Lapsed Catholic~ Need Help & Prayers Re: Confession & Holy Communion

[GoldenLight]

I am a lapsed Catholic who ‘thought’ she was leading a fairly good life, helping others and trying to follow the 10 commandments in my daily living until I came here and read the following links…

In Confession Guide for Adults, EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
ncregister.com/info/confession_guide_for_adults/

catholic-pages.com/penance/examine.asp

After reading the list and sublist of what each entails, wow… I believe I’ve sinned in most commandments…

However this is the biggie…

I don’t know if I can ever be a Catholic, I do feel closest to the Catholic faith, more than any other and believe me I have examined many but my problem stems in the belief or rather lack of belief that when you receive communion you are receiving the actual body and blood of Christ.
I see this as a symbolic ritual of the last supper and by breaking the bread and drinking the wine we are doing it in remembrance… The words to me seem symbolic rather than literal.

Please Help.

Thanks

 

[lutherlic]

GoldenLight, we believe in the real presence for many reasons. The biggest one is simply believing that Christ meant what he said at the Last Supper in Luke 22:19-20:

Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.”

That is really clear enough on its own for me, but Jesus went further in John 6:53-56:

Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

When He said this, it did not go over well. Disciples found it “hard” and many left. Jesus did not stop them to “clarify” because He meant what He said.

Also, if the Eucharist were only symbolic, St. Paul would not have warned the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:27-29):

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Beyond scripture, speaking only from my personal experience, I know it is true. My communication with Our Lord is clearer when I am in His presence at adoration. I feel the grace received with the Eucharist. So do other faithful Catholics.

Please explore this further. You probably will not have some instantaneous change of heart, but very well may over time if you keep an open mind, pray and study.

I will close with words from St. Francis de Sales:

When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence.

 

[DesertSister62]

***Hi “GoldenLight!”

This is the best Examination of Conscience that I have ever come across!

catholicparents.org/oxcart/Examination%20of%20Conscience.pdf*

Fr. Altier was the “Visitor” for the “Association of the Faithful” that I am a part of and he received my lifetime pledge. I spoke with him at one of our retreats, about whether or not I could copy it off and I mentioned the copyright. He looked at me and said, “Its copyrighted?” I told him yes and he said it was fine to copy it. However, I probably wouldn’t post it publicly!

I just want you to check it out. When you follow this one, you miss NOTHING!

Peace,
DesertSister62**

 

[Claire_from_DE]

***Hi “GoldenLight!”

This is the best Examination of Conscience that I have ever come across!

catholicparents.org/oxcart/Examination%20of%20Conscience.pdf****

Fr. Altier was the “Visitor” for the “Association of the Faithful” that I am a part of and he received my lifetime pledge. I spoke with him at one of our retreats, about whether or not I could copy it off and I mentioned the copyright. He looked at me and said, “Its copyrighted?” I told him yes and he said it was fine to copy it. However, I probably wouldn’t post it publicly!

I just want you to check it out. When you follow this one, you miss NOTHING!

Peace,
DesertSister62*

*Never again will I have the problem of not being able to think what I should confess.

 

[GoldenLight]

Thank you lutherlic and DesertSister for your thoughtful responses and for the useful links… Please pray for me that I find true faith again and the peace and ‘knowing’ in my heart I once had…

***Hi “GoldenLight!”

This is the best Examination of Conscience that I have ever come across!

catholicparents.org/oxcart/Examination%20of%20Conscience.pdf***

I just want you to check it out. When you follow this one, you miss NOTHING!

Peace,
DesertSister62

Oh My Goodness, It’s far worse than I thought !!

 

[Claire_from_DE]

However this is the biggie…

I don’t know if I can ever be a Catholic, I do feel closest to the Catholic faith, more than any other and believe me I have examined many but my problem stems in the belief or rather lack of belief that when you receive communion you are receiving the actual body and blood of Christ.
I see this as a symbolic ritual of the last supper and by breaking the bread and drinking the wine we are doing it in remembrance… The words to me seem symbolic rather than literal.

Please Help.

Thanks

You are so right that this is the biggie! My suggestion to you is to go into a Catholic church daily for a couple weeks. Sit or kneel in front of the tabernacle and ask God to show you the truth about His presence.

From the earliest days the true teaching has been that when we receive the Eucharist we receive the body and blood of Christ, not merely a symbol of His presence.

Jesus told us to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Some people left Him because they found this to be a ‘hard saying’. But it is our great privilege to do this. He is our greatest treasure. People have died for this truth.

 

[Annabelle_Marie]

I am a lapsed Catholic who ‘thought’ she was leading a fairly good life, helping others and trying to follow the 10 commandments in my daily living until I came here and read the following links…

In Confession Guide for Adults, EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
ncregister.com/info/confession_guide_for_adults/

catholic-pages.com/penance/examine.asp

After reading the list and sublist of what each entails, wow… I believe I’ve sinned in most commandments…

However this is the biggie…

I don’t know if I can ever be a Catholic, I do feel closest to the Catholic faith, more than any other and believe me I have examined many but my problem stems in the belief or rather lack of belief that when you receive communion you are receiving the actual body and blood of Christ.
I see this as a symbolic ritual of the last supper and by breaking the bread and drinking the wine we are doing it in remembrance… The words to me seem symbolic rather than literal.

Please Help.

Thanks

I came back after 20+ years…and had to do my FIRST confession. It was nervewracking but absolutely the best thing I’ve ever done! Sometimes it takes several confessions to get through them all because new ones will come to mind.

I suggest you go back and read John 6 again. Jesus did not clarify when almost all his disciples left him. He didn’t say…oh wait…here is what I meant…why not? He did other times. There are also so many Eucharistic miracles that can not just be explained away. It might help to read the Lambs Supper by Scott Hahn… a former Protestant.

May God Bless you on your journey.

 

[Monica4316]

I am a lapsed Catholic who ‘thought’ she was leading a fairly good life, helping others and trying to follow the 10 commandments in my daily living until I came here and read the following links…

In Confession Guide for Adults, EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
ncregister.com/info/confession_guide_for_adults/

catholic-pages.com/penance/examine.asp

After reading the list and sublist of what each entails, wow… I believe I’ve sinned in most commandments…

However this is the biggie…

I don’t know if I can ever be a Catholic, I do feel closest to the Catholic faith, more than any other and believe me I have examined many but my problem stems in the belief or rather lack of belief that when you receive communion you are receiving the actual body and blood of Christ.
I see this as a symbolic ritual of the last supper and by breaking the bread and drinking the wine we are doing it in remembrance… The words to me seem symbolic rather than literal.

Please Help.

Thanks

Hi,

well if you look at the Greek word for “remembrance” used in that passage, it actually doesn’t mean to mentally remember something, but to actually make something present… to “re-present”, literally. It’s used very rarely in the Bible.

Jesus said, “My Flesh is real food, and My Blood is real drink”. Also, when Jesus used the word “eat” in John 6, the word (trogon) has a very precise meaning, it refers to the physical act of eating.

this might help: davidmacd.com/catholic/eucharist.htm (actually the whole website is very useful )

Also, there are many Eucharistic miracles in the history of the Church… many of them have to do with the Saints, but there are also these:
youtube.com/watch?v=qbg_dhI4XCs
miraclerosarymission.org/lanciano.html

I’m a convert from Protestantism and used to not believe in the Real Presence, but God made it very clear to me that the Eucharist really is physically Jesus, and also that it’s very important to make a good Confession before receiving Communion.

Have you ever tried going to Eucharistic Adoration?

Also all Christians until around 500 years ago believed in the Eucharist. Even Martin Luther believed in it. It was Zwingli who introduced the ‘symbolic’ idea and that was because the Eucharist is difficult to understand. (well it’s a mystery). But this is what St Justin Martyr wrote around 150 AD and all the early Church Fathers agree:

150 AD (St Justin Martyr)

“This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God’s Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus.”

“First Apology”, Ch. 66, inter A.D. 148-155.

God bless

 

[Mark77]

I am a lapsed Catholic who ‘thought’ she was leading a fairly good life, helping others and trying to follow the 10 commandments in my daily living until I came here and read the following links…

In Confession Guide for Adults, EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
ncregister.com/info/confession_guide_for_adults/

catholic-pages.com/penance/examine.asp

After reading the list and sublist of what each entails, wow… I believe I’ve sinned in most commandments…

However this is the biggie…

I don’t know if I can ever be a Catholic, I do feel closest to the Catholic faith, more than any other and believe me I have examined many but my problem stems in the belief or rather lack of belief that when you receive communion you are receiving the actual body and blood of Christ.
I see this as a symbolic ritual of the last supper and by breaking the bread and drinking the wine we are doing it in remembrance… The words to me seem symbolic rather than literal.

Please Help.

Thanks

**
GoldenLight,

God Bless you for your honesty!

There is only one place in Sacred Scripture where disciples of Jesus leave Him;

“After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.”(JN 6:66)

If Jesus were speaking “symbolically”, why would He allow disciples to leave? He surely would have clarified if that was His meaning, but it wasn’t!

Read John 6 in it’s entirety, it is clear that Jesus was being literal when He twice says “I am the bread of life.” (JN 6:35 & 48).

Jesus goes on to say; “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (JN 6:51).

Was His death on the Cross “symbolic?”

No it was real, Jesus Suffered & Died for our sins!!!

As stated above, the Catholic Church has always taught the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, as well as all of the Church Fathers throughout the last 2000 years.

“Martin Luther himself confirms that the early Church unanimously taught the Real Presence: 'of all fathers, as many as you can name, not one has ever spoken about the sacrament as these fanatics do. None of them uses such an expression as ‘it is simply bread and wine’ or ‘Christ’s body and blood are not present.’…Certainly among so many fathers and so many writings a negative argument should have turned up at least once, as happens in other articles; but actually they all stand uniformly and consistently on the affirmative side”** Luther’s Works (St Louis Mo: Concordia Publishing 1961), vol 37, 54.

Fr Frank Chacon & Jim Burnam, Beginning Apologetics 1, p. 9,

catholicapologetics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=8

Here’s another source; bfhu.wordpress.com/2007/05/19/martin-luther-on-the-real-presence/

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark

 

[Jean_Anthony]

I will allow the question about the Real Presence be discussed in the L&S forum, but there is to be no debate. If anyone wishes to debate this teaching, please go to the Apologetics forum for that. Thank you all.

 

[MagsM]

Hi GoldenLight - I had the same struggle when I came back to Catholicism. I would think “how can they worship a piece of bread” and “if it’s the real presence, then how can they think they can lock God in a box and leave Him there”, etc. I was open minded (I was willing to believe) but I had to be honest with myself and God that I just did not really believe that.

I prayed about it…and then came a series of undeniable crystal clear “coincidences” - things I would see or read or hear, etc which I would again pray about, things which helped pave the way until Jesus answered in my heart “Yes, it is Me”.

I hope you sincerely pray about it, remain open minded, and wait on the Lord. He will guide you - remember that it is His church, His worship service, and you are His servant - know that He loves you and cares very much about these things. Also, do some footwork: read about it (many have provided some good reference links), if you’re interested in talks, some good free downloadable talks are here. 7 secrets of the Eucharist, and the Eucharist and Marriage are the ones I’d recommend - there is also a talk on confession which I found really comforting.

Anyway, I do hope you take comfort that several of us had the same struggle at one time, and that it is not an insurmountable obstacle for all things are possible with God. In the meantime though, I would check with the priest doing your confession as to whether you should abstain from communion until you are settled one way or the other.