Should I Abstain from the Eucharist on Easter?

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haedron

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So I’m not really sure what to do at this point. Not to make excuses for myself but I’ve been very distracted during Lent this year and I missed my opportunity to attend my church’s reconciliation mass and now I’m not sure if it is OK to take the Eucharist on Easter Sunday or not.

My wife and I are currently trying to sell our home, and we’re also building a new one. That’s been stressful enough, but at the beginning of Lent we found out that my wife’s grandmother (who is also like a grandmother to me at this point) is dying from Leukemia. Add that to all our normal responsibilities of work and parenting, and I feel like sometimes I don’t even know what day it is.

At any rate, right in the midst of this I went on a golf trip to NC with several of my friends. Now, if I hadn’t paid for this in full 6 months ago I wouldn’t have even considered going, and I was still going to cancel until my wife insisted I go if nothing else just to get a break for a few days (bless her heart). While things were still stressful, they were at least stable and I went on the trip with plans to return immediately if things turned for the worse with her grandmother and I was needed at home (I was only about 6 hours away).

While on the trip I didn’t go to mass as I didn’t really have a way to get to a service, was planning on canceling the trip anyway so I hadn’t tried to figure it out in advance, and no one else on the trip was Catholic so I didn’t worry about it. I’m not one to get bent out of shape for missing mass one week if there is a justifiable reason (weather, illness, etc), but while I was out of town I also missed my parish’s mass of reconciliation. In my diocese, a mass special service is offered during Lent and Advent for confession, outside of those two services it can be difficult to find a time to meet with the priest for confession. You often have to schedule an appointment.

So anyway, I’m not scrupulous or anything, this comes more from the fact that I was only confirmed last Easter and am not sure what to do here. I missed mass once during lent (though arguably not because I simply didn’t want to go) and I also haven’t done my Easter Duty. Should I abstain from the Eucharist on Sunday?
 
I’m not sure how you could have failed to do your “Easter Duty” when Easter is not yet here.

Call your priest and ask his opinion. Go to Holy Thursday or Good Friday services and ask the priest to hear your confession before/after.

If in doubt, abstain from the Eucharist until you can confess.
 
haedron said:
So I’m not really sure what to do at this point. Not to make excuses for myself but I’ve been very distracted during Lent this year and I missed my opportunity to attend my church’s reconciliation mass and now I’m not sure if it is OK to take the Eucharist on Easter Sunday or not.

My wife and I are currently trying to sell our home, and we’re also building a new one. That’s been stressful enough, but at the beginning of Lent we found out that my wife’s grandmother (who is also like a grandmother to me at this point) is dying from Leukemia. Add that to all our normal responsibilities of work and parenting, and I feel like sometimes I don’t even know what day it is.

At any rate, right in the midst of this I went on a golf trip to NC with several of my friends. Now, if I hadn’t paid for this in full 6 months ago I wouldn’t have even considered going, and I was still going to cancel until my wife insisted I go if nothing else just to get a break for a few days (bless her heart). While things were still stressful, they were at least stable and I went on the trip with plans to return immediately if things turned for the worse with her grandmother and I was needed at home (I was only about 6 hours away).

While on the trip I didn’t go to mass as I didn’t really have a way to get to a service, was planning on canceling the trip anyway so I hadn’t tried to figure it out in advance, and no one else on the trip was Catholic so I didn’t worry about it. I’m not one to get bent out of shape for missing mass one week if there is a justifiable reason (weather, illness, etc), but while I was out of town I also missed my parish’s mass of reconciliation. In my diocese, a mass special service is offered during Lent and Advent for confession, outside of those two services it can be difficult to find a time to meet with the priest for confession. You often have to schedule an appointment.

So anyway, I’m not scrupulous or anything, this comes more from the fact that I was only confirmed last Easter and am not sure what to do here. I missed mass once during lent (though arguably not because I simply didn’t want to go) and I also haven’t done my Easter Duty. Should I abstain from the Eucharist on Sunday?
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Easter duty refers to the obligation to receive communion during the Easter season, which lasts for 50 days after Easter Sunday, to Pentecost. There is also the duty to confess our sins at least once a year, which is why it is customary to discharge both duties at the same time during Easter.
 
Most parishes have regular confession on Saturday morning or Noon. DO your parishes not have a regular weekly confessional time? That would seem crazy to me and a dereliction of duty on the part of the Priest.

If you can get to the Church for any service between now and Easter you should be able to grab a priest and ask to make a confession. He would need a very good reason to refuse you. He is Ordained to administer the sacraments. All other responsibilities can be delegated. those cannot.
 
You have raised 3 questions:

1-What fulfills my “Easter Obligation”?
—Answer has already been given, that you only need to receive communion ONCE during the entire season of Easter. You are free to refrain on Easter day or on the vigil.

2-What is my obligation for confession?
—Answer is that you are required to confess mortal sins once a year. There is not a requirement to go to confession during Lent, or to go to your parish’s penance service. That said, it is recommended that you go to confession frequently (a common recommendation is to go monthly) even if you only have venial sins to confess. But the recommendation is not the same thing as the requirement.

3-Do I need to confess missing Mass?
—It is unclear. There are times in which you are justified in missing Mass because of the difficulties that traveling presents. However, there are times when it is not justified. You can judge better than I could whether or not your situation really made it too difficult to get to Mass. It could be that you could have planned better, or tried harder, but that it was not a mortal sin - this is still worthy of confessing as a venial sin. Remember though, only mortal sin keeps you from receiving communion. So whether or not you need to go to confession before receiving communion is uncertain to me. If you are unsure, then it would be a safer bet to wait. After all, you have until Pentecost to receive communion. Just get to confession as soon as you can.
 
I can’t speak for your parish, but many parishes in the Diocese here have confession available much more often during lent, and especially during the week preceding Easter. Simply call the parish office where you are or check their website for hours, or make an appointment if necessary.
 
TheWarriorMonk said:
I can’t speak for your parish, but many parishes in the Diocese here have confession available much more often during lent, and especially during the week preceding Easter. Simply call the parish office where you are or check their website for hours, or make an appointment if necessary.
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This. Our parish has them tonight, Friday evening, and Saturday morning. There isn’t any requirement to go to a reconciliation service–this is just provided to build community and for convenience.

One thing–even if your parish usually has confessions on Saturday evening, do NOT expect them to be held this Saturday. Almost always, Saturday evening confession is cancelled because of the Vigil.

–Jen
 
Thanks to all of you for the feedback, especially the explanation of Easter Duty. I have been thinking it referred to going to confession during Lent.

As to the confession questions, I went through RCIA at this parish and my understanding is that they offer these reconciliation services twice per year and that’s kind of it. You can certainly schedule an appointment with the priest to make confession, and I know my wife has been able to do it before mass if we get there early enough and if she’s able to find the priest, but my impression all along has been that it’s just not as common for people to seek out a priest for confession on a very regular basis. I don’t know if this is something unique to my parish or not. I’ve gotten the impression that it may be a diocese wide type of thing. My wife is a cradle Catholic from a different diocese and thinks it is very odd, she’s used to being able to go into the confessional pretty much any time before mass and the priest is in there waiting.

Again, this is the only Catholic culture I’ve known so I guess it seems normal to me. I plan on attending mass on Thursday and Friday, so I’ll see if I can get a few minutes of the priest’s time and ask him.
 
haedron said:
I went through RCIA at this parish and my understanding is that they offer these reconciliation services twice per year and that’s kind of it. You can certainly schedule an appointment with the priest to make confession, and I know my wife has been able to do it before mass if we get there early enough and if she’s able to find the priest, but my impression all along has been that it’s just not as common for people to seek out a priest for confession on a very regular basis. I don’t know if this is something unique to my parish or not.
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Most parishes in the US have regular confession times on Saturday afternoons. No appointments need to be made. The priest sits in the confessional and waits for people to come to him. Some churches offer it at other times of the week, and some churches may have to share confession times with another church due to priest shortages. But it would very unusual to not have a regular scheduled confession time at a church near you. It is often called the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and is usually listed either in the bulletin or on the church’s website. If you don’t see it there, you can call the church office and ask if there are regular confession times, and if there aren’t, get on your diocesan website, and look at the information for the other churches closest to you. If you are in the US, you should be able to find some options. (If you’re not in the US, you might too - I have no idea, never having been to confession outside of the US)

That said, Holy Week can be very busy for priests and even for the Church building in general. And it is common for churches to not have confessions as usually scheduled that week. It is nice to hear of the churches that make confession more available - all of the churches I’ve gone to do the opposite. I don’t blame them because there really is a flurry of decorating and preparation going on, and the priests themselves are involved in all of this. Just call the office to find out if they are changing their confession schedule before you go.
 
haedron said:
my understanding is that they offer these reconciliation services twice per year and that’s kind of it.
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Wow. That’s very odd. Your wife is right. But I don’t think it can be true in every parish in the diocese. If there are a few other parishes around, you might want to check with them if they have Confession scheduled for Holy Week.
haedron said:
I plan on attending mass on Thursday and Friday, so I’ll see if I can get a few minutes of the priest’s time and ask him.
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This is nit-picky–I admit it ahead of time. But you certainly shouldn’t be able to attend Mass on Good Friday. It is the one day of the year when there is no Mass. (Actually, technically Holy Saturday doesn’t have Mass either, because the Vigil counts as Sunday.) You might be going to the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on Friday, though. 🙂 But there shouldn’t be the consecration of the Eucharist at it, which makes it not a Mass.

–Jen
 
I have a hard time believing your parish doesn’t offer regular (at least weekly) confession times. Do you share a priest with other parishes? If not, if you have a pastor at your parish, he should be offering regular confession times and if not, you should speak with the diocese.
 
You can just ask a priest after Mass, I have done this when I missed a regular confession day (where I go Confession is available 3 times a week in addition you can make an appointment or as I did just ask the priest after Mass), if he is not busy sometimes even if he is he can give you a few minutes.
 
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