Taking communion while in a state of sin

[Annie39]

I’d be willing to bet a lot of moola that you are indeed chemically depressed. A member of my family attempted suicide Christmas day. She said all she could see is black before her. I literally pray now that you will seek, not only confession and absolution but medical help. You have something precious that the person in my family doesn’t have, you have God’s own church. She hates the Catholic Church. You are way ahead. Another thing, try helping someone else. Like go to a soup kitchen and volunteer or anything that will help you get your focus off of yourself.

 

[Kathrin]

Even when your self esteem is very low, you can PRAY that God helps you not sin again. You don’t have to do it all by yourself. Have you ever heard these analogies of you making one step and God making the rest for you, something like that?

HUGS,
Kathrin

 

[Magdalena09]

My responses are in blue.

Sorry but pretending just makes me more cantankerous and loathing (both to myself and other people).

Going through the motions is indeed good advice. Most therapists tell their depressed patients that feel like sleeping all the time to get out of bed despite what they feel and carry on with their daily duties (school, work, whatever) despite being depressed.

Yeah well, that’s where I have a huge problem. Personal circumstances make going to confession a near impossibility right now. Family issues, financial uneasiness, college homework yada yada yada…Furthermore, as I said before, I’m not one to desire grave embarrassment.

This doesn’t sound like an impossible situation at all. Remember, God doesn’t ask us to do anything that he doesn’t give us the ability to do. I don’t know what family issues you have, but I don’t know how they could interfere with you going to confession. If you have time to go to mass, you should have time to go to confession. The most it will probably take is calling ahead to tell your priest you need confession and that you can only arrive 15-20 minutes early for mass. Believe me, this is more than enough time. I was QUITE the sinner and had 20 years to cover at my first confession. My list filled up a couple pages in a notebook, 95% mortal sins, and my confession session last maybe a total of 20 minutes… and I was crying and stumbling over my words the whole time. If you have enough time to get on here and post and still get your homework done, you have enough time for confession.

Priorities are important. When I was in school, I never skipped Mass to do homework, even if I felt completely and totally overwhelmed. God rewarded me by helping me to finish my studies. I know so many people who gave testimony of God multiplying their time. He loves us and enables us to do all we need to do, as long as we put our obligations to Him first.

I’m uncertain how financial uneasiness has anything to do with receiving the Sacraments. They are a free gift; no exchange of funds is involved.

As for grave embarrassment, that sounds like a pride problem to me. The priest is not going to judge you for your sins. If it is an embarrassing topic (such as a sexual topic), trust me when I say he has heard it all before. If you are referring to it being embarrassing to stay seated while others are going up to receive, this is also not something to worry about. First of all, it’s silly to assume they are judging you or even thinking about you at all. They are probably focused on the fact that they are about to receive Jesus! Secondly, there are many reasons why someone may not receive other than being in a state of mortal sin. Perhaps they weren’t watching the clock and forgot to maintain the one hour fast. Perhaps they are in RCIA. Perhaps they have a wheat allergy and the cup was not offered. You never know a person’s situation and I can promise you that the majority of people will not even noticing you aren’t receiving… and even if they did (which they won’t) it is better to please God than to please man. Always.

Well I was unclear until I actually looked it up. Then again, that doesn’t really help much that I know now and have more reason to wanna mentally smash my head in the wall.

I can’t say I found anything explicit on this “sin of presumption” though. The general idea when I read this in the Catechism was that you just have to realize that you’ve screwed real bad, it’s no laughing matter, and that you really need to make a sincere effort to repent and change.

2091 The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption:
By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God’s goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his promises - and to his mercy.

2092 There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God’s almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).

Sadly though, the current state of my life right now makes it impossible for me to follow your advice along with others (though I appreciate them). Honestly though, I am not proud of this. I wish I could fix it but right now, my life’s too messy for me to do anything about it.

That’s why it isn’t just you, all alone, with no help. Remember, with God, all things are possible.

What I don’t get though is why are few people really aware of this? You’d think that this was such a big deal, you’d see more people lining up at the confessional every Sunday at least. :\

It kinda depends on the parish. My “home parish” only offers 15 minutes for confession on Saturdays and there is never a line.

My parish at school offered confession every day except Saturday and Sunday for two hours and there was always a long line.

I don’t have that. I just don’t happen to like myself very much to the point that any more reason to do so might make me suicidal.

Do you know for a fact you don’t have a chemical imbalance or are you just assuming you don’t? If your state of mind is so fragile that you feel you are at the breaking point, and it sounds by your statement that this is the case, then you do, in fact, need to seek medical or psychological help ASAP.

Depression is not to be taken lightly nor is it something to be embarrassed about. Prayers for you and keep the faith.