcome to the site, Laurentius.

As for your question, I hope this is helpful:

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) was the first council to comment on the matter. It defined contrition (perfect or imperfect) as "sorrow of soul, and a hatred of sin committed, with a firm purpose of not sinning in the future" [1] However, while perfect contrition is motivated out of a love of God, imperfect contrition is motivated for other reasons, such as "the consideration of the turpitude of sin or from the fear of hell and punishment" [2] Therefore, it declared, "If any man assert that attrition . . . is not a true and a profitable sorrow; that it does not prepare the soul for grace, but that it makes a man a hypocrite, yea, even a greater sinner, let him be anathema."

Yeah, I had that in mind when I said I knew that saying attrition was itself sinful was condemned, but I had not looked at it directly .... is the grace the council is speaking of as the soul being prepared for by attrition the grace bestowed by the sacrament of penance?

Imperfect contrition prepares the soul to receive the grace that is granted via the sacrament of confession.  To move the soul from a state of sin toward imperfect contrition, in preparation to go to confession, involves another grace (which comes before the act of going to confession and before all the graces involved in actually doing so).

Doing what we must to save our souls is NOT as hard as we often make it out to be in our minds.  Yes, many do not DO what is necessary, but that does not mean that God has not put all the means well within our reach.

If you have never done so, you might want to read Abandonment to Divine Providence.  It is a wonderful book.  Godspeed.