Altar Serving and Blood of Christ

[phil8888]

Hi everyone, I’m 25 years old, and just this past Sunday I served the altar for the first time. I did a little run through the week before and had a little sheet a kind gentleman prepared, but there were still a few things I was unsure about it.

One thing I have a question about is this: I know you’re not supposed to receive communion if you are aware of a mortal sin. You should go to confession first. But what if you think you may have committed a mortal sin, and you are called to serve the altar. In this case, I am required to receive the body of Christ, but also to drink any remaining blood of Christ from the chalice. Only the Extraordinary ministers of communion and the priest receive the Blood of Christ, so there remains a certain portion, which I must drink. The question is, if you believe you may have committed a mortal sin, should I carry out my duty of receiving communion as an altar server.

 

[scylla]

No, no way, you should go to confession first.

Better to no serve, than to commit sacrilege, then you are committing another sin by unworthiliy receiving. It is much more respectful to Christ to not serve but make every effort to confess you sin as most priests should make themselves available for confession before Mass if time permits.

Most priests will make an effort to give you time to confess if needed, that is the simple solution. Make a good confession then you have no worries.

There are no excuses for sin, but there is a remedy, repentance and confession. Try as hard as possible to leave the sin behind and confession is great medicine.

God Bless
Scylla

 

[Tedster]

Hi everyone, I’m 25 years old, and just this past Sunday I served the altar for the first time. I did a little run through the week before and had a little sheet a kind gentleman prepared, but there were still a few things I was unsure about it.

One thing I have a question about is this: I know you’re not supposed to receive communion if you are aware of a mortal sin. You should go to confession first. But what if you think you may have committed a mortal sin, and you are called to serve the altar. In this case, I am required to receive the body of Christ, but also to drink any remaining blood of Christ from the chalice. Only the Extraordinary ministers of communion and the priest receive the Blood of Christ, so there remains a certain portion, which I must drink. The question is, if you believe you may have committed a mortal sin, should I carry out my duty of receiving communion as an altar server.

Why can’t you go to confession prior to serving and be absolved of all of your sins? My boys have done that throughout their years of being altar boys.

If you are called to serve and have not had the ability to go to confession, inform the priest of this, and inform him that you will not be able to receive communion. I would recommend not serving at all until you make a confession, but if it is an emergency, and he wants you to serve anyway, the priest may consume the remainder of the Precious Blood.

But remember, to receive in a state of mortal sin is a serious sacrilege.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Hi everyone, I’m 25 years old, and just this past Sunday I served the altar for the first time. I did a little run through the week before and had a little sheet a kind gentleman prepared, but there were still a few things I was unsure about it.

One thing I have a question about is this: I know you’re not supposed to receive communion if you are aware of a mortal sin. You should go to confession first. But what if you think you may have committed a mortal sin, and you are called to serve the altar. In this case, I am required to receive the body of Christ, but also to drink any remaining blood of Christ from the chalice. Only the Extraordinary ministers of communion and the priest receive the Blood of Christ, so there remains a certain portion, which I must drink. The question is, if you believe you may have committed a mortal sin, should I carry out my duty of receiving communion as an altar server.

Alter servers do not consume the remaining Blood of Christ that is for the Priest, Deacon, or EMHC who distributes that chalice to do. AQ server is NOT required to receive Holy Communion either, simply remain kneeling in place with hands folded. You may also advise the priest that you will not be receiving Communion before Mass if you can.

 

[palmas85]

Hi everyone, I’m 25 years old, and just this past Sunday I served the altar for the first time. I did a little run through the week before and had a little sheet a kind gentleman prepared, but there were still a few things I was unsure about it.

One thing I have a question about is this: I know you’re not supposed to receive communion if you are aware of a mortal sin. You should go to confession first. But what if you think you may have committed a mortal sin, and you are called to serve the altar. In this case, I am required to receive the body of Christ, but also to drink any remaining blood of Christ from the chalice. Only the Extraordinary ministers of communion and the priest receive the Blood of Christ, so there remains a certain portion, which I must drink. The question is, if you believe you may have committed a mortal sin, should I carry out my duty of receiving communion as an altar server.

I served for many many years. You are not required to receive Holy Communion in order to serve. I don’t know whee you got that information from, but it is wrong. It is not now and has never been required. . Indeed, on some days I served as many as five Masses and could not receive even had I wanted to.

There should be none of the Blood remaining. The Priest, Deacon or Extraordinary Minister is supposed to consume whatever is left over, not you…

And no, you should never ever receive if you are in a state of mortal sin under any circumstances. I know that many believe it is OK to do so,

BUT IT ISN"T

In most cases, if you think you may have committed a mortal sin, you probably have, at least in my experience, and you should not receive either.

 

[THurifer2]

1. You do not have to comsume the leftover Cup
2. You do not have to recieve if serving

Somone either lied to you or they have the liturgical education of a 6th grader.

 

[otjm]

There are three elements to a mortal sin.

1. the matter must be serious.
2. you must know it is serious.
3. you must intend the sin.

phil8888:

But what if you think you may have committed a mortal sin, and you are called to serve the altar.

I think what you need to do is get better aquainted with the 10 Commandments; your question has to start with your responsibility for your choices.

If this is an issue of an overactive conscience - that is, you find a mortal sin where there is none - then you need to get a confessor and stick with them and follow their advice absolutely and to the letter.

And if it is not about an over active conscience (scrupulosity), then you should be able to answer the question itself; when the act occured if you did not know that it was serious, then you could not have committed a mortal sin as knowledge is a critical element.

You can’t play fast and loose with this; but I find it a bit of a stretch that you did not know at the time of the issue if it was serious. If this is just a “what if” question", that may be slightly different.

An act which is serious (lets assume, for the sake of argumjent, theft of $500 in an envelope) is objectively a mortal sin. But if you picked up the envelope, and didn’t know what to do with it, and you still have it and still haven’t figured out what to do two weeks later, that does not make it a mortal sin for you as you did not have the intent specifically to deprive the owner of the money. Factually, by not advertising, or making other efforts to find the owner, that could be grounds for a mortal sin, but you would have to know that the failure was grounds and assent to the act. And since you did not know, you did not commit a mortal sin.

As noted, if you know you have committed a mortal sin, you are not to receive before Reconcilliation. But knowledge is one of the critical elements. The way you stated the case, you imply that you may not have known it was serious.

I have yet to meet someone who didn’t know they had committed a mortal sin when they had knowledge of what serious sins were. I have met some people who did not know certain things were serious sins. But I have yet to meet one who had the knowledge, did the act, and didn’t know they had sinned.