Receiving the Eucharist with mortal sin, but not knowing that was wrong

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God_Is_So_Great

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Let me describe my situation to everyone:

I committed some mortal sins. I cannot be sure whether I realized at the time of committing these sins that it was mortal, though I did understand that it was a sin.
Some time into the future, I go to church and receive the Eucharist. I do this for a good bit of time, not just once, twice, or even thrice. I did not know when receiving communion with unconfessed mortal sin that I committed that it was at all wrong or sinful to do this. (I’m pretty sure I didn’t know, anyway.) So, later in life I get confession, and confess all the sins I remember having committed. I learned not to get Communion with unconfessed mortal sin in my conscience inbetween getting Communion with these unconfessed mortal sins and going to my first good confession, which was the confession I was previously mentioning. I confessed having obtained the Eucharist while having unconfessed mortal sin on my conscience. That is my situation.

Where am I in the process of gaining back my grace with our Lord? How sinful was all of that situation? What should I do? Please, explain this to me. Thank you in advance. God bless you all.
 
To be guilty you would have to know that what you did was mortal sin.

grave matter
knowledge
will to do it anyway

You should really talk to your priest again.
 
Explain all of this to your priest again in Confession and tell him of your anxiety about it. When (if) he absolves you, be at peace and feel comforted that God has brought you back into full communion with Himself and that all of your past sins are forgiven.
 
I never really understood fully that second part of qualifying a mortal sin. How much knowledge do you have to have? Like I said, I knew that what I was doing was sinful, but not that it was a grave matter that would count as a mortal sin. I would like that explained. Thank you.
 
I don’t think you need to know that it’s grave. Gravity is the seriousness of the action. But you do need to know that it is a mortal sin. Murder, for example, doesn’t become less grave because you didn’t know you can’t beat someone to death for no reason, the action is still grave.
 
Explain your situation to the Priest in Confession and ask him what you should do to get the situation righted. He can advise you better than we can.
 
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One has to know it is a serious offense against Almighty God at the time. One has to really want to offend God, full concent of the will. Full knowledge and full concent at the time not later. I seriously doubt the OP committed mortal sins.
 
I’m not judging on whether or not the OP has committed a mortal sin or not. But knowing if it’s grave or not impacts whether or not it’s a mortal sin? That I’m not so sure about. If I’m killing someone in an angry frenzy, the thought of “God will not like like this” is probably not in my head. I would be, in that situation, so angry that the only thought in my head would be how much I want that person dead. Is my culpability diminished because the thought of God not liking my actions didn’t cross my mind? I very much doubt it. I still murdered someone.
 
Maybe the sin was uncontrolled anger? The person committing the act must apply the rules and determine whether it is mortal. Do I think that someone can kill and it not be mortal? Yes. We need not spend a lot of effort judging others. We don’ know enough. Just keep ourselves away from all sin!
 
If you’ve confessed then you are in the clear regardless.

As far as your culpability, if you are in the habit of following God and it did not enter your mind whether or not something was gravely sinful, then it probably was not a mortal sin. If it occurred to you that it could be mortal but you did it anyway without looking into the matter, then it was mortal. If you had already inquired into the objective gravity of the act, and found that the opinion holding it to be not-grave was solidly grounded, then committing the act would not be a mortal sin.
 
Theo2 said:
Maybe the sin was uncontrolled anger? The person committing the act must apply the rules and determine whether it is mortal. Do I think that someone can kill and it not be mortal?
Click to expand...
Murder is arguably uncontrolled anger. I’m not talking about killing someone. You can kill someone in self-defense and it wouldn’t be mortally sinful, sure. But that’s not murder. I’m talking about the act of wrongfully killing someone.
 
In theory a person could commit murder and not be culpable, but I don’t think that a normal adult could beat someone to death without being aware that it was seriously wrong.
 
A young mother stopped off to get gasoline. While she was taking care of business, a car thief got into her car and tried to steal it. She had a gun in the car and was somehow able to get a hold of it before he shut the door and took off. She shot him in the face, seriously injuring him.

Would you say that was a mortal sin on her part, or should she have just let him have the car? She also said she had a 2 year old and a 4 year old in the back seat, about to be kidnapped. Should she still have left him have the car and hope for the best, or should she protect her kids?

I know what I would do…I would have shot the bugger. He had no right to do what he did.

That is a clear-cut case of what is a sin and what is not. Now there are times when it’s a little more difficult to tell for sure. Someone breaks into a house. He is unarmed, but someone in the family panics and shoots him. He dies on the spot. Should the family member have been a little more careful because he panicked… After all the guy was not armed. The police - what would they say? Self-defense is sometimes used to cover up a murder. That’s where forensics come into play.
 
You confessed that you had received the Eucharist while having unconfessed mortal sins. You also confessed the mortal sins. You got absolution. You’re done. You got all your grace back. Be at peace and don’t do it again.

If it makes you feel any better, I did the exact same thing in the past.
 
God_Is_So_Great said:
I never really understood fully that second part of qualifying a mortal sin. How much knowledge do you have to have? Like I said, I knew that what I was doing was sinful, but not that it was a grave matter that would count as a mortal sin. I would like that explained. Thank you.
Click to expand...
You aren’t expected to be a “mortal sin” expert. if you think a sin is serious, just confess it. You get absolved of it whether or not it is actually mortal.
The only time it matters whether a sin might be mortal is when you are NOT mentioning it in confession.

Reading what you wrote above, it sounds to me like you confessed everything.
 
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