Not recieving Communion

[Meggie]

I’ve stated I like the Catholic church i just don’t think I should be told to do all these traditons (like Communion ever week, or more frequently) if I don’t want to, becuase they aren’t the rules.

I know frequent reception of Communion was largely in part due to St. Margaret Mary Aloque, a french saint who hated cheese. She also started the first thursday-night holy hour. If I don’t have early work on friday (which I do 50 out of 52 weeks a year) I’ll do one.

I have a spiritual director who’s know me for years and at this point tells me that I know the truth and I’ll find my way back…but somehow I don’t think I’ve lost it.

I’ve been Catholic through my own voliton for as long as I can remeber. I want to be Catholic. I’ve suffered for these rules and tennants. Still, I don’t think I believe.

I guess I still have to go to church even though the priest told me i didn’t, atleast thats cleared up.

 

[leonie]

I’ve stated I like the Catholic church i just don’t think I should be told to do all these traditons (like Communion ever week, or more frequently) if I don’t want to, becuase they aren’t the rules.

I know frequent reception of Communion was largely in part due to St. Margaret Mary Aloque, a french saint who hated cheese. She also started the first thursday-night holy hour. If I don’t have early work on friday (which I do 50 out of 52 weeks a year) I’ll do one.

I have a spiritual director who’s know me for years and at this point tells me that I know the truth and I’ll find my way back…but somehow I don’t think I’ve lost it.

I’ve been Catholic through my own voliton for as long as I can remeber. I want to be Catholic. I’ve suffered for these rules and tennants. Still, I don’t think I believe.

I guess I still have to go to church even though the priest told me i didn’t, atleast thats cleared up.

Meggie, faith is a theological virtue. It’s a gift from God. It cannot be achieved by human effort. All you have to do is accept it. The primary way that God gives the gift of faith is through the sacraments. Fortunately, you have the gift of Baptism. But, by not receiving confession or communion, you are making it harder. But, it doesn’t sound like you are properly disposed to receive communion. But, rely on your spiritual director.

When I was 19, the 13 year old brother of my fiance died and caused a crisis of faith for me. It sounds like you are in a crisis of faith. I hope you handle it better than I did.

It sounds like me that you are angry and perhaps prideful.

Even if you don’t feel like praying, ask God to show you your pride.

When I have been doubtful, it has helped me to think of great modern saints like Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, St. Pio, John Paul the Great—could they be wrong, hysterics, etc. No way! So, I rely on their imaging of God.

 

[blessedtoo]

I know frequent reception of Communion was largely in part due to St. Margaret Mary Aloque, a french saint who hated cheese. She also started the first thursday-night holy hour. If I don’t have early work on friday (which I do 50 out of 52 weeks a year) I’ll do one.

I have a spiritual director who’s know me for years and at this point tells me that I know the truth and I’ll find my way back…but somehow I don’t think I’ve lost it.

What on earth does this mean? Have you shared this theory with your spiritual director?

This is from the Catechism regarding Eucharist;

****1342 ****From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord’s command. Of the Church of Jerusalem it is written:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. . . . Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts.166 **1343 **It was above all on “the first day of the week,” Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, that the Christians met "to break bread."167 From that time on down to our own day the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued so that today we encounter it everywhere in the Church with the same fundamental structure. It remains the center of the Church’s life.

There is no mention at all of a saint who hated cheese having any influence on the frequency of Communion.

 

[bilop]

My friend pressed so I continued to tell her that I had every right to do what I was doing. That I didn’t have to go to Communion if I didn’t want to and I didn’t care if I was loosing grace or being disrespectful to my past graces becuase I have every right to do what I feel when it comes to my choices.

Just to clarify for everyone, this is what the Priest reacted negatively to.

Meggie, youc can see why a Priest might be offended if he thought you didn’t care about the sacrament.

That said, he probably should have been more kind.

I will say a prayer for you. You don’t need to receive except once a year, but you should attend Mass anyway, and pray that you will want to receive.

God Bless.

 

[BeeSweet]

Meggie, some of the greatest saints went through long periods of spiritual dryness, or even darkness. I really believe that with the way you’re feeling, you are being **more **respectful to Our Lord Jesus Christ by not receiving the Holy Eucharist, and I commend you. Certainly it’s better to receive as often as you can, but if you feel you are in some way profaning Our Lord by doing so, then I think you are doing the right thing in abstaining.

These folks who are giving you such a hard time don’t understand, so don’t let them bring you down.

Above all, continue to pray. Even if you are at the point that you don’t think those prayers are going anywhere. Perseverance will win out. And I think you could also find some help in the confessional. You can continue to receive the sacrament of Penance so long as you are in a state of grace. I recommend to go to another church to have the sacrament administered though. Penance is a healing sacrament. It sounds as if your belief is suffering, so Penance may be just what you need, and maybe all you need right now.

I pray God’s grace will carry you through this difficult time. Keep up the good fight!

 

[Carol_Coombe]

I’ve stated I like the Catholic church i just don’t think I should be told to do all these traditons (like Communion ever week, or more frequently) if I don’t want to, becuase they aren’t the rules.

I know frequent reception of Communion was largely in part due to St. Margaret Mary Aloque, a french saint who hated cheese. She also started the first thursday-night holy hour. If I don’t have early work on friday (which I do 50 out of 52 weeks a year) I’ll do one.

I have a spiritual director who’s know me for years and at this point tells me that I know the truth and I’ll find my way back…but somehow I don’t think I’ve lost it.

I’ve been Catholic through my own voliton for as long as I can remeber. I want to be Catholic. I’ve suffered for these rules and tennants. Still, I don’t think I believe.

I guess I still have to go to church even though the priest told me i didn’t, atleast thats cleared up.

Dear Meggie,

I think some of the posts must be helpful; others which tell you what you must do may be less so. You are the one who will decide. I go to mass five times a week, and do not receive. That is a choice each one of us can make for ourselves.

I think that you are perhaps depressed, out of sorts with the kind of rules and regulations of the Church which one has to deal with, at the same time as you are working out your relationship with Christ and his world. That is something every Christian goes through, sometimes many times, sometimes for a lifetime.

No one can put anything on you, except yourself. You are the one who will dig yourself out of your hole (not necessarily dug by you yourself by the way). You need resources though.

I think it will probably help if can continue going to church, but perhaps at a different service if that is possible (our church has three different services Sat and Sun) where you will have a different perception of things.

I am glad that you have a spiritual director, as I have. But there are SDs and SDs. Do you have the right one? I was lucky - I got a good one. There are others who are not in synch with the person they are ostensibly helping. Perhaps it would be good to ensure that you have the right person in this role, and use him/her.

Reading, please read, is great. Especially if you choose books by pre-eminent Catholics whose faith has been wounded, broken, transient at times. Henri Nouwen is one of them, and one of the best. He died recently, but his books live on the shelves of many Catholics to whom he speaks profoundly. Don’t rely on books like CCC etc that are full of the rules. There is time to sort that out. Rely on chatting - through a book or three - with those who, like you, have had a failure of faith. Vanier, Nolan, Rolheiser. Read Anam Cara about the Celtic vision of God’s love and compassion. And I don’t mean the modern self-help heal everything gurus. Read the Catholics, ordinary sinners like you and me.

Find people who understand compassion. I don’t feel that either your friend or your priest have a feeling for that emotion. God does however, and you must know that wherever you are, whatever you do, *He careth for you. *

Don’t take communion until you are ready in your mind and more importantly your heart. Until you are at ease in God’s love. And remember always you were chosen by Him at birth.

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary; and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not be weak. (Isaiah 41)

Blessings

 

[Meggie]

Thank you Carol,

I read alot. I know the lives of many saints, over 100, probably. I’ve read Aquantis and other doctors of the church. I really like the wholeness and the good ness of the catholic church, yet the belief part still troubles me.

I have a book by Mark Hart that I’m reading now called “Blessed are the Board in spirit” Have you ever heard of it?