Choosing yearly communion

[EasternCelt]

Would you mind expanding on this? We can choose to be sorry? This is big if true.

 

[Fauken]

Would you mind expanding on this? We can choose to be sorry? This is big if true.

Yes, you can choose to be sorry. Do you regret what you did? Are you going to at least try to avoid doing it in the future? Are you going to go to confession to make things right with God? Boom. Done. Sure, crying over your sins is good, but you’re not required to. What sounds better to you: someone who enters the confessional crying over being violent towards others, and then upon leaving the church pushes someone out of his way; or someone with an indifferent face who tries his best to avoid doing that sin again? Who has real sorrow over their sins?

Feelings are fickle.

 

[EasternCelt]

The reason that I view things in this way is because of the emphasis traditionally put upon guilt and hell. The most frequently cited sermon I hear is on the little number of the elect. My mind also goes to quotes like the one from St. Louis de Montfort who says that if we could see how small the number of the elect are, we would faint from despair and fear. Perhaps I am a bit over the top, but it really does feel to me like people who don’t have some doubts because of the existence of hell have developed a sort of Stockholm syndrome (I don’t mean to be incendiary here, just honest).

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

The reason that I view things in this way is because of the emphasis traditionally put upon guilt and hell. The most frequently cited sermon I hear is on the little number of the elect. My mind also goes to quotes like the one from St. Louis de Montfort who says that if we could see how small the number of the elect are, we would faint from despair and fear. Perhaps I am a bit over the top, but it really does feel to me like people who don’t have some doubts because of the existence of hell have developed a sort of Stockholm syndrome (I don’t mean to be incendiary here, just honest).

I mean, it sounds like you’re cherry picking, for lack of a better word, isolated verses or statements from saints to paint an exclusively gloomy picture. Of course you can do that. You could also cherry pick only hopeful passages or teachings to paint an extremely optimistic picture.

That’s the reason it’s important to follow the living Magisterium and not try to cobble together something in your head.

 

[EasternCelt]

From what I understand, the Magisterium hasn’t determined whether a more gloomy or more hopeful disposition is correct.

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

Magisterium was probably not the correct term. I more meant taking Catholicism as a whole. You can certainly find saints and theologians who believed most people went to hell, but you can also find those who believe the opposite. The Church as a whole, as far as I know, basically says “we have no idea how percentage of humanity goes to heaven, or hell, or purgatory.”

I guess all I mean is you seem to be focusing only on sources that seem to confirm what you’ve already concluded.

I’m not qualified to help you untangle this, but I really do feel that a long, sustained period of spiritual direction would be really helpful for you.

 

[runningdude]

If necessary, go to confession Saturday afternoon, plop yourself before the tabernacle to pray you penance, stay for mass, and receive the sacrament every week.

If you are truly as sinful as you believe, you need to be receiving our Lord more not less.

 

[EasternCelt]

Of course, I wouldn’t want to put you in a position to offer spiritual advice, but I would like to ask who the saints are that held the opposite opinion? I would love to hear a more hopeful take on all of this.

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

I’m just stealing this because it happened to come up in another thread, but just to name one example:

St. Therese of Lisieux didn’t think so, and taught all her novices that they could go straight to Heaven by simply doing as much good on earth as they could for other people, and putting all their trust in God to take them to Heaven.

Some of the other sisters were aghast and told St. Therese the same thing you just wrote.

St. Therese didn’t budge. She also said that if the other sister thought that souls had to go to Purgatory, then the other sister would probably end up there, because the soul gets exactly what it expects from God.

Today, St. Therese is a great saint and a Doctor of the Church.

 

[redcatholic]

You could go to confession and then be in a state of grace as often as you wish. If you sin so much you choose to take communion once a year… stop sinning.