Should one receive Holy Communion after missing part/all of the Liturgy of the Word?

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

I have just one thing to add.

There is no obligation to recieve the Eucharist at every Mass. The obligation is to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days.

 

[otm]

ByzCath:

I have just one thing to add.

There is no obligation to recieve the Eucharist at every Mass. The obligation is to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days.

While I would agree that there is no obligtion to receive, one needs to ask why one would not receive if, as per the OP, one were in a state of grace.

Too often the answer to that harkens back to the heresy of Jansenism, which pounded on the issue of lack of worthiness. that has been addressed by a number of Popes, and they have encouraged frequent Communion.

I can think of not too many reasons beyond that “I am not worthy” approach that would cause one to avoid receiving when one has the opportunity. Nothing in the Gospels or epistles that I have read would indicate any possible idea from Christ or Paul or the Apostles that Communion would be infrequent.

To put it another way: were Christ to physically appear in one’s area and one could go and meet with Him, one would not be “obliged” to go. But who would even consider the question in those terms? Perhaps a legalist, or a minimalist, or one suffering from scrupulosity, but not those who love Him.

 

[Brendan]

otm:

While I would agree that there is no obligtion to receive, one needs to ask why one would not receive if, as per the OP, one were in a state of grace.
.

Perhaps one did not keep the required fast?

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

otm:

While I would agree that there is no obligtion to receive, one needs to ask why one would not receive if, as per the OP, one were in a state of grace.

Again, there is no obligiation to recieve the Eucharist at every Mass one attends.

I stand by that as it is Church Teaching.

We should not judge others when they do not recieve.

 

[otm]

Brendan:

Perhaps one did not keep the required fast?

nope. The OP only stated “in a state of grace” and came in late for Mass (later noted as a weekday Mass). So the fast was not an issue.

 

[otm]

ByzCath:

Again, there is no obligiation to recieve the Eucharist at every Mass one attends.

I stand by that as it is Church Teaching.

We should not judge others when they do not recieve.

I don’t judge others and I agree that one should not judge someone else observed to not be receiving.

The purpose of my response to the issue of obligation is simply that those who put it in that format (and I was assuming had no other reason to not receive) need to get past the issue of obligation. I did not assume that you would not receive for that reason alone, but I have come across people who don’t receive when they could.

They tend toward a jansenist attitude.