Well Intended Actions Actually Sins?

[MattWagner]

I was born and raised Catholic, Baptized at birth, and I honestly cannot remember the last time I didn’t go to Church. During the early stages of my life, my parents failed to reach an agreement on whether or not they wanted me to go through First Communion, Confirmation, etc., so I ended up not being a full practicing Catholic (in my opinion).

As I moved into my teenage years, and progressively became more and more drawn to the Catholic faith, I realized that I did indeed want to become a full on Catholic. However, due to the fear of my parents & their disagreements on the subject, I refrained from telling them about my newfound faith, and simply continued to go to Church each Sunday with my mother.

During my sophomore year of High School, I really started to pay attention in Church, reading, praying, etc. During my Junior year, our Priest gave a homily about Communion and why we take it, what it means, etc. After the homily, I felt very overpowered with faith (in a good way!) and like I truly knew what it meant to receive Holy Communion, so I decided to start receiving the Body & Blood of Christ (with no prior teaching/First Communion, etc.).

After looking extensively into certain aspects of being a practicing Catholic, I decided that I wanted to go to Confession due to my sins & the embarrassment caused by them. I’ve looked into the process, what it means, why we do it, how it is done, etc., and I have gone 4-5 times.

I’m currently attending a Catholic (LaSallian) University in Minnesota & am going through RCIA classes each Tuesday in order to become an actual Catholic, but I am worried about my past actions. I know that I should have received proper training from the Church regarding things such as Confession and Communion, so I am simply wondering if my actions of going to Confession & receiving Communion sins?

Any help/guidance/comments are highly appreciated!

God Bless.

 

[trmyjs]

Clearly, God is the only One who can ultimately judge us. So be sure to speak to Him about this . However, in my opinion these would probably be venial sins, if they are sins at all. I can’t imagine it being too serious if you sincerely did not know better. I recommend you confess these to God through prayer and ask for mercy if you haven’t already.

Have no worries, brother! In due time you will be most definitely cleansed of all your sins. May God bless you!

 

[PbloPicasso]

RCIA 101

Mortal Sin Requirements

1. must be grave matter
2. must do it of your own free will, not under threat
3. must know it is a mortal sin

All three must be present.

**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.”

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

I was born and raised Catholic, Baptized at birth, and I honestly cannot remember the last time I didn’t go to Church. During the early stages of my life, my parents failed to reach an agreement on whether or not they wanted me to go through First Communion, Confirmation, etc., so I ended up not being a full practicing Catholic (in my opinion).

As I moved into my teenage years, and progressively became more and more drawn to the Catholic faith, I realized that I did indeed want to become a full on Catholic. However, due to the fear of my parents & their disagreements on the subject, I refrained from telling them about my newfound faith, and simply continued to go to Church each Sunday with my mother.

During my sophomore year of High School, I really started to pay attention in Church, reading, praying, etc. During my Junior year, our Priest gave a homily about Communion and why we take it, what it means, etc. After the homily, I felt very overpowered with faith (in a good way!) and like I truly knew what it meant to receive Holy Communion, so I decided to start receiving the Body & Blood of Christ (with no prior teaching/First Communion, etc.).

After looking extensively into certain aspects of being a practicing Catholic, I decided that I wanted to go to Confession due to my sins & the embarrassment caused by them. I’ve looked into the process, what it means, why we do it, how it is done, etc., and I have gone 4-5 times.

I’m currently attending a Catholic (LaSallian) University in Minnesota & am going through RCIA classes each Tuesday in order to become an actual Catholic, but I am worried about my past actions. I know that I should have received proper training from the Church regarding things such as Confession and Communion, so I am simply wondering if my actions of going to Confession & receiving Communion sins?

Any help/guidance/comments are highly appreciated!

God Bless.

I guess you are in full speed in the right direction. Past actions are past actions. You did with good intention, you did not kill anybody, you didnot steal. go ahead for if you lokd back you will lose your bearings into the future…

 

[PbloPicasso]

Okay, I’m going to admit something very embarrassing, but cleaned up. After I realized that I had to come back home to the Catholic Church, I went to a priest to confess 18 years of sin [try remembering that much sin]. What I did not realize is that since I was married outside of the Church building but in my wife’s church that we were not truly married in the eyes of the Church. I had relations with my wife excited about my comig back home. But then I found out that we should have been living celibate until our marriage convalidation. I went to mass and received, not realizing it was wrong. Later I went back to confession, totally embarrassed and he explained to me further my situation.

Had I committed a mortal sin? Judging oneself is not prudent, but from my understanding of what a mortal sin constitutes, I was probably not that culpable. I just felt that I should have known better. I finally stopped beating myself up and have lived chaste, faithfully ever since. Protestants do not have the same beliefs about sin an my conscience was partially complete, but lacked certain understanding about thing my pride kept me from admitting I didn’t know. Try explaining this to your own children that are uniquely Catholic now. We just avoid it and say we were married for 22 years even though we had to get it con validated nearly 5 years ago.

 

[Mudgely]

Be charitable with yourself. You can only go forward from here.

 

[Bookcat]

Discuss this all with a Priest. If there is matter there that needs to be confessed such can be taken care of …

You are a Catholic. You are a baptized Catholic and thus are not in the same boat as others in the RCIA you have been attending.

So if you know how to go to confession and the meaning …and what to confess an if you know what …or rather Who the Eucharist is…it would seem to me that you can thus continue at this point…after anything that needs to be confessed is confessed…(tell the Priest what you told us…etc)

But speak to the Priest about this first.