If you do not intend to make the changes in your life, right here and right now, to avoid these mortal sins and all mortal sins, then it is not really contrition or repentance. You cannot validly receive absolution.
I realize that this would not be “people-friendly” in our 21st-century American culture, and people would cry, snot, cuss, holler, and get all out of joint over this, but I have mused that if I were a priest, and penitents came to me saying that they had no intention of ceasing to commit a mortal sin, it might be good to have a penny, a pair of pliers, and one of those mechanical torches (Duraflame, etc.). Hold the penny in the pliers, hold the flame from the torch to it, get the penny good and hot, and ask the penitent if they would care to take the penny into their hand for a few seconds and grasp it. If they can stand that, fine, go ahead and live in mortal sin. If they can’t stand that, then they’ve got a decision to make.
Every time I bake something in the oven (pizza, cake, etc.), I make a pious practice of looking at the red-hot coils in the heating unit, and asking myself whether any mortal sin is worth falling into those coils for all eternity. I highly recommend this practice to all.
(Full disclosure: I got the ideas in this post from Pat Buchanan’s autobiography, Right From The Beginning. The elder Mr Buchanan told his sons that if they felt like committing mortal sin, strike a match and hold their finger to the flame. If they can stand the flame, go right ahead.)
