Taking Communion..Not in State of Grace

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Thank you so much for your post, Max. I was/am feeling exactly the same way. Today at Mass, I was really embarrased that I didn’t go up for the Eucharist (because I haven’t gone to Confession) so I just had to keep telling myself, “Whose judgement do you care more about ( I kept thinking of that judgement passage that someone just quoted)? The people who see you not go up or God’s?”
Now I have to go to Confession, though, but like you I am kinda embarrased to tell my parents (man, I wish I could drive!!). Please pray for me.
 
Bro why dont you just get to confession right now instead of writing about how you need to get to confession?
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The only confessions around here last a half hour, and are only on Saturdays. 😦 I couldn’t make it today, I was at a wedding.
Thank you so much for your post, Max. I was/am feeling exactly the same way. Today at Mass, I was really embarrased that I didn’t go up for the Eucharist (because I haven’t gone to Confession) so I just had to keep telling myself, “Whose judgement do you care more about ( I kept thinking of that judgement passage that someone just quoted)? The people who see you not go up or God’s?”
Now I have to go to Confession, though, but like you I am kinda embarrased to tell my parents (man, I wish I could drive!!). Please pray for me.
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Eh, I was a bit hesitant to post it really…but, my priority when I did wasn’t the approval of the good people of the forums…now, if only I can be like that around my family. I’m glad I did though, there’s been lots of good points raised that I had honestly not thought of.

I’ll be praying for you lifeteen, I didn’t know there were other people in the same situation I’m in.
 
This is good that you recognize the need for confession, in other words you have made a good examination of conscience.

Refrain from communion until you have made your confession and received absolution.

Be aware that you may receive communion after absolution and before completing your penance, so if you go to confession prior to Mass, and cannot yet fulfill your penance due to time constrains for example, you can receive communion and make your penance afterwards. By the way, the idea that one must complete the penance prior to receiving communion is part of the Jansenist heresey. Pope Saint Pius X fought this heresey along with the modernist heresy and issued an encylical and preached that we should make frequent communion (even daily communion) and by imlication frequent confessions, Pope John Paul II has recommended monthly confession.

Consider some of the following"

Don’t worry what others think, and you need not make up reasons for not going to communion. You could say that you are inspired to make a confession. If questioned about what you need to confess tell them tactfully that it is private and is between you and your confessor.

If you cannot drive then ask someone you know and trust to give you a ride to confession. If you need your parents to give you a ride then ask them to take you to confession. I am confident they will be glad that you are interested in this sacrament.

The other posts have given many good tips.

You are in my prayers
 
Shoshana took the words right out of my mouth 👍 even down to the quote from scripture so let me just add the following …

The church encourages us to confess often. Once a month is the norm that is recommended. Our Holy Father confesses once a week. Think about that for a moment – our Pope feels in his heart that he has offend God seriously enough that he needs to purge himself of his sins once a week.

What does that tell you? It tells me that we need to examine our conscious better because if the Pope needs confession once a week, then I must surely need it even more. As a matter of fact, scripture tells us that even the pious man sins seven times a day!

What does that say about the rest of us? It shows that we need frequent clensing of our souls. As a matter of fact, if I am not mistaken, the church REQURES us to confess our sins at LEAST once a year. Failure to do so is considered a mortal sin itself.

These (the church REQUIRING annual confession and RECOMMENDING monthly confession; the Popel confessing weekly; scriture telling us that even a PIOUS person offends God at least seven times a day; etc.) are all points that you can make to your parents explaining why you want to go to confession more frequentially without getting into the details.

And as was said above, don’t receive the Eucharist when you feel that you are unworthy and risk condemnation. Just as receiving the Eucharist worthily does not ensure salvation but brings us closer to it. Receiving the Eucharist unworthily does not ensure condemnation but it does brings us closer to it.
 
*Hello, *
**
I have a question. I read all the replies and I just was wondering about something that was not brought up yet. I was thinking about Mortal Sin. How do you know that you’re in mortal sin? Is it simply committing a sin with the knowledge that it is wrong anyway? What if you sincerely resist the sin, but in the end give in? Even though you knew it was wrong and tried to resist, in the end you committed the sin. Is that a mortal sin? If you’re stuck in an addiction and are ardently working to break free, when you give in, does that count as a mortal sin?? lol There are a lot of questions in this post…I just hope some of y’all can help me with an answer to them.
 
First, if you mean that not being in a state of grace as being in mortal sin then you should avoid adding the sin of sacriledge by unworthly receiving Communion.

If you are refering to venial sins you then you may receive Communion and still go to confessoin later. Venial sins are in fact forgiven by Mass.

I can understand the pressure of not going to Communion. I spent a year and a half going to daily Mass while waiting to come into the Church. You wonder what people think when you just kneel there and do not receive. But true love of Jesus causes us want to truly be in union with him and to do so in a state of grave sin makes this a lie.
 
Dear Warriorrose,

It is a breath of fresh air to read posts like yours. How many people know what is sin today and how many do not even care? So, to read your post is a balm to anybody’s soul.

To answer your question, I will refer to the Catechism of the CC. It is highly preferable that all of us read this book, it is chock full of gems. As far as the chapter of sin goes, I use it sometimes as an examination of conscience. So here goes…
1857- For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”
1859- Mortal sin requires full knowledge and cpmplete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of sin.
1858- Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: “Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your mother and your father.” The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is greater than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.
1861- Mortal sin is a radical possiblity of human freedom, as is love itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice of God.
1866- vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished. They are called capital because they engender other sins, other vices. They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth.
1868- Sin is a personla act. Moreover, we have a responisbility fo rthe isns committed by others when we cooperate in them:
By participating directly and voluntarily in them by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have the obligation to do so by protecting evil-doers.
to be contined… Shoshana
 
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MiddleBear:
Be aware that you may receive communion after absolution and before completing your penance, so if you go to confession prior to Mass, and cannot yet fulfill your penance due to time constrains for example, you can receive communion and make your penance afterwards. By the way, the idea that one must complete the penance prior to receiving communion is part of the Jansenist heresey. Pope Saint Pius X fought this heresey along with the modernist heresy and issued an encylical and preached that we should make frequent communion (even daily communion) and by imlication frequent confessions, Pope John Paul II has recommended monthly confession.
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I’ve always heard that you have to complete your penance before your next confession. Don’t know how much truth there is in this, though.

John
 
Don’t be embarrassed about recieving a blessing instead of Holy Communion. Just remember that it is more important to please God than to please your parents. I think MANY people are recieving unworthily.

If you are in doubt as to whether you’ve committed a Mortal Sin, then don’t recieve.

Let me give you a personal example. I have problems with lustful thoughts. I used to have more serious problems … ahem … but I got over them, and have been clean for SIX months! YIPPEE!!! Now, my main problem is that I sometimes have lustful fantasies, especially when it comes to Vin Diesel. Just hearing his manly voice is enough to conjur lust!!! LOL.

Now, lustful fantasies can be mortal sins, even though they’re just thoughts. The problem is, where do you draw the line regarding thoughts? When do they become mortal sins? I asked a priest where to draw the line, and he told me I’d have to be the judge of that. He said, basically, that many lustful thoughts are just tempations, and come out of nowhere. But if you willfully conjur up lusful fantasies on your own and have pleasure in those thoughts (even without s*x) then it can be a mortal sin.

Of course, it depends on how far you go with the fantasy. If I were to imagine myself kissing Vin Diesel, that wouldn’t be a mortal sin because kissing is only first base. See what I mean?

So for me, it’s easy to commit a mortal sin. If I’m in doubt, I refrain from Holy Communion … even though what I did involved no “act.”

Hope this helps a bit.
 
Thanx, TheGrowingGrape and Shoshana and Dr. Cat, I appreciate that you guys took the time to answer. I’ve been wondering about this for a long time, and I think it’s starting to make a little more sense. Heh,and I always thought that you are supposed to finish penance right after you leave confession. That’s what I’ve always done. shrug
 
God bless you Warriorrose!

I am glad to see that the combination of posts made some stuff clearer to you. I realize that the CCC is very academic but it is an excellent book to refer to. We all understand how you feel as most of us have been there at one point or another!:eek:

BTW, I love your user name 👍 because it is the truth, we are all warriors.

Blessings,
Shoshana
 
Aww, many thanks Shoshana. I like yours as well, what does it mean? It sounds kind of biblical to me.
 
Warriorrose,

It is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is an excellent book of the teachings of the faith to study and to refer to when needed. There is so much material in it, that one could have only that (other than the Bible being #1)to use for the rest of our lives and be on the right path. It is academic but you can’t go wrong having this book around.

It explains everything from Sacraments to the Credo and everything in between…

Have a nice day, my friend!:blessyou:

Shoshana
 
Plain and simple. Taking communion while not being in a state of grace is sacrilege. It’s just like going to confession and lying. In other words, the sacrament would not have taken effect or would have no effect.
 
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Max:
The only confessions around here last a half hour, and are only on Saturdays. 😦 I couldn’t make it today, I was at a wedding.
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You may want to consider calling and asking for an appointment with a Priest for Confession. They will usually do that and this way you could try and get a time that will work for you.

It is hard when the window of times for Confession are so small. We have ended up going after Mass at another Parish down the street that happens to have them at that time. Before that, I struggled w/regular Pennance. Now we are able to go approximately every two weeks and it’s awesome.

God Bless,
Nicole
 
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