Communion and known atheists

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Greetings all. I’m feeling a little bit guilty at the moment, and need some advice. I am an EMHC at both my local parish and my school. I never have any problems at my parish, everyone shows the proper reverence towards the Blessed Body and Precious Blood of Our Lord. But at my school… we are in the Christian Brothers tradition, very inclusive, very liberal. I was instructed by the director of spirituality that I was to distribute spirituality to all who come forward to receive it. That shocked me, I would be ready to lay down my life for the Blessed Sacraments, and yet she is saying that all can take it… anyway, we were at a school Mass (the Mass itself was lovely, but the priest was a little bit odd, there was a SIGNIFICANT liturgical abuse that I will not even mention), and I was standing next to this director of spirituality, both of us distributing the Body of Christ.

A boy who I KNOW is an atheist came to me. It shocked me at first, I said “The Body of Christ”, he replied, “Ah, yeah, okay.” I looked towards this teacher, she just nodded her head, and gestured that I should give him the Communion. It was heart wrenching to give Our Lord to him, but I didn’t want to cause a fuss, or offend either the student or the teacher. His parents were there as well.

After the Mass, he commented on how badly the wafer had tasted. I was gobsmacked. Some pimply, stupid little boy commenting on the accident of the bread, when he had just received the Body of Christ. I became quite upset and angry, at myself, the student, and the teacher. How should I have acted in this situation? Should I confess it to my parish priest?
 
I have been told that EMHCs do not have the authority to make a judgement about the person receiving. If it bothers you, your only option is to not be an EMHC.
 
They are violating a basic tenant of our Faith, and you should not be distributing Holy Communion to anyone who is not Catholic. You need to report this and have it stopped. I can’t figure out just how this kind of thing gets permitted in the first place, but it needs to stop. The Priest should be taking responsibility for safe and proper care of the Eucharist. If he is not the Bishop needs to hear from you.
 
Talk to the pastor. If he has no problem with giving Communion to any and everyone, then I’d contact the bishop and tell him about it. But I’d make sure I was contacting the bishop directly and not going through an intermediary (e.g. if by letter, put “personal and confidential” on the envelope). If, God forbid, the bishop has no problem with it, I’d take it to Rome; more specifically, the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
 
Why did this student even go up to receive Holy Communion if he was not Catholic? I mean, I guess sometimes people get “swayed by the crowd” so to speak, but really? And, to make it worse, the spiritual director at your school said it was okay to still allow him to receive Jesus? Are you an employee of hers, or are you just helping out in the spiriutality office? Either way, I wouldn’t do that even if she asked me to, because it is a profanation of the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of Jesus.

I think you should mention it in Confession, not because it was necessarily a sin(it was under duress), but just to seek the priest’s advice.

I will pray for an end to such abuses. May God bless you! 🙂
 
Before I make a comment, I would like to be clear. Is this child being raised as an atheist, or is this a choice he has made on his own? If it’s the former, I think it is wrong that you are being asked to give communion to a non-Catholic and I would probably stop volunteering there and tell the priest why. If it is the later, then it is a more complicated issue, that should probably be left between the boy, his parents, and ideally, the priest. The only thing that you can do is tell the boy that what he said is offensive to you and you would appreciate that he not disrespect the Lord in that manner. You could point out that he is not required to recieve if he doesn’t want to. (Though his parents may be the ones requiring it.)
 
Water_of_Life said:
Greetings all. I’m feeling a little bit guilty at the moment, and need some advice. I am an EMHC at both my local parish and my school. I never have any problems at my parish, everyone shows the proper reverence towards the Blessed Body and Precious Blood of Our Lord. But at my school… we are in the Christian Brothers tradition, very inclusive, very liberal. I was instructed by the director of spirituality that I was to distribute spirituality to all who come forward to receive it. That shocked me, I would be ready to lay down my life for the Blessed Sacraments, and yet she is saying that all can take it… anyway, we were at a school Mass (the Mass itself was lovely, but the priest was a little bit odd, there was a SIGNIFICANT liturgical abuse that I will not even mention), and I was standing next to this director of spirituality, both of us distributing the Body of Christ.

A boy who I KNOW is an atheist came to me. It shocked me at first, I said “The Body of Christ”, he replied, “Ah, yeah, okay.” I looked towards this teacher, she just nodded her head, and gestured that I should give him the Communion. It was heart wrenching to give Our Lord to him, but I didn’t want to cause a fuss, or offend either the student or the teacher. His parents were there as well.

After the Mass, he commented on how badly the wafer had tasted. I was gobsmacked. Some pimply, stupid little boy commenting on the accident of the bread, when he had just received the Body of Christ. I became quite upset and angry, at myself, the student, and the teacher. How should I have acted in this situation? Should I confess it to my parish priest?
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In the end, we answer to God not a spiritual director, teacher, and certainly not to a youth still in need of the Grace of God. Perhaps God has given you this opportunity to understand what being an EMHC entails. You clearly are concerned and that is a good sign. I don’t believe it’s just a wafer and we as Catholics need to defend Our Lord even if those “higher” than us do not. Please pray for wisdom on this and act as God wills it. Have a Blessed Day!
 
Personally, I am an atheist and take communion when I do go to Church with my parents. Yes, I know that it is against your faith and everything, I understand that and that so don’t waste telling me to stop. What I’m getting at is that I am an atheist and was raised in a very devout Catholic household, everyone else in my family remains devout to this day. My family has absolutely no clue about my true beliefs since I keep it from them due to fear of how they would react and how it would affect our relationship. When I am home I go to mass like always and sing the hymns and everything.

I know that you think you should report it due to the fact that you think it is immoral to receive communion when you are not Catholic but is there any chance the kid is in the same boat as I am? You know that he is an atheist and he probably knows that you do too so when you said “Body of Christ” he responds back with “yea, whatever” cus between the two of you, you both know that he thinks it’s a total lie. But does his own family know? Does he go along to church with his family who does not know about his atheism? If they do not know then I understand that in your eyes he still should not be receiving communion, but he might also be doing it to keep up appearances for his family. If they do not know and he continues, I think the best thing would be to try and help him out coming out about his atheism to his family if that is the problem. If they do know then I don’t know what to tell ya.
 
Jerbear said:
Personally, I am an atheist and take communion when I do go to Church with my parents. Yes, I know that it is against your faith and everything, I understand that and that so don’t waste telling me to stop. What I’m getting at is that I am an atheist and was raised in a very devout Catholic household, everyone else in my family remains devout to this day. My family has absolutely no clue about my true beliefs since I keep it from them due to fear of how they would react and how it would affect our relationship. When I am home I go to mass like always and sing the hymns and everything.

I know that you think you should report it due to the fact that you think it is immoral to receive communion when you are not Catholic but is there any chance the kid is in the same boat as I am? You know that he is an atheist and he probably knows that you do too so when you said “Body of Christ” he responds back with “yea, whatever” cus between the two of you, you both know that he thinks it’s a total lie. But does his own family know? Does he go along to church with his family who does not know about his atheism? If they do not know then I understand that in your eyes he still should not be receiving communion, but he might also be doing it to keep up appearances for his family. If they do not know and he continues, I think the best thing would be to try and help him out coming out about his atheism to his family if that is the problem. If they do know then I don’t know what to tell ya.
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If this is indeed the case, then this kid needs to come clean to his parents about his atheism. It is incredibly offensive to Catholics and blasphemous to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament when Holy Communion is received in such a manner. It is not the Eucharistic Minister’s problem or fault that the kid hasn’t come out about his atheism. Thus, the burden should not be placed on the minister, but rather on the young man. You seem to be suggesting that the Eucharistic Minister’s first responsibility is playing along with the deception of an illicit communication rather than protecting the Blessed Sacrament from sacrilege???
 
christus_vincit said:
If this is indeed the case, then this kid needs to come clean to his parents about his atheism. It is incredibly offensive to Catholics and blasphemous to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament when Holy Communion is received in such a manner. It is not the Eucharistic Minister’s problem or fault that the kid hasn’t come out about his atheism. Thus, the burden should not be placed on the minister, but rather on the young man. You seem to be suggesting that the Eucharistic Minister’s first responsibility is playing along with the deception of an illicit communication rather than protecting the Blessed Sacrament from sacrilege???
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easy now, just calm down. No need to get all worked up there. I understand that it is offensive to Catholics by receiving communion. I was not intending it to be taken as they should counsel the kid to deal with telling his family and it should not be placed on the minister or whoever to get him to do so, it is on the kid to come out to his family. I was simply suggesting that perhaps someone could sit down with him and explain why it is offensive and how they think he should come out to his parents. That’s it, one short simple talk. The burden should not be placed on the people of the church, but if no one is willing to talk to the kid in order to get him to come out, even by talking to the kid just once and make even the slightest effort, then people shouldn’t be so ticked off if they continue to get offended when they have made absolutely no effort whatsoever to stop the wrong. If you see a wrong and do absolutely nothing about it and continue to get angry or offended when the wrong has not been changed, then you have a viscous cycle. In a way, it reminds me of people who complain about government and politicians but yet never go to any meetings, don’t pay attention to who is running or what topics are up for vote, and don’t vote, yet continue to rant about how horrible the government is and the direction the city/state/nation is headed.
 
Jerbear said:
Personally, I am an atheist and take communion when I do go to Church with my parents. Yes, I know that it is against your faith and everything, I understand that and that so don’t waste telling me to stop. What I’m getting at is that I am an atheist and was raised in a very devout Catholic household, everyone else in my family remains devout to this day. My family has absolutely no clue about my true beliefs since I keep it from them due to fear of how they would react and how it would affect our relationship. When I am home I go to mass like always and sing the hymns and everything.

I know that you think you should report it due to the fact that you think it is immoral to receive communion when you are not Catholic but is there any chance the kid is in the same boat as I am? You know that he is an atheist and he probably knows that you do too so when you said “Body of Christ” he responds back with “yea, whatever” cus between the two of you, you both know that he thinks it’s a total lie. But does his own family know? Does he go along to church with his family who does not know about his atheism? If they do not know then I understand that in your eyes he still should not be receiving communion, but he might also be doing it to keep up appearances for his family. If they do not know and he continues, I think the best thing would be to try and help him out coming out about his atheism to his family if that is the problem. If they do know then I don’t know what to tell ya.
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Now, I know that you unfortunately do not believe in God and have left the Truths of the Catholic faith. I feel sorry for you and hope you may see the Light of Christ once more.

But, I cannot leave what you are saying alone. It is just disgusting to me that you think so little of Jesus that you would continue to receive Him in Holy Communion even when you don’t believe just so that your parents won’t yell at you. I mean, just because you don’t believe doesn’t mean that Jesus isn’t there. He is still there present in the Eucharist and watching everything that you do no matter what you personally believe. So, to profane His presence in that way is just an abomination.

In addition, I cannot believe your lack of respect for us Catholics. People like you yell and scream about being “offended” that “religion encroaching on your life” just to make a scene and make people scramble around for your own amusement. But then, when you do something that is actually offensive to us, you don’t even want to hear about it and just keep on living your sinful life. I’m sick and tired of you atheists making problems for us Catholics; it is extremely irritating.
 
Richard_White said:
Now, I know that you unfortunately do not believe in God and have left the Truths of the Catholic faith. I feel sorry for you and hope you may see the Light of Christ once more.

But, I cannot leave what you are saying alone. It is just disgusting to me that you think so little of Jesus that you would continue to receive Him in Holy Communion even when you don’t believe just so that your parents won’t yell at you. I mean, just because you don’t believe doesn’t mean that Jesus isn’t there. He is still there present in the Eucharist and watching everything that you do no matter what you personally believe. So, to profane His presence in that way is just an abomination.

In addition, I cannot believe your lack of respect for us Catholics. People like you yell and scream about being “offended” that “religion encroaching on your life” just to make a scene and make people scramble around for your own amusement. But then, when you do something that is actually offensive to us, you don’t even want to hear about it and just keep on living your sinful life. I’m sick and tired of you atheists making problems for us Catholics; it is extremely irritating.
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I’m sorry that I offend you and that I cause you great anger, but at the same time, you don’t know me and I don’t know you. You think that me coming out as an atheist to my family would just cause me to be yelled at, which I never said. You assume that it would just be them annoyed with me and angry. You’re right that they’d be angry, but in reality I’m fearful of being shunned completely from the family. Btw, it does absolutely no good whatsoever to tell someone who doesn’t believe that they should.

Don’t you dare begin to speak about atheists like me and how we rant and rave about how offended we are. Again, you have no clue who I am and I don’t know who you are to make judgments about me because I can with 100% honesty say that I have never screamed about being offended about anything religious in my entire life. I will admit that I completely support the separation of church and state and that I do not believe we should have religious figures or whatever on public property but again, I have never screamed that I was offended by seeing a christmas tree or nativity scene or made anyone run around for my own amusement, that’s an awful thing to do.

You go off on me and start bashing atheists left and right, lumping us all into one group as if we are all militant, but then in the same post say how you feel sorry for me and that you’ll pray for me and that I’m not respecting your faith. Look in a mirror if you want to see not respecting someone else’s faith or beliefs. I fully admit that I shouldn’t take communion, which is maybe 2-3 times per year when I’m home, but without knowing anything about me as a human being or whether I try to ‘convert’ anyone to atheism, you start assuming that I am militant and I like to see people running around for my own amusement like I’m a horrible person. You clearly do not respect my own beliefs. Outside of the 2-3 incidents per year in the last few years, I have done nothing but be respectful of religious people. If I get in a debate I offer my opinions but I understand that they have different views and are religious. I have never called Christians names or said that they were immoral people, even if I greatly differ in opinions. You have the right to practice your own faith openly and I respect that. If I see a religious billboard I just ignore it and when I have someone tell me “God bless you” I say thank you and let it be. When it was cold this last winter and my friend didn’t have a car I drove him to and from his weekly Christian meeting when they went thru the Bible, and a few times even stayed and respectfully sat there and listened, and on occasions offering my thoughts on what verses meant since I myself had been raised Catholic and was familiar with many of the things they talked about.

I joined this site when I was struggling with my Catholic faith and had great help from everyone but as soon as I said I couldn’t do it and I eventually became an atheist I have had almost nothing but hostility from members of this site or people who did like you and say that they felt sorry for me and they’ll pray for my faith to return. I posted that I knew I was in the wrong and that I shouldn’t have taken communion and was just trying to offer some advice as to a simple possibility, that is all. I owned up to my own wrong-doings and tried to offer help and insight to the original post in the thread. If I offend you because of something I do literally less than a handful of times each year, which I don’t see as being anything special, in order to not be shunned by my family then I will offend you.
 
Jerbear said:
I’m sorry that I offend you and that I cause you great anger, but at the same time, you don’t know me and I don’t know you. You think that me coming out as an atheist to my family would just cause me to be yelled at, which I never said. You assume that it would just be them annoyed with me and angry. You’re right that they’d be angry, but in reality I’m fearful of being shunned completely from the family. Btw, it does absolutely no good whatsoever to tell someone who doesn’t believe that they should.

Don’t you dare begin to speak about atheists like me and how we rant and rave about how offended we are. Again, you have no clue who I am and I don’t know who you are to make judgments about me because I can with 100% honesty say that I have never screamed about being offended about anything religious in my entire life. I will admit that I completely support the separation of church and state and that I do not believe we should have religious figures or whatever on public property but again, I have never screamed that I was offended by seeing a christmas tree or nativity scene or made anyone run around for my own amusement, that’s an awful thing to do.

You go off on me and start bashing atheists left and right, lumping us all into one group as if we are all militant, but then in the same post say how you feel sorry for me and that you’ll pray for me and that I’m not respecting your faith. Look in a mirror if you want to see not respecting someone else’s faith or beliefs. I fully admit that I shouldn’t take communion, which is maybe 2-3 times per year when I’m home, but without knowing anything about me as a human being or whether I try to ‘convert’ anyone to atheism, you start assuming that I am militant and I like to see people running around for my own amusement like I’m a horrible person. You clearly do not respect my own beliefs. Outside of the 2-3 incidents per year in the last few years, I have done nothing but be respectful of religious people. If I get in a debate I offer my opinions but I understand that they have different views and are religious. I have never called Christians names or said that they were immoral people, even if I greatly differ in opinions. You have the right to practice your own faith openly and I respect that. If I see a religious billboard I just ignore it and when I have someone tell me “God bless you” I say thank you and let it be. When it was cold this last winter and my friend didn’t have a car I drove him to and from his weekly Christian meeting when they went thru the Bible, and a few times even stayed and respectfully sat there and listened, and on occasions offering my thoughts on what verses meant since I myself had been raised Catholic and was familiar with many of the things they talked about.

I joined this site when I was struggling with my Catholic faith and had great help from everyone but as soon as I said I couldn’t do it and I eventually became an atheist I have had almost nothing but hostility from members of this site or people who did like you and say that they felt sorry for me and they’ll pray for my faith to return. I posted that I knew I was in the wrong and that I shouldn’t have taken communion and was just trying to offer some advice as to a simple possibility, that is all. I owned up to my own wrong-doings and tried to offer help and insight to the original post in the thread. If I offend you because of something I do literally less than a handful of times each year, which I don’t see as being anything special, in order to not be shunned by my family then I will offend you.
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You probably don’t have to dishonestly recieve communion in order to avoid being shunned. Just tell them you can’t recieve today, if they even ask. Even devout Catholics don’t recieve from time to time, because they aren’t in a state of grace and haven’t been to confession. What you are doing is desecrating the host. I don’t believe in Buddah, but I wouldn’t mess with a shrine to him out of respect for the people that do. You may want to reconsider what you are doing.
 
Allegra said:
You probably don’t have to dishonestly recieve communion in order to avoid being shunned. Just tell them you can’t recieve today, if they even ask. Even devout Catholics don’t recieve from time to time, because they aren’t in a state of grace and haven’t been to confession. What you are doing is desecrating the host. I don’t believe in Buddah, but I wouldn’t mess with a shrine to him out of respect for the people that do. You may want to reconsider what you are doing.
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I am sorry for my previous long post, I know it might have come off as being hostile and disrespectful but I felt I had to and was being disrespected myself. To be honest I had never considered not taking communion at all, no one in my family’s parish just doesn’t accept communion. As I said, I know I shouldn’t and I will admit that I feel guilty about doing so. When I was growing up and all the way thru college I had never heard of people not taking communion because they weren’t in a state of grace and needed to confess before doing so, everyone I know has always said that they recommend going to confession twice a year, once before easter and christmas.

I don’t mean it to sound like I purposefully disgrace the faith. I agree that it would be wrong to mess with a Buddah statue just as it would be wrong to rip or burn the Bible or the Koran, etc. I do try to respect the Catholic faith and whoevers faith whenever I can do so, but like I said I had never considered that as an idea since I had never heard that growing up and never seen it done.

Thank you for the post and advice.
 
Jerbear said:
I’m sorry that I offend you and that I cause you great anger, but at the same time, you don’t know me and I don’t know you. You think that me coming out as an atheist to my family would just cause me to be yelled at, which I never said. You assume that it would just be them annoyed with me and angry. You’re right that they’d be angry, but in reality I’m fearful of being shunned completely from the family. Btw, it does absolutely no good whatsoever to tell someone who doesn’t believe that they should.

Don’t you dare begin to speak about atheists like me and how we rant and rave about how offended we are. Again, you have no clue who I am and I don’t know who you are to make judgments about me because I can with 100% honesty say that I have never screamed about being offended about anything religious in my entire life. I will admit that I completely support the separation of church and state and that I do not believe we should have religious figures or whatever on public property but again, I have never screamed that I was offended by seeing a christmas tree or nativity scene or made anyone run around for my own amusement, that’s an awful thing to do.

You go off on me and start bashing atheists left and right, lumping us all into one group as if we are all militant, but then in the same post say how you feel sorry for me and that you’ll pray for me and that I’m not respecting your faith. Look in a mirror if you want to see not respecting someone else’s faith or beliefs. I fully admit that I shouldn’t take communion, which is maybe 2-3 times per year when I’m home, but without knowing anything about me as a human being or whether I try to ‘convert’ anyone to atheism, you start assuming that I am militant and I like to see people running around for my own amusement like I’m a horrible person. You clearly do not respect my own beliefs. Outside of the 2-3 incidents per year in the last few years, I have done nothing but be respectful of religious people. If I get in a debate I offer my opinions but I understand that they have different views and are religious. I have never called Christians names or said that they were immoral people, even if I greatly differ in opinions. You have the right to practice your own faith openly and I respect that. If I see a religious billboard I just ignore it and when I have someone tell me “God bless you” I say thank you and let it be. When it was cold this last winter and my friend didn’t have a car I drove him to and from his weekly Christian meeting when they went thru the Bible, and a few times even stayed and respectfully sat there and listened, and on occasions offering my thoughts on what verses meant since I myself had been raised Catholic and was familiar with many of the things they talked about.

I joined this site when I was struggling with my Catholic faith and had great help from everyone but as soon as I said I couldn’t do it and I eventually became an atheist I have had almost nothing but hostility from members of this site or people who did like you and say that they felt sorry for me and they’ll pray for my faith to return. I posted that I knew I was in the wrong and that I shouldn’t have taken communion and was just trying to offer some advice as to a simple possibility, that is all. I owned up to my own wrong-doings and tried to offer help and insight to the original post in the thread. If I offend you because of something I do literally less than a handful of times each year, which I don’t see as being anything special, in order to not be shunned by my family then I will offend you.
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I’m sorry that I yelled at you and lumped you together with the militant atheists that we see on television bashing us Catholics almost everyday. You are probably not one of them and I really shouldn’t have labeled you as such. However, I still cannot condone the way that you have been committing sacrilege by receiving Jesus in your state of sin and disbelief. I truly hope that you do find the Light of Christ once more and come back into the Truths of the Catholic faith. For, once Catholic, always Catholic, no matter what you do. And again, I apologize for getting angry at you.

May God bless you, give you peace and comfort, and lead you back into His Catholic Church!
 
Water_of_Life said:
Greetings all. I’m feeling a little bit guilty at the moment, and need some advice. I am an EMHC at both my local parish and my school. I never have any problems at my parish, everyone shows the proper reverence towards the Blessed Body and Precious Blood of Our Lord. But at my school… we are in the Christian Brothers tradition, very inclusive, very liberal. I was instructed by the director of spirituality that I was to distribute spirituality to all who come forward to receive it. That shocked me, I would be ready to lay down my life for the Blessed Sacraments, and yet she is saying that all can take it… anyway, we were at a school Mass (the Mass itself was lovely, but the priest was a little bit odd, there was a SIGNIFICANT liturgical abuse that I will not even mention), and I was standing next to this director of spirituality, both of us distributing the Body of Christ.
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This is a much larger issue than the one student.

If the priest(s) at your school are knowingly and deliberately distributing Communion to non-Catholics, this is a very serious matter. You may not participate in it and you, or preferably your parents, should be contacting your pastor and the bishop.
 
Thank you to everyone for your responses; I pray that God guides me as I address this issue.
PaulfromIowa said:
This is a much larger issue than the one student.

If the priest(s) at your school are knowingly and deliberately distributing Communion to non-Catholics, this is a very serious matter. You may not participate in it and you, or preferably your parents, should be contacting your pastor and the bishop.
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It is an endemic issue, I feel; the Director of Spirituality actually jokes around, saying that at every Mass someone has their First Holy Communion. Our usual priest is a lovely man, who I’m sure has no idea about these abuses. My parents wouldn’t care, at all. Perhaps I should talk to my parish priest about the matter?
 
Jerbear said:
I am sorry for my previous long post, I know it might have come off as being hostile and disrespectful but I felt I had to and was being disrespected myself. To be honest I had never considered not taking communion at all, no one in my family’s parish just doesn’t accept communion. As I said, I know I shouldn’t and I will admit that I feel guilty about doing so. When I was growing up and all the way thru college I had never heard of people not taking communion because they weren’t in a state of grace and needed to confess before doing so, everyone I know has always said that they recommend going to confession twice a year, once before easter and christmas.

I don’t mean it to sound like I purposefully disgrace the faith. I agree that it would be wrong to mess with a Buddah statue just as it would be wrong to rip or burn the Bible or the Koran, etc. I do try to respect the Catholic faith and whoevers faith whenever I can do so, but like I said I had never considered that as an idea since I had never heard that growing up and never seen it done.

Thank you for the post and advice.
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I expect that there are plenty of people at your parish that have done it, but you just don’t notice it because they are discreat. Most people don’t go around flailing their arms and shouting, “Hey, everybody! I’m in mortal sin!” I think a lot of people recieve when they aren’t in a state of grace because they either don’t admit that they are in a state of grace, or they are self-concious and they don’t want others to know. This isn’t right though and someone should have taught you that before, either in school or in religious instruction when you were preparing to recieve your first communion.

I understand that it’s a lot easier said than done to come out about being an atheist to your parents, especially if you are still a minor or under your parents’ support. During one of my first years of teaching, I had a seventh grade boy in my choir class who was acting up. After class, when I was talking to him about his behavior, he told me that he was acting that way because he was an atheist and didn’t think he should have to sing a song that mentioned the Lord in it. I told him that if his parents objected to him singing the song, they could write me a note and he wouldn’t have to.

Since the stories of twelve year old boys often get changed by the time they get home, I gave mom a call and told her that if she didn’t want her son singing a song that mentioned God in passing, she could write a note excusing him from the assignment. Apparently, the boy had neglected to mention his atheism to his parents and she was horrified. She called the boy’s father and he left work and came to the school and demanded to see him. He literally pulled the boy’s pants down and spanked him in the middle of the office, horrifying two secretaries and causing the guidance counselor to nearly have a nervous coniption. I don’t know if the boy was actually an atheist or just wanted to get out of singing songs in choir, but I suspect that if he is an atheist, he still hasn’t told his parents a decade later!
 
Water_of_Life said:
Thank you to everyone for your responses; I pray that God guides me as I address this issue.

It is an endemic issue, I feel; the Director of Spirituality actually jokes around, saying that at every Mass someone has their First Holy Communion. Our usual priest is a lovely man, who I’m sure has no idea about these abuses. My parents wouldn’t care, at all. Perhaps I should talk to my parish priest about the matter?
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I am afraid to ask what a “Director of Spirituality” is. Yes, talk to your parish priest. Disrespect to the Eucharist is a very serious matter.
 
Jerbear said:
Personally, I am an atheist and take communion when I do go to Church with my parents. Yes, I know that it is against your faith and everything, I understand that and that so don’t waste telling me to stop. What I’m getting at is that I am an atheist and was raised in a very devout Catholic household, everyone else in my family remains devout to this day. My family has absolutely no clue about my true beliefs since I keep it from them due to fear of how they would react and how it would affect our relationship. When I am home I go to mass like always and sing the hymns and everything.
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😦

Oh! Jerbear … if only you knew what you are doing.

Jerbear, I want you to call to mind the person in your life who you love the most, now I want you to imagine me abusing them and than saying to you “Yes, I know that it hurts you Jerbear to hear about me treating your beloved this way, I understand that, so don’t waste your time telling me to stop.”

I’m sure you would tell me, that if I really understood how it hurt you, than I wouldn’t be doing it. This is why Richard_White reacted the way he did.

I want you to know Jerbear, that I forgive you and I will be especially praying for you, but I also want you to know how much you heart our Lord, whom we love dearly and thus how much you hurt us by doing it. Please read through my whole post.

The Sacred Heart Image (St Margaret-Mary Alacoque)
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This is the revelation which took place in June 1675 when St Margaret Mary was before the Blessed Sacrament (The Holy Eucharist). Our Lord said to her:

"Behold this Heart, Which has loved men so much, that It has spared nothing, even to exhausting (Crucifixion) and consuming Itself, (Last Supper, Eucharist) in order to testify to them Its love; and in return I receive from the greater number nothing but ingratitude by reason of their irreverence and sacrileges, and by the coldness and contempt which they show Me in this Sacrament of Love. (Refferring to how people treat His real presense in the Holy Eucharist).

Eucharistic Miracles of the World - therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/engl_mir.htm

Poland -

Sokólka, October 12, 2008 (Part 1) – (PDF: 1.41M)

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Sokólka, October 12, 2008 (Part 2) – (PDF: 1.31M)

[edited]

Sokólka, October 12, 2008 (Part 3) – (PDF: 1.41M)
[edited]
Unseen by Ron Tesoriero and Lee Han:
No one can call the Hosts-to-Heart cases spiritual. They are 100% physical. But the fact that these transformations have all occurred in a Christian context cannot be avoided. And neither can the fact that they confirm the original and enduring doctrine of the ‘real presence’ of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world” John 6:51

If these words of Christ are true, these outrageously audacious, almost unthinkable words are true, these words uttered many thousands of times for thousands of years, every single day in every corner of the planet are true, that bread does become real flesh, then it certainly seems the height of folly to not soberly consider everything else this man had to say.
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I humbly ask that you please re-consider what you are doing Jerbear.

God Bless

Thank you for reading
Josh
 
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