Erm.. Im not feeling anything when recieving the Eucharist

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Magicsilence

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Sooo

I recieved the Eucharist yesterday for the first time in my life without mortal sin on my soul ( I think ) and… well… I didnt exactly feel much.

In fact it felt exactly the same as every other time ive had it. Though, this time, I gave it the full respect it deserved AND for the first time in my life I did not have communion in my hand (it took a LOT of courage to do that btw).

So, does everyone else feel something everytime they recieve the Eucharist because everyone on these forums talks about how great it is to recieve the Eucharist etc…

Am i looking at this from the wrong angle?

Help?

In Christ.

Andre.
 
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Magicsilence:
Sooo

I recieved the Eucharist yesterday for the first time in my life without mortal sin on my soul ( I think ) and… well… I didnt exactly feel much.

In fact it felt exactly the same as every other time ive had it. Though, this time, I gave it the full respect it deserved AND for the first time in my life I did not have communion in my hand (it took a LOT of courage to do that btw).

So, does everyone else feel something everytime they recieve the Eucharist because everyone on these forums talks about how great it is to recieve the Eucharist etc…

Am i looking at this from the wrong angle?

Help?

In Christ.

Andre.
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I don’t feel something ever time. Feelings don’t matter. They’re great (or they can be irritating), but Christianity is about God’s Grace and the response of our will (our obedience). You obeyed Jesus’ command to “take this, all of you, and eat of it. For this is My Body…” That’s what’s important. I’ve wept at Communion, I’ve been so moved (that’s God, really truly God, in that priest’s hands) and I’ve not felt anything at all at other times. Don’t worry.
 
Have patience and don’t despair. I don’t remember the book or chapter, but somewhere in the OT it refers to God as being in the wind (as opposed to lots of amazing phenomena). Not everyone feels euphoria upon receiving the eucharist and no one does every time. This does not disprove the true grace that is bestowed upon everyone who receives the Eucharist. One of the female doctors of the Church went for something like 20 years without feeling close to God. I believe this is called dark night of the soul.

Anyways, don’t worry about it. This is the first time you have received Christ worthily. Persevere in God’s grace and you will become closer to Him.
 
Please consider:

Jesus was actually, truly and physically present when he went to visit Mary and Martha, but only Mary chose the better portion.

Jesus was actually, truly and physically present to 10 lepers, and healed them all, but only one came back and thanked him for it.

Jesus was actually, truly and physically present to many religious leaders in His time. Some of them had him killed.

Jesus was going to be actually, truly and physically present at the house of a centurion in order to heal a servant but the centurion didn’t need Him to actually come to his house. Jesus’s word was good enough for him.

My point is this, the fact that Jesus is actually, truly and physically present in the Eucharist is not the most important aspect of our faith. Our response to that presence is.

Feed on Jesus the way Jesus feeds on the Father, by doing His Will and bringing his plan to completion. (John chapter 4)

The Eucharist is a very valuable source of strength and grace, but it is not the end in itself.
Peace,

-Jim
 
Hi MS! 👋

Congratulations and Glory Be To God!

All I can say is …what did you expect to feel?

Lemme just sort of put this in the context of the word of God for ya, ok?

Romans 8:1 Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

12 Consequently, brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!”

16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

31 What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

33 Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us.

34 Who will condemn? It is Christ (Jesus) who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

35 What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

36 As it is written: “For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, 9 nor future things, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, 10 nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sorry for skipping around like that my friend, but pull out your Bible and read it in context. It’s all Romas chapter 8.

I offer it becasue I want you to see the spiritual realities that are at work here as opposed to the shifting sands of what we “feel”. Feelings are very deceptive and elusive…Ever had a great day ruined by a single stupid event? Especially one that was really pretty small time compared to the things that made it a great day to begin with? That’s what I mean.

I don’t have to feel good to know that I am all squared away with my God because I hace cooperated with His grace and I know that God is always as good as His word…even when I’m an idiot. :whacky:

What I’m trying to say buddy is that it’s not about how I feel, but about knowing the spiritual reality of what has gone on.

By the way…one reason that the Our Father says “Give us this day our daily bread” is because the word translated as “daily” is untranslatable. It basically means something so good that we need it all the time to sustain our very lives. We can’t live without it. That’s why I want to receive every time I go to Mass. I NEED it!

Consider this also from the martyr’s lives as well as Romans 8. How do ya think they felt as they were taken off to be tortured and killed? (The martyrdom of Polycarp is pretty heavy in this way for instance) They probably felt worse than anything that we can imagine right now…but they also KNEW what was the spiritual reality in their lives.

Like the author of Hebrews would perhaps say to us all today…
Hebrews 12:4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

Get into the reality MS…that’s what it’s all about my dear brother.
Pax tecum,
 
feelings and emotion are very unreliable guides to one’s spiritual state or progress in the spiritual life. Fruits are a better guide: how have you changed for the better, what bad habits are you overcoming, what good habits are you forming, how are you progressing as a disciple of Jesus?
 
At some level, you KNOW that when you receive and consume the Consecrated Host, that you are taking into your self, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Infinite One - in this case, the One we call Jesus. Who gave Himself to us as His Gift… He gave us this Gift so that after He rose to the Father, we would continue to have Him with us.

That KNOWLEDGE, which is an intellectual, thoughtful, free-will argument, gives me an enormously powerful emotional feeling.

THAT the Infinite would so condescend Himself to a mere piece of bread, allow a human to be granted authority to Consecrate that bread to His Body and Blood and then to allow Himself to be consumed by mere human finite created beings - us.

That intellectual thought causes me to feel a great deal.
 
I had a similar experience when I started to come back to the Church and went to confession for the first time in 15 years… Believe me, I had some real doozies to confess and I was expecting some sort of instant release and it didn’t happen - I was quite disappointed at the time. However, looking back over the roughly 2 years since, I would have to say that there has been a steady improvement in my spiritual life and it’s still continuing today.

Remember, in the Catholic world, Justification, Sanctification and Salvation are life long PROCESSES (not a one time event)… They start with the initial grace of Justification at Baptism and continue all the way to the cleansing of Purgatory…

Also, since then, I have had some moving Sacramental experiences. Don’t worry, be happy!!!
 
“blessed are those who have not seen and yet beleive.” - don’t depend on getting special feelings to guage the effects. First, Jesus didn’t promise it would feel any specific way. Second, looking for signs leaves us open to the attacks of the Devil.
 
As with many of the posts here and even in conversations I’ve had with non-practicing Catholics when they speak about being disappointed about one thing or another from the Church I can only respond: “It’s not about you.”

To love is to give without expecting anything in return…it’s all about the giving, you don’t even think about any benefit to yourself for anything, just give.

When we go to Mass it’s to offer praise and honor to God, it’s not to get something in return (though we do, that’s a side benefit, not the whole purpose)…

To present ourselves to communion is to obey, honor and respect the wishes of our Lord, we do it out of love for him.

Jesus talks about doing good deeds for the wrong reason…we need to learn how to get out of that trap…when we truly give just for the sake of giving the rewards are much greater than we could have ever anticipated. When we give because we expect something in return, what we get in return rarely meets our expectations.
 
A sentence I read once has stuck with me. It was in the context of someone not feeling any different after confession. The response from the priest was "It’s not a feeling. It’s a supernatural reality.’ This has helped me tremendously when I don’t always ‘feel’ my faith or God’s grace. It’s such a true statement. Our feelings are fallible. God’s faithfulness isn’t.
I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me.
 
In fact it felt exactly the same as every other time ive had it. Though, this time, I gave it the full respect it deserved AND for the first time in my life I did not have communion in my hand (it took a LOT of courage to do that btw).
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You know, it could simply be that you were so concentrated on receiving on the tongue and how brave you were being to do it that you weren’t all that receptive to Jesus’ presence in the spiritual sense. In order to sense his presence you have to give him your undivided attention, and even then he may not give you any consolations because he wants you to depend on your faith and the truths the Church teaches and not your feelings. Does that sound about right to you? 🙂
 
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Della:
You know, it could simply be that you were so concentrated on receiving on the tongue and how brave you were being to do it that you weren’t all that receptive to Jesus’ presence in the spiritual sense. In order to sense his presence you have to give him your undivided attention, and even then he may not give you any consolations because he wants you to depend on your faith and the truths the Church teaches and not your feelings. Does that sound about right to you? 🙂
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Um.

Sorta?

But…it wasnt quite like that.

But maybe you are right.
 
Church Militant:
Hi MS! 👋

Congratulations and Glory Be To God!

All I can say is …what did you expect to feel?

Lemme just sort of put this in the context of the word of God for ya, ok?

Romans 8:1 Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

12 Consequently, brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!”

16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

31 What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

33 Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us.

34 Who will condemn? It is Christ (Jesus) who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

35 What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

36 As it is written: “For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, 9 nor future things, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, 10 nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sorry for skipping around like that my friend, but pull out your Bible and read it in context. It’s all Romas chapter 8.

I offer it becasue I want you to see the spiritual realities that are at work here as opposed to the shifting sands of what we “feel”. Feelings are very deceptive and elusive…Ever had a great day ruined by a single stupid event? Especially one that was really pretty small time compared to the things that made it a great day to begin with? That’s what I mean.

I don’t have to feel good to know that I am all squared away with my God because I hace cooperated with His grace and I know that God is always as good as His word…even when I’m an idiot. :whacky:

What I’m trying to say buddy is that it’s not about how I feel, but about knowing the spiritual reality of what has gone on.

By the way…one reason that the Our Father says “Give us this day our daily bread” is because the word translated as “daily” is untranslatable. It basically means something so good that we need it all the time to sustain our very lives. We can’t live without it. That’s why I want to receive every time I go to Mass. I NEED it!

Consider this also from the martyr’s lives as well as Romans 8. How do ya think they felt as they were taken off to be tortured and killed? (The martyrdom of Polycarp is pretty heavy in this way for instance) They probably felt worse than anything that we can imagine right now…but they also KNEW what was the spiritual reality in their lives.

Like the author of Hebrews would perhaps say to us all today…
Hebrews 12:4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

Get into the reality MS…that’s what it’s all about my dear brother.
Pax tecum,
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As usual your post is exactly what i want to hear. THANKYOU!!

However.

Im not feeling a need for the Eucharist.

Yes im not perfect and in desperate need of his mercy.

But…um… Even though I abstained from the Eucharist until i had made a confession which i felt was from my heart.

I would have thought that God would have somehow helped me to realise that the era behind me had gone. That i was a new person in Christ.

When i pray, I have a gentle burning feeling that glows in my heart. A little like the nervous feeling we get.

But consistent.

Im a little worried because… The reason I know the Catholic Church is the one true Church is because of my feelings.

Objectively speaking, without them, I have nothing to convince me of the Truth.

btw, when i prayed the rosary at three o clock the other day, it was amazing.

I know not to trust my feelings when they point me in the wrong direction, but… what about when they bring me closer to God.

Um… I’m rambling.

Sigh.

Confused…

In Christ.

Andre.
 
When I came into the Church, I kind of harbored the adolescent hope that I would be emotionally swept away by my first Communion. But I wasn’t. Then, I realized (duh!) that the whole point of Communion is not to “feel” the presence of Christ but to be CHANGED by the presence of Christ. Since then, that has been my prayer. (The Boss also has visited me with some extraordinary consolations since then – but that is quite beside the point.)

Lord, may your Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity convert my heart and bring me to your Kingdom.
 
Firstly - not feeling anything when you recieve the Eucharist? Join the club. It’s human nature to not react perfectly to any situation, and it’s human nature to take things for granted. You can only do your best to try and fully appreciate the Eucharist. Sometimes you will be able to appreciate it better than at other times.

Second - Emotion should not be all that convinces you of truth. One thing you need to have is faith of course, to be able to believe in God even when it doesn’t ‘look’ right or ‘feel’ right, you have the gift of faith to believe that it is right. But also, you have reason. I know that reason might be a bigger deal to me than to others, because I am a thinking more than feeling person, but the thing is that man can come to know and love God by the light of natural reason (thats from the CCC).
I’m not really sure how much reason helps with the Eucharist. I guess that what you can say is that the Eucharist has the appearance, feel, taste, smell and sound of bread and wine. It has no special effect on the senses because it is the Eucharist rather than being bread and wine. So it’s not really that surprising if it doesn’t affect you emotionally then. What is happening though is that it affects you spiritually. And spiritual effects are not something that we can always measure, but we have to believe it.

Same thing for praying. I have prayed the rosary every day for 15 days straight so far, and felt nothing. Does this mean that your rosary is ‘working’ and mine is not? All our prayers get heard, and I have to believe that Mary’s intercession is benefiting me even if I don’t have an obvious sign of it.

If your feelings do direct you towards God, you are lucky. If your natural reason directs you towards God, then you are very intelligent - you’ve seen through all the traps that try to make you think that natural reason won’t lead you to God. But if you’re not lucky enough to feel anything emotional and not intelligent enough to find the truth by natural reason, then it comes down to a matter of faith and trust. If you’ve got faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell a mulberry tree to uproot itself and plant itself in the sea, and it would obey you.

Hope this has helped.
 
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Flopfoot:
Firstly - not feeling anything when you recieve the Eucharist? Join the club. It’s human nature to not react perfectly to any situation, and it’s human nature to take things for granted. You can only do your best to try and fully appreciate the Eucharist. Sometimes you will be able to appreciate it better than at other times.

Second - Emotion should not be all that convinces you of truth. One thing you need to have is faith of course, to be able to believe in God even when it doesn’t ‘look’ right or ‘feel’ right, you have the gift of faith to believe that it is right. But also, you have reason. I know that reason might be a bigger deal to me than to others, because I am a thinking more than feeling person, but the thing is that man can come to know and love God by the light of natural reason (thats from the CCC).
I’m not really sure how much reason helps with the Eucharist. I guess that what you can say is that the Eucharist has the appearance, feel, taste, smell and sound of bread and wine. It has no special effect on the senses because it is the Eucharist rather than being bread and wine. So it’s not really that surprising if it doesn’t affect you emotionally then. What is happening though is that it affects you spiritually. And spiritual effects are not something that we can always measure, but we have to believe it.

Same thing for praying. I have prayed the rosary every day for 15 days straight so far, and felt nothing. Does this mean that your rosary is ‘working’ and mine is not? All our prayers get heard, and I have to believe that Mary’s intercession is benefiting me even if I don’t have an obvious sign of it.

If your feelings do direct you towards God, you are lucky. If your natural reason directs you towards God, then you are very intelligent - you’ve seen through all the traps that try to make you think that natural reason won’t lead you to God. But if you’re not lucky enough to feel anything emotional and not intelligent enough to find the truth by natural reason, then it comes down to a matter of faith and trust. If you’ve got faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell a mulberry tree to uproot itself and plant itself in the sea, and it would obey you.

Hope this has helped.
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Hmmm.

WHENEVER I pray the rosary, Mary comes to my aid. Every time. IN fact, its funny thinking about it. I have the most perfect human in history in heaven ready to help whenever i call. Thats LOVE.

Omg, it has helped.

Just making me realise that.

Thanks.

THANKS!!

Praise be to God.

In Christ.

Andre.
 
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Magicsilence:
But…um… Even though I abstained from the Eucharist until i had made a confession which i felt was from my heart.

I would have thought that God would have somehow helped me to realise that the era behind me had gone. That i was a new person in Christ.

When i pray, I have a gentle burning feeling that glows in my heart. A little like the nervous feeling we get.

But consistent.

Im a little worried because… The reason I know the Catholic Church is the one true Church is because of my feelings.

Objectively speaking, without them, I have nothing to convince me of the Truth.

btw, when i prayed the rosary at three o clock the other day, it was amazing.

I know not to trust my feelings when they point me in the wrong direction, but… what about when they bring me closer to God.

Um… I’m rambling.

Sigh.

Confused…

In Christ.

Andre.
Click to expand...
Ah, I understand better what you’re concerned about!

God doesn’t help us feel his mercy…he bestows it on us, but it is up to us to have faith.

Consider the centurion and the hemorraging woman…they needed only to believe and it was so. They knew inside and out that Jesus would heal that daughter and the woman - there was no room for doubt so their experience was complete.

When you come out of the confessional it is up to you to truly believe in the absolution just given, that the priest truly was Christ present in that room - it is your faith which brings you the peace you seek.

Same with the Eucharist. We need the Eucharist daily because Jesus told us so. We only need to believe in that to be fulfilled when we partake of that sacrifice.

What is interesting in your comments is that you are able to feel the Lord’s presence in your prayers, that’s a wonderful gift and shows you are much in tune with the Lord’s message for you. Notice that you are able to feel Him when you are praising Him or appealing to Him for assistance, on behalf of others or perhaps on behalf of yourself. You’re doing the giving in that situation.

Now, in the Eucharist and Reconciliation you receive God’s grace and somehow you are not able to feel His complete presence there.

It’s kind of like our inability to take a compliment…if you think about it. It’s always so much easier to compliment others on their dress, manner, work ethic, performance…but when we receive compliments, we don’t know how to process them - we doubt them. Odd, isn’t it?

Perhaps this is carrying over into your spiritual life. You can give but find it difficult to receive.

Just a thought…
 
Feelings are nice, but our faith goes beyond feelings. We are too feeling-oriented in our culture: if the feelings aren’t there in our marriage, we leave and look for those feelings elsewhere! The same is true with Mass and the Eucharist—sometimes we have feelings, sometimes we don’t, but our faith and love are constant. It’s no accident that the analogies of weddings and marriage are used so much in the Bible.
 
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Magicsilence:
Sooo

I recieved the Eucharist yesterday for the first time in my life without mortal sin on my soul ( I think ) and… well… I didnt exactly feel much.

In fact it felt exactly the same as every other time ive had it. Though, this time, I gave it the full respect it deserved AND for the first time in my life I did not have communion in my hand (it took a LOT of courage to do that btw).

So, does everyone else feel something everytime they recieve the Eucharist because everyone on these forums talks about how great it is to recieve the Eucharist etc…

Am i looking at this from the wrong angle?

Help?

In Christ.

Andre.
Click to expand...
MagicSilence,

I too shared your plight, and I’m a thirty-something cradle catholic!
If you don’t mind, I’ll tell you what opened up for me, the Splendor that is the Holy Eucharist, ---- Scripture!!!

It started with Exodus 17, and the raining down of Manna! Bread raining from the sky for forty years? Now that’s a miracle…Then I studied the multiplication of the loaves - the only miracle to appear in all four gospels! Another supernatural miracle! Then the amazing chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. I still choke up when I read verses 68-69. Finally another often overlooked verse from the OT seals the deal for me: Joshua 4:12 “[RSV-CE] *And the manna ceased on the morrow, when they ate of the fruit of the land: and the people of Israel had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land…” *This occurred right after the Isrealites crossed the Jordan into their promised land.

In my amateurish interpretation: Our Lord left us his flesh and blood so that we may have eternal life. This “Bread of life” is like manna that is multiplied all over the world, for all time, and will sustain us until we reached the new promised land - Heaven.

So after many years of nonchalant attitude toward the Eucharist, I now approach the table in ABSOLUTE thanksgiving! I don’t necessarily feel anything remarkable at the moment I receive. But I know that this spiritual food is working in me; It’s working in every blood cell, every nerve firing, every brain impulse! Working toward one goal - Loving my Abba, and living his will on my way to the promised land.

May God Bless you on your journey.
 
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