Confession by desire?

[Equus_Pallidus]

I used ask an apologist for this question, but I thought I would throw it out there for everyone.

Confession is only available on Saturday, and you commit a sin that need to be confessed on Saturday night. Can you recieve the Eucharist knowing that next Saturday you will go to confession?

 

[dylanschrader]

No. If you have a committed a mortal, you may only receive the Eucharist once that sin is confessed (except in certain extraordinary circumstances).

If you make a perfect act of contrition, you will receive sanctifying grace again, but you must have the intention of going to confession.

 

[Equus_Pallidus]

What is a perfect act of contrition, and how do you know if you have done such?

 

[Equus_Pallidus]

I missed Mass the Sunday before, because I wanted to do something else, and I am real sorry for it, but I asked God if was OK to take the sacrament, and the answer I got was yes, but go to confession as soon as you can.

 

[LilyM]

What is a perfect act of contrition, and how do you know if you have done such?

This is an Act of Perfect Contrition - same as regular with the addition that you resolve to confess your sins.

And no, don’t receive Communion until you’ve confessed. God wouldn’t want you to dishonour the Body and Blood of Christ by receiving with unconfessed mortal sin on your soul.

Church rules and church sacraments are there for a reason - Christ himself instituted them and He also, through the Holy Spirit, directs the church as to how they’re to be administered. Remember he said ‘who hears you hears me’, so whatever answer you think you had, if it’s contrary to church teaching it isn’t from God.

You’re not required to receive every time you go to Mass - only once a year!

 

[dylanschrader]

“Perfect contrition” means being sorry for your sins out of love for God. If you have perfect contrition, then your sins are forgiven and you will no longer be in the state of sin. However, contrition is always oriented toward the Sacrament of Penance which is the ordinary way that Christ forgives our sins.

 

[Genesis315]

One should never receive the Eucharist in mortal sin, even if one desires to go to confession as soon as possible (as an aside, you can always call and make an appointment). If one were to die before going to confession, one could be forgiven IF the intent was to go to confession and one had perfect contrition (not to be confused with an act of contrition). Perfect contrition is sorrow for sin for love of God and a firm resolution to sin no more. For sacramental confession, one must have a minimum of imperfect contrition–sorrow for sin out of fear of the loss of Heaven and pains of Hell.

 

[Seatuck]

I missed Mass the Sunday before, because I wanted to do something else, and I am real sorry for it, but I asked God if was OK to take the sacrament, and the answer I got was yes, but go to confession as soon as you can.

You may have deeply wanted to hear that(as would most of us) but that is not what was told to you. Or if it was it was not by God. Mortal sins must be confessed. It is a mortal sin to receive the Eucharist with unconfessed mortal sin on our souls.

Just bring it up in confession as soon as possible and abstain from the Eucharist until then.

 

[Equus_Pallidus]

You may have deeply wanted to hear that(as would most of us) but that is not what was told to you. Or if it was it was not by God. Mortal sins must be confessed. It is a mortal sin to receive the Eucharist with unconfessed mortal sin on our souls.

Just bring it up in confession as soon as possible and abstain from the Eucharist until then.

You certainly are entitled to your opinion, I see no foot notes or documentation to back up your statement that it was probably Satan talking to me by implication. I think he was talking to you, when you wrote what you did, so I guess we are even.

 

[Equus_Pallidus]

Just so you know scrupulous people bug me.

 

[Pug]

Confession is only available on Saturday, and you commit a sin that need to be confessed on Saturday night. Can you recieve the Eucharist knowing that next Saturday you will go to confession?

In the case of your average person, no. Wait, go to confession next Saturday, and then receive after that.

Also, I suggest making an act of spiritual communion on the Sunday that you don’t go up to receive.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Well, look at it this way.

You’ve sinned. If you ‘need’ to confess before receiving communion, it’s a mortal sin. . .even if you plan on confessing ‘the next Saturday’.

You do not **have to ** receive Holy Communion at Mass, you know. There is no law forcing you to receive at every Mass.

Therefore, knowing you have sinned, it would be best to forego communion, making a spiritual communion instead, and confessing as soon as possible. And of course being sorry.

Why would anyone take the chance of not having made that ‘perfect’ act of contrition and risk receiving Christ while in a state of mortal sin, since that itself would be an additional sin, when one is perfectly capable of not putting oneself in that position?

No matter how much love we have for the Blessed Sacrament, we must receive worthily. Especially when it ‘seems’ that so many do so unworthily.

We don’t change the rules because “everybody else doesn’t care if they’re in mortal sin, they receive because it’s more important to take communion”. It does not matter if every single person in church was in mortal sin and ‘wanted’ communion before they would have a chance to confess, it still does not make the action morally right.

Why do people think that because it is physically ‘possible’ to do an admittedly good action (receiving communion) that it is necessary to do so, regardless of the state of one’s soul and one’s worthiness to receive? It is hard for me to understand this. . .

 

[LilyM]

Just so you know scrupulous people bug me.

It’s not scrupulosity in this case. I would never suggest that it was the devil telling you anything - but more that it was what you wanted to believe rather than truly being from God.

Certainly St Paul directly and in so many words warns us against receiving the body and blood unworthily - that we damn ourselves when we do so.

And the church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has clearly defined in this case what ‘worthily’ means - that unless you’re in grave danger of death or similar extraordinary circumstances, you must confess mortal sin prior to receiving Communion, even if this means there are weeks when you can’t receive.

We do not have either the right or the obligation to receive every time we go to Mass. We DO have the obligation, on pain of further grave and potentially mortal sin, NOT to receive with unconfessed mortal sin on our souls.

 

[m134e5]

I missed Mass the Sunday before, because I wanted to do something else, and I am real sorry for it, but I asked God if was OK to take the sacrament, and the answer I got was yes, but go to confession as soon as you can.

Satan is wiser than we are, and was once the most beautiful of the angels. He can claim he is God to an unsuspecting person, and can lead a person that way. I’m sure gay Catholics think God is telling them they are right- the same goes for pro-choice Catholics. I advise you not to rely on feelings, but to trust your intellect. God wouldn’t tell you to do something that, through Divine Revelation, He has told us not to- in fact, warned us sternly about. Pray that God instill in you a deeper love for the Mass and for the Sacrament, so that you may always put Him first in your life.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I used ask an apologist for this question, but I thought I would throw it out there for everyone.

Confession is only available on Saturday, and you commit a sin that need to be confessed on Saturday night. Can you recieve the Eucharist knowing that next Saturday you will go to confession?

You should make an Act of Contrition as soon as you realize that you have committed a Mortal sin. You should plan to go to Confession as soon as possible. IF and only if you know you will not be able to receive Holy Communion for a very long time several months or more, if you do not receive now before Confession. If you can go to Confession in two or three weeks. Then you should not go to Communion and wait until you have gone to Confession first. I know very few people who have ever been in the position of being able to only receive Holy Communion two or three times a year. Having to wait months and months to see a priest for Confession or to go to Mass.

Confession should be available for most people within a reasonable time, so as to not deprive them of Holy Communion for very long.