Protestant receiving the Eucharist

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milimac

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A friend who was baptized and raised Catholic had a profound conversion experience in a non-Catholic Christian church, and is sincerely devoted to doing Christ’s will. I would describe him as pretty much completely Protestant in beliefs, except he still believes in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, so he occasionally attends weekday Mass to receive.

I have let him know that it is a grave sin for him to receive the Eucharist if he is missing Sunday Mass, but that’s one of the Catholic “rules” he doesn’t believe, and I don’t think he even considers himself to be Catholic anyway.

Is there anything you can suggest that I tell him so that he can see that it’s wrong? Although the “Because the Church says so” works for me, I don’t think that will convince him.
 
Ask him how in the world he can believe in the Real Presence when he doesn’t believe the priest has the authority or the power to consecrate the bread and wine? If the Church is wrong then there is no Real Presence whether or not he believes in it.
 
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Della:
Ask him how in the world he can believe in the Real Presence when he doesn’t believe the priest has the authority or the power to consecrate the bread and wine? If the Church is wrong then there is no Real Presence whether or not he believes in it.
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Yes, you see the brick wall my head is banging against…

He believes that only Christ transforms the bread and wine into His body and blood [correct – the priest in persona Christi], and also believes that not just anyone can do it. He believes that power is the “key” which was given to the Catholic Church and that the Church shouldn’t be withholding the Eucharist from anyone. He believes that he can do a better job bringing others to Christ through the evangelical church he’s attending and believes there are too many rules, bureacracy, and distractions that keep him from focusing on Christ in the Catholic Church. Plus his kids like the service at the evangelical church better.
 
Protestants aren’t allowed to receive the Eucharist. They don’t believe it’s actually Jesus Christ, and they don’t believe in the power of the priest to consecrate it as such. Therefore, your friend cannot receive the Eucharist.
 
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milimac:
Yes, you see the brick wall my head is banging against…

He believes that only Christ transforms the bread and wine into His body and blood [correct – the priest in persona Christi], and also believes that not just anyone can do it. He believes that power is the “key” which was given to the Catholic Church and that the Church shouldn’t be withholding the Eucharist from anyone. He believes that he can do a better job bringing others to Christ through the evangelical church he’s attending and believes there are too many rules, bureacracy, and distractions that keep him from focusing on Christ in the Catholic Church. Plus his kids like the service at the evangelical church better.
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In other words, he wants to suscribe to a religion of his own making, taking a little from here, and a little from there as he sees fit. You need to point out to him how egotistical this position is.

The same Church (the only Church) that has the power to confect the Eucharist, also has set the guidelines for recieving it. You can’t take the one without the rest.
 
Pray for his conversion. Tell him you are praying for his conversion. Invite him to a fostering the faith session, or an inquiry session for the rite of Christian initiation. Offer to sponsor him, so he can fully become Catholic and be in the state of grace when he receives the Full Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Direct him to websites or encourage him to listen to Catholic radio or even Catholic TV stations to learn more about what our faith involves.

Then let the Lord do the rest of the work! If he is open to it, the Lord will reel him in, hook line and sinker. Pray always!

fathercorapi.com/articledet.aspx?articleID=1677421650
Here’s a wonderful article Fr.Corapi has prepared on the Eucharist. It does not deal with who can or cannot receive, but what it means to us as Catholics.
 
Tell him that at a Catholic mass the Church sets the rules and guests should repsect that. He has a lot ot nerve to either be a good Protestant and try to commune at Mass or a bad Catholic who deliberately misses Sunday Mass and thinks he can come at his own discretion and commune. Unfortunately, the role of head of the Church has been cast and the understudy in Rome is playing the part until the star returns. Your friend has no auithority todo what he is and apparently lacks the intellectual honesty to realize it.
 
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stbruno:
Pray for his conversion. Tell him you are praying for his conversion. Invite him to a fostering the faith session, or an inquiry session for the rite of Christian initiation. Offer to sponsor him, so he can fully become Catholic and be in the state of grace when he receives the Full Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. Direct him to websites or encourage him to listen to Catholic radio or even Catholic TV stations to learn more about what our faith involves.

Then let the Lord do the rest of the work! If he is open to it, the Lord will reel him in, hook line and sinker. Pray always!

fathercorapi.com/articledet.aspx?articleID=1677421650
Here’s a wonderful article Fr.Corapi has prepared on the Eucharist. It does not deal with who can or cannot receive, but what it means to us as Catholics.
Click to expand...
I gave him some relevant links to the Catechism as well as Steve Wood’s article, “How I Led Catholics Out of the Church”. Hmm, these were posted here previously. I thought this thread looked shorter than it had before. Looks like some sub-threads got chopped off.

I wonder about telling him that I’m praying for his conversion. If someone told me that it would come across as smug. We prayed to Christ that we want to totally surrender to your His will and he was quite agreeable to that.

The problem is that I don’t think he is intentially walking on Christ’s back with his spiked shoes, but he refuses to believe he is doing so.

The argument “because the Church says so” is good enough for me, but not for him. It’s as if every thought or idea that comes into his head, if it is not obviously evil to him, comes directly from Jesus. I can see his confusion in his discernment, since if he really believes in the Real Presence and wants that intimate union with Jesus then receiving Jesus in the Eucharist is definitely a good thing.
 
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milimac:
I gave him some relevant links to the Catechism as well as Steve Wood’s article, “How I Led Catholics Out of the Church”. Hmm, these were posted here previously. I thought this thread looked shorter than it had before. Looks like some sub-threads got chopped off.

I wonder about telling him that I’m praying for his conversion. If someone told me that it would come across as smug. We prayed to Christ that we want to totally surrender to your His will and he was quite agreeable to that.

The problem is that I don’t think he is intentially walking on Christ’s back with his spiked shoes, but he refuses to believe he is doing so.

The argument “because the Church says so” is good enough for me, but not for him. It’s as if every thought or idea that comes into his head, if it is not obviously evil to him, comes directly from Jesus. I can see his confusion in his discernment, since if he really believes in the Real Presence and wants that intimate union with Jesus then receiving Jesus in the Eucharist is definitely a good thing.
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If he won’t consider the personal moral damage done, I’d try appealing to his decency and the notion of unity in the Eucharist. It’s a lie to receive the Eucharist together when we’re not actually in communion. That’s the unity aspect. The decency is that when he receives he sends a message to anyone else who might know of his situation. He preaches that the Church’s teachings on the Eucharist are wrong and that he does not have enough respect for Catholics to abide by their norms when visiting their Church. Both are pretty disrespectful. How would he like it if I got up in the middle of his evangelical service and said to the congregation “All this stuff you’re saying is a bunch of ****, and I’m going to come here and do things my way whether you like it or not.”
 
Hey, you don’t have to tell him that you are praying for him if it comes across as smug…instead tell him I’ll pray for him instead. And I will add him to my ever growing prayer list.
 
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