Is it really okay for me to receive Holy Communion With Only Act of Perfect Contrition?

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Holly3278

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Hey everyone. As most of you know, I have serious mental illnesses. I also have some other problems. My priest tells me that I can receive Holy Communion even with only an Act of Perfect Contrition if isn’t time for my next scheduled Confession. I am very scrupulous and often go to Confession multiple times per week sometimes because I am terrified of receiving Jesus unworthily. What can I do?
 
Listen to your confessor. It seems he is satisfied you are trying to amend your life by frequent reconciliation. Holy Communion will give you strength to continue.

EDIT:
I understand it isn’t easy. I will pray for you.
 
Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. As most of you know, I have serious mental illnesses. I also have some other problems. My priest tells me that I can receive Holy Communion even with only an Act of Perfect Contrition if isn’t time for my next scheduled Confession. I am very scrupulous and often go to Confession multiple times per week sometimes because I am terrified of receiving Jesus unworthily. What can I do?
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it depends on whether you have a mortal sin on your soul or not,
if you only have venial sins on your soul, then you can go to communion whether you planned on going to confession or not, but if you have a mortal sin on your soul, then you cannot go up for communion, the perfect act of contrition is meant for when you have committed a mortal sin and cannot get to confession at that time, but you must have the intention of going as soon as possible, the perfect act of contrition is a precautionary measure for in case you were to die before going to confession,

but this question was also answered by Fr. Vincent Serpa here - forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=401511&highlight=Hell

alright, hope this helps, take care.
 
Here is the canon law:

Can. 916 A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.
 
The OP is painfully aware of canon law on this regard. We should be careful to not feed her scrupulosity. That is why I only referred her to her confessor.
 
Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph 846 (in part) - “Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Chuirch was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.”

Talk to a priest.
 
Someone who is scrupulous needs to focus on her confessor and ignore random strangers on the Internet. We can’t advise you but he can.
 
Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. As most of you know, I have serious mental illnesses. I also have some other problems. My priest tells me that I can receive Holy Communion even with only an Act of Perfect Contrition if isn’t time for my next scheduled Confession. I am very scrupulous and often go to Confession multiple times per week sometimes because I am terrified of receiving Jesus unworthily. What can I do?
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That is wrong. Maybe you misheard or misunderstood what the priest said. Maybe he was talking about venial sins which are removed by any act of contrition.
Nobody in a state of mortal sin can receive Communion without having first confessed to a priest and received absolution.
Forgiveness of sins through an act of perfect contrition is conditional upon the penitent going to Confession as soon as possible and if such an act is made such a person would be saved if they die before reaching Confession.
A separate issue of course is how could anyone be sure they made an act of PERFECT contrition. Its not enough just to say the words. A person has to be genuinely sincere in repenting and with the main motivation being real sorrow for having offended God.
 
Hey everyone. Thanks for the prayers. I will work with both my Confessor and my Spiritual Director.
 
Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. As most of you know, I have serious mental illnesses. I also have some other problems. My priest tells me that I can receive Holy Communion even with only an Act of Perfect Contrition if isn’t time for my next scheduled Confession. I am very scrupulous and often go to Confession multiple times per week sometimes because I am terrified of receiving Jesus unworthily. What can I do?
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the problem with perfect contrition is that we don’t know if we truly have it… I think maybe the issue is the scrupulosity: I have that too and I often feel like I have a mortal sin when it’s really venial. It could help you a lot to have a priest guide you to understand the difference, so that you wouldn’t feel the need to go to Confession for every venial sin. Work this out with your confessor 🙂

God bless 🙂
 
thistle said:
Nobody in a state of mortal sin can receive Communion without having first confessed to a priest and received absolution.
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Canon law contains an exception to this rule, as I quoted above.
 
thistle said:
Imminent death but that is not what the OP is asking about. She is asking about normal times.
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So why did you bring up “imminent death”? Canon 916 doesn’t mention anything about death or being in “danger of death” (the usual canonical phrase).
 
Just_Lurking said:
So why did you bring up “imminent death”? Canon 916 doesn’t mention anything about death or being in “danger of death” (the usual canonical phrase).
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Okay I’ll bite. Apart from danger of death what other “grave reason” could there be?
 
thistle said:
Okay I’ll bite. Apart from danger of death what other “grave reason” could there be?
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The New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law suggests “severe embarrassment” as another possible grave reason.

But my point is that the OP’s priest was correctly relaying the teaching of the Catholic Church to the OP.
 
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