Why should one attend or abstain from Mass? When should one receive or refrain from the Eucharist?

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Why should one attend or abstain from Mass? When should one receive or refrain from the Eucharist?

I am asking this question because I no longer have motivation to go, particularly for Daily Mass. At least Sunday Mass still sometimes has good music.

My explanation:

  1. *]Spending time with God, especially receiving the Eucharist: God appears absent, so any spiritual benefits[1] I obtain are seemingly equivalent to nothing except wasting time.
    *]To thank and praise God: It appears the suffering (evil) in my life outweighs the pleasure (good); it thus seems absurd to thank the god who created me to suffer. I can be grateful for the good things I have, that it’s not worse – it can always become worse – but I cannot pretend that God is good and thank God as if He’s doing me a favor when my life seems filled with more evil than good. I suppose I can thank God for the small goods that I have, but it seems I can do this alone just as well as in the Sanctuary.
    *]To pray (which changes us, not God): My Japanese proficiency is around N3, so I do not understand most of the prayers or homily, when there is one. Moreover, the more my prayers go unanswered, the more I can perceive no response from God, the more likely atheism appears, and the less likely Christianity appears.
    *]To spend time with others: People either leave immediately after Mass, don’t spend time with me, or speak so rapidly in group conversation that I cannot follow or participate. Moreover, it is unpleasant to be around many of those at Daily Mass: They are disfigured from age, cough, fart, smell badly, or evoke pity/horror through difficulty at things like turning pages or walking. It tempts me to hope to die young. (Apart from myself and the priest around his 50s, Daily Mass is usually attended by six elderly people.)
    *]Because the Church charges you under pain of sin to do so on Sundays: This reason binds me on Sunday, but only so far as I continue believing the Church is correct, and says nothing about Daily Mass.
    *]God may heal you when you receive the Eucharist: After ~600 failed attempts, I do not see how I can maintain any reasonable hope of this, and to hope unreasonably seems to sin with our intellect (since God wants us to be rational).
    *]To improve in Japanese proficiency:[3] I seem to have hit a plateau regarding listening and rapid reading skill, that at this point I must focus on detailed study (looking up unfamiliar words as I encounter them) to progress further.

    I can think of no other reasons to attend Mass.

    Regarding the Eucharist, the answer seems more straightforward: We should receive it when we believe it is God, are free of grave sin that was freely chosen with full knowledge,[2] and have the Church’s permission to do so. We should refrain otherwise.

    Do you have any other reasons or motivations for me to attend Mass? I am searching for reasons to keep going to Daily Mass after my disappointment last Sunday (yesterday).

    [1] What spiritual benefits are there, anyway, apart from growing in virtue in this life? Is ‘treasure in heaven’ actually something real, or is this idea a Protestant fiction to bribe children to be pleasant? What treasure is there other than God?

    [2] It is not clear to me how I could possibly commit a mortal sin, because whenever I commit grave sin, I always appear either to be lacking one of those other two criteria. I never want to do what hurts me when I am aware that it will hurt me. Hence it seems to me I always lack full knowledge when I commit grave sin. Can you clarify this point? I wonder if I’ve ever committed a mortal sin.

    [3] I wish more of the Liturgy were in Latin, but it seems in this era emotion trumps reason, so people value the comfort of their native language more than ideals of universal inclusion or holy language.
 
ethereality said:
Why should one attend or abstain from Mass? When should one receive or refrain from the Eucharist?

I am asking this question because I no longer have motivation to go, particularly for Daily Mass. At least Sunday Mass still sometimes has good music.

My explanation:

  1. *]Spending time with God, especially receiving the Eucharist: …
    *]To thank and praise God:…
    *]To pray (which changes us, not God): …
    *]To spend time with others: …
    *]Because the Church charges you under pain of sin to do so on Sundays: …
    *]God may heal you when you receive the Eucharist:…
    *]To improve in Japanese proficiency:…

    I can think of no other reasons to attend Mass.

    Regarding the Eucharist, the answer seems more straightforward: We should receive it when we believe it is God, are free of grave sin that was freely chosen with full knowledge,[2] and have the Church’s permission to do so. We should refrain otherwise.

    …

    [2] It is not clear to me how I could possibly commit a mortal sin, because whenever I commit grave sin, I always appear either to be lacking one of those other two criteria. I never want to do what hurts me when I am aware that it will hurt me. Hence it seems to me I always lack full knowledge when I commit grave sin. Can you clarify this point? I wonder if I’ve ever committed a mortal sin.

    …
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  1. Concept of mortal sin is incorrect. Sin occurs from one of three sources: ignorance, passion, and malice. Mortal sin may occur from these three depending on additional factors, even ignorance (such as with neglect to find out what is sinful - don’t care attitude). To know the sinful character of an act is sufficient knowledge, there does not need to be a specific intention to offend God. There is a degree of pride in all sin, and especially with malice and when we think we know better than what the Church teaches. No mortal sin is committed in a state of invincible ignorance or in a half-conscious state. Actual advertence to the sinfulness of the act is not required, virtual advertence suffices. It is not necessary that the explicit intention to offend God and break His law be present, the full and free consent of the will to an evil act suffices.
    O’Neil, A.C. (1912). Sin. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
    newadvent.org/cathen/14004b.htm
    You are missing some important purposes. Since you asked, here is something from the Baltimore Catechism:**361. What are the purposes for which the Mass is offered? **
    The purposes for which the Mass is offered are: first, to adore God as our Creator and Lord; second, to thank God for His many favors; third, to ask God to bestow His blessings on all men; fourth, to satisfy the justice of God for the sins committed against Him.INDENT In every Mass adoration, praise, and thanksgiving are given to God, and reparation is made to Him.
    (b) Besides the purpose for which the Mass is offered and the effects that it produces, there are also special fruits of the Mass. The fruits Of the Mass are the blessings that God bestows through the Mass upon the celebrant, upon those who serve or assist at it, upon the person or persons for whom it is offered, and also upon all mankind, especially the members of the Church and the souls in purgatory.
    (c) The measure of these blessings depends especially on the dispositions of those to whom they are given.

    363. How should we assist at Mass?
    We should assist at Mass with reverence, attention, and devotion.
    (a) There are different ways of assisting at Mass devoutly: using the missal to follow the priest, saying the Mass prayers as found in a prayer book; singing hymns; and the like.
    Code: 
     **364. What is the best method of assisting at Mass?**
 The best method of assisting at Mass is to unite with the priest in offering the Holy     Sacrifice, and to receive Holy Communion. 
 (a) It is evident from the words of the priest himself that we do unite with him in     offering up the Holy Sacrifice. After the Offertory he turns to the people and says:     "Pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father     Almighty." In the second commemoration of the Canon of the Mass he says:     "Remember, O Lord, Thy servants . . . for whom we offer, or who offer up to Thee,     this sacrifice of praise . . . "
    [/INDENT]
 
Ethereality

I apologize in advance for shifting the emphasis away from your main point, but N3 looks pretty good to me, from the definitions set out in your link. (Curiously, though, those definitions refer only to reading and listening, not to speaking and writing. Why is that?)

Apart from the purely religious reasons for attending mass frequently, I’d say it looks like a good idea to help you with your Japanese. Do you have a Bible in Japanese?
 
ethereality said:
Why should one attend or abstain from Mass? When should one receive or refrain from the Eucharist?

I am asking this question because I no longer have motivation to go, particularly for Daily Mass. At least Sunday Mass still sometimes has good music.

My explanation:
    • Spending time with God, especially receiving the Eucharist: God appears absent, so any spiritual benefits[1] I obtain are seemingly equivalent to nothing except wasting time.
    • To thank and praise God: It appears the suffering (evil) in my life outweighs the pleasure (good); it thus seems absurd to thank the god who created me to suffer. I can be grateful for the good things I have, that it’s not worse – it can always become worse – but I cannot pretend that God is good and thank God as if He’s doing me a favor when my life seems filled with more evil than good. I suppose I can thank God for the small goods that I have, but it seems I can do this alone just as well as in the Sanctuary.
    • To pray (which changes us, not God): My Japanese proficiency is around N3, so I do not understand most of the prayers or homily, when there is one. Moreover, the more my prayers go unanswered, the more I can perceive no response from God, the more likely atheism appears, and the less likely Christianity appears.
    • To spend time with others: People either leave immediately after Mass, don’t spend time with me, or speak so rapidly in group conversation that I cannot follow or participate. Moreover, it is unpleasant to be around many of those at Daily Mass: They are disfigured from age, cough, fart, smell badly, or evoke pity/horror through difficulty at things like turning pages or walking. It tempts me to hope to die young. (Apart from myself and the priest around his 50s, Daily Mass is usually attended by six elderly people.)
    • Because the Church charges you under pain of sin to do so on Sundays: This reason binds me on Sunday, but only so far as I continue believing the Church is correct, and says nothing about Daily Mass.
    • God may heal you when you receive the Eucharist: After ~600 failed attempts, I do not see how I can maintain any reasonable hope of this, and to hope unreasonably seems to sin with our intellect (since God wants us to be rational).
    • To improve in Japanese proficiency:[3] I seem to have hit a plateau regarding listening and rapid reading skill, that at this point I must focus on detailed study (looking up unfamiliar words as I encounter them) to progress further.
    I can think of no other reasons to attend Mass.

    Regarding the Eucharist, the answer seems more straightforward: We should receive it when we believe it is God, are free of grave sin that was freely chosen with full knowledge,[2] and have the Church’s permission to do so. We should refrain otherwise.

    Do you have any other reasons or motivations for me to attend Mass? I am searching for reasons to keep going to Daily Mass after my disappointment last Sunday (yesterday).
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  1. With all respect and charity, your list reads very typical of people today - everything should be all about me and I should obtain what I want/expect from what I do.
    (If you are going for the music, or not going because of the music you are seriously missing the purpose of Mass)

    You subjectively say you do not “feel” the presence of God when you attend Mass so you feel you are wasting time. Rest assured God is there, God has not changed but your attitude has. If you were blessed with feelings of God’s presence, you should know that that blessing comes and goes for many people. Look up “long dark night of the soul.” Many religious people expect this, and for some it is even becomes a constant reminder/torture for them (i.e. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta).

    I strongly suggest locating a spiritual director and meeting with them frequently.

    I would counter your list with these simple thoughts:
    • Your going to Mass sets and example for others who see you both in the church and the broader community.
    • Those who are aware of your struggle with their native language will view you attending the Mass as an effort to better understand their language and culture - you are making an effort to join with them on their “home ground.” They will appreciate the gesture, and you might find them more charitable to you because of it.
    • Suffering is not in and of itself evil and lack of suffering is not the same as good. Suffering is simply a part of the human condition in this fallen world.
    • God loves you. God wants you to know Him. We come to know God through acts of worship and praise, charity, and kindness, happiness and suffering. We come together as a community of faith to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass “for our good, and the good of all His Holy Church”
    In answer to your questions on the subject line (things you probably know already):

    One should only not attend at least Sunday Mass when you are lawfully impeded from doing so. If there is a Mass on Sunday within a reasonable distance and you are able to attend (not ill, caring for someone else who should not be left alone, excessively hazardous travel, etc.) you should.

    You should receive the Eucharist at least once per year during the Easter season if you are a Latin Church Catholic. The other sui iuris Catholic Churches may have additional requirements. (You may receive as often as daily when you are not conscious of having committed mortal sin.)

    You should also go to confession frequently - monthly is a good habit.

    Peace,

    Deacon Patrick
 
I would encourage you to continue going to daily Mass. I believe that you are letting minor disturbances affect your perspective. Provided that you are in the state of grace, you can receive Jesus in His body, blood, soul, and divinity every day. That’s more important than whether or not you like the music. Also, when it comes to what you said about suffering, please remember that God Himself suffered on the cross and died out of love for us. Suffering does have value, despite how uncomfortable it can be at times.
 
OP, your whole post has me scratching my head.

You don’t have to have some unattainable “full knowledge” in order to commit a serious sin. Whoever taught you that has lead you wrong. You have to know a sin is serious and do it anyway when there was nothing preventing you from choosing to do what you knew you ought to do, instead. If you know it is a mortal sin to choose to miss Sunday Mass and you just decide to skip it because you don’t choose to believe there will be any bad repercussions, that’s a mortal sin. Read the Genesis account of the first serious sin. There was self-deception involved, but the two sinners were quite clear that they were doing what was forbidden and what they had been told was deadly. They just chose to believe it wasn’t all that bad, instead. That choice not to believe did not relieve them of culpability. They didn’t stop knowing the law of God. They just decided to behave as if what they knew was not true.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life. I could hardly begin to outline why a Catholic would be eager to attend Mass when the correct and dutiful balancing of one’s life did not require him or her to be doing something else. I would suggest you read Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict’s apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, and let that document springboard you to other documents you will be made aware of by reading the first one. It is posted online in several different languages; this is in English: w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis.html

Here is the section Pope Benedict wrote describing the purpose of the document;
This Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation seeks to take up the richness and variety of the reflections and proposals which emerged from the recent Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops – from the Lineamenta to the Propositiones, along the way of the Instrumentum Laboris, the Relationes ante and post disceptationem, the interventions of the Synod Fathers, the auditores and the fraternal delegates – and to offer some basic directions aimed at a renewed commitment to eucharistic enthusiasm and fervour in the Church. Conscious of the immense patrimony of doctrine and discipline accumulated over the centuries with regard to this sacrament,(10) I wish here to endorse the wishes expressed by the Synod Fathers (11) by encouraging the Christian people to deepen their understanding of the relationship between the eucharistic mystery, the liturgical action, and the new spiritual worship which derives from the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity. Consequently, I wish to set the present Exhortation alongside my first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est, in which I frequently mentioned the sacrament of the Eucharist and stressed its relationship to Christian love, both of God and of neighbour: “God incarnate draws us all to himself. We can thus understand how agape also became a term for the Eucharist: there God’s own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us” (12).
 
ethereality said:
Why should one attend or abstain from Mass? When should one receive or refrain from the Eucharist?

Can you not give one hour a week to Jesus? Do you remember how he suffered in the garden and yet his closest friends couldn’t stay awake and pray for him? He suffered and died for you, for love of you, so that you could have eternal life. And you can’t give him one hour a week? I do not go to Mass to get something out of it. I go because I want to show Jesus I love him. Actually, once I made the decision I would go to Mass to show my love for Jesus, the Mass became incredibly beautiful and I was filled with joy to the point where now I hate to miss Mass at all. Even when the music is bad, the sermon is boring I look up and say, “see Lord, I will wait one hour with you.”

Each one of those old smelly, farting people is Jesus in disguise.

Perhaps you can’t feel God’s presence because you are focused on yourself and not him.

Do you suffer from depression? Depression is a serious illness that can color your view of life. Perhaps you could see a doctor and that might help you.
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Hello,

Sorry you are having trouble right now. St. Gemma Galgani, and some other Saints have been of great help in reading the struggles they had. I struggle much. I Pray for your difficulties to end whatever they may be. I agree that speaking to a Holy Priest that is open to discussion about this may be of great help to you. Also, isolation that can occur for atleast for me can become crippling. If you feel as such please reach for help. There are some really Holy and beautiful people out there. I was told before that Christ does not forget your love for him. I again will Pray for you. Don’t lose heart.

God Bless You
 
BartholomewB said:
N3 looks pretty good to me, from the definitions set out in your link. (Curiously, though, those definitions refer only to reading and listening, not to speaking and writing. Why is that?)
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Perhaps the point is to ascertain ability to understand and follow directions, and they’re not so interested in whether the person can express himself. As for writing, most foreigners’ office work would be done with computers, I would imagine, and it’s easier to select kanji from a list than to write it from memory.
BartholomewB said:
Do you have a Bible in Japanese?
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I do, but since I am so busy, I am reading Japanese textbooks instead (they teach more useful vocabulary).
 
vsedriver said:
Can you not give one hour a week to Jesus?
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I do. I was asking more about motivation to attend Daily Mass.
vsedriver said:
Do you suffer from depression?
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Probably. I’m going to see a Japanese psychiatrist again in about an hour. I think I need counseling (cognitive therapy) perhaps more than medication, but he will probably again recommend medication, because it seems psychiatrists are only drug pushers, and there apparently are no English-speaking counselors in my area, except for one who seems unable to help me due to his own problems and busy schedule.
 
When you seem to get nothing out of daily Mass and are even somewhat disgusted by the other people there and all you have is naked Faith without any feelings but you go anyway and tell Jesus you have no feelings of love but that you want to offer yourself to the Father with Him. Isn’t this more pleasing to Him than going only when you enjoy the experience? Jesus didn’t enjoy His horrible death. He ‘set His face like flint’ and suffered. You have the opportunity to suffer with Him. Don’t waste this opportunity. God is not outdone in generosity.
 
ClaireS said:
Isn’t this more pleasing to Him than going only when you enjoy the experience?
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To be honest, I was going to answer affirmatively, but now that I think about it, pleasing God seems incomprehensible, because God is already perfect and already perfectly happy. We only understand “pleasing” people – the only definition we have for this term is – in the sense of creating a feeling that wasn’t there prior to observation. (For example, I please my parents when they learn of something good that I’ve done.) Clearly, this cannot apply to one who is timeless, unchangeable, and already perfect, etc.

Perhaps it pleases Jesus, who has a human nature, but I don’t see how He can call me His ‘friend’ and then remain absent and silent when I try to spend time with Him.
ClaireS said:
You have the opportunity to suffer with Him. Don’t waste this opportunity. God is not outdone in generosity.
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Are you suggesting that I would be wasting something if I refrained from attending Daily Mass? If so, please elaborate.

You say God is not out-done in generosity. My previous pastor said this often. I’d like you to elaborate here, too, because it seems to me humans give me nice things, whereas what God gives me – the sum totality of my life – is more evil than good. I can tell myself and try to believe that God is acting through humans to give me nice things, but I don’t understand how you distinguish between divine agency and human agency in this case. It seems both contrary to human dignity and to insult God as Creator to declare that “everything men do that is good is divine agency at work, and everything men do that is bad is human agency at work.” But perhaps, because we’re made of nothing, every good thing really does come from God. But in this case, I don’t see how creation can have any value since it would really only be nothing. (Perhaps its value is derived from God assigning it value arbitrarily.) I suppose at this point I should note Thomas a Kempis’ advice to not look too deeply into divine mysteries that are beyond me, and follow after today’s first reading by asking God to let me die already, to end my misery.
 
ethereality said:
To be honest, I was going to answer affirmatively, but now that I think about it, pleasing God seems incomprehensible, because God is already perfect and already perfectly happy. We only understand “pleasing” people – the only definition we have for this term is – in the sense of creating a feeling that wasn’t there prior to observation. (For example, I please my parents when they learn of something good that I’ve done.) Clearly, this cannot apply to one who is timeless, unchangeable, and already perfect, etc.

Perhaps it pleases Jesus, who has a human nature, but I don’t see how He can call me His ‘friend’ and then remain absent and silent when I try to spend time with Him.

Are you suggesting that I would be wasting something if I refrained from attending Daily Mass? If so, please elaborate.

You say God is not out-done in generosity. My previous pastor said this often. I’d like you to elaborate here, too, because it seems to me humans give me nice things, whereas what God gives me – the sum totality of my life – is more evil than good. I can tell myself and try to believe that God is acting through humans to give me nice things, but I don’t understand how you distinguish between divine agency and human agency in this case. It seems both contrary to human dignity and to insult God as Creator to declare that “everything men do that is good is divine agency at work, and everything men do that is bad is human agency at work.” But perhaps, because we’re made of nothing, every good thing really does come from God. But in this case, I don’t see how creation can have any value since it would really only be nothing. (Perhaps its value is derived from God assigning it value arbitrarily.) I suppose at this point I should note Thomas a Kempis’ advice to not look too deeply into divine mysteries that are beyond me, and follow after today’s first reading by asking God to let me die already, to end my misery.
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If you keep reading Tobit past today’s reading, you will note that God did not grant Sara’s request to die. Instead, God intervened against the evil spirit that had been tormenting her, giving her Tobias as a husband and children with him, including seven sons. After Tobias’ father Tobit died, Sara and Tobias returned to live with her parents, so her father obviously lived to see the blessing of grandchildren from her, because she was faithful to the law of God and did not (as she put it) “cause my father in his old age to go down to the nether world laden with sorrow.”

Sara saw that despair was the wrong response to her difficulties. She chose to trust God, instead. Do you? In today’s readings, she prayed, “Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God! Forever blessed and honored is your holy name; may all your works forever bless you.” Do you believe that in all justice God, as the author of all things, ought to be blessed by all He has made, rather than ignored or defied? What will you do with the gift of your God-given freedom to choose? Will you give God glory, or will you refuse?
 
ethereality:

It sounds like you need to take a break from Daily Mass. Honestly most people wouldn’t never consider going to more than one Sunday Mass a week. If you want to go, fine, but if the whole thing disturbs you don’t and don’t feel guilty.

I am not so sure that having a good motive for attending Daily Mass is a good reason to attend. I don’t think my motive for attending has ever been pure or good. I have always had some impure motive such needing to be with God because of stress in my life or even because someone was expecting me there. I have even dreaded going but ended being glad that I did. But if I left disturbed I don’t think would go again and again.
 
MSSheBear said:
ethereality:

It sounds like you need to take a break from Daily Mass. Honestly most people wouldn’t never consider going to more than one Sunday Mass a week. If you want to go, fine, but if the whole thing disturbs you don’t and don’t feel guilty.

I am not so sure that having a good motive for attending Daily Mass is a good reason to attend. I don’t think my motive for attending has ever been pure or good. I have always had some impure motive such needing to be with God because of stress in my life or even because someone was expecting me there. I have even dreaded going but ended being glad that I did. But if I left disturbed I don’t think would go again and again.
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Going to daily Mass because you need to be with God to deal with a difficult time is not an “impure motive.” What, are we supposed to go with some idea going to daily Mass is “all for God” because we don’t need it? Of course we go for our own benefit. Even raising our voices to give glory to God is for our benefit. When we know, love, and serve God better, we benefit the most. That is the economy of grace!

Very often, though, people who do not do well going to daily Mass experience that because they are not admitting the imbalance they are putting into their day by going. Sometimes we cannot do what we might like to do because it takes too much away from our other needs and duties. We become stressed because we tried to fit more good things into our lives that we have time to do. That is why there is not an obligation to go to daily Mass just because it is possible. We are supposed to discern whether we can carry out our other duties, too. Another reason we might not go is that we see we are not profiting as we should because we are neglecting some other area of our formation. When we do this, we might go with tepid hearts, because of that neglect. These are things to take to prayer and then, if prayerful reflection leaves us with questions, to our spiritual guides such as our pastors.
 
ethereality said:
Why should one attend or abstain from Mass? When should one receive or refrain from the Eucharist?

I am asking this question because I no longer have motivation to go, particularly for Daily Mass. At least Sunday Mass still sometimes has good music.

My explanation:

  1. *]Spending time with God, especially receiving the Eucharist: God appears absent, so any spiritual benefits[1] I obtain are seemingly equivalent to nothing except wasting time.
    *]To thank and praise God: It appears the suffering (evil) in my life outweighs the pleasure (good); it thus seems absurd to thank the god who created me to suffer. I can be grateful for the good things I have, that it’s not worse – it can always become worse – but I cannot pretend that God is good and thank God as if He’s doing me a favor when my life seems filled with more evil than good. I suppose I can thank God for the small goods that I have, but it seems I can do this alone just as well as in the Sanctuary.
    *]To pray (which changes us, not God): My Japanese proficiency is around N3, so I do not understand most of the prayers or homily, when there is one. Moreover, the more my prayers go unanswered, the more I can perceive no response from God, the more likely atheism appears, and the less likely Christianity appears.
    *]To spend time with others: People either leave immediately after Mass, don’t spend time with me, or speak so rapidly in group conversation that I cannot follow or participate. Moreover, it is unpleasant to be around many of those at Daily Mass: They are disfigured from age, cough, fart, smell badly, or evoke pity/horror through difficulty at things like turning pages or walking. It tempts me to hope to die young. (Apart from myself and the priest around his 50s, Daily Mass is usually attended by six elderly people.)
    *]Because the Church charges you under pain of sin to do so on Sundays: This reason binds me on Sunday, but only so far as I continue believing the Church is correct, and says nothing about Daily Mass.
    *]God may heal you when you receive the Eucharist: After ~600 failed attempts, I do not see how I can maintain any reasonable hope of this, and to hope unreasonably seems to sin with our intellect (since God wants us to be rational).
    *]To improve in Japanese proficiency:[3] I seem to have hit a plateau regarding listening and rapid reading skill, that at this point I must focus on detailed study (looking up unfamiliar words as I encounter them) to progress further.

    I can think of no other reasons to attend Mass.

    Regarding the Eucharist, the answer seems more straightforward: We should receive it when we believe it is God, are free of grave sin that was freely chosen with full knowledge,[2] and have the Church’s permission to do so. We should refrain otherwise.

    Do you have any other reasons or motivations for me to attend Mass? I am searching for reasons to keep going to Daily Mass after my disappointment last Sunday (yesterday).

    [1] What spiritual benefits are there, anyway, apart from growing in virtue in this life? Is ‘treasure in heaven’ actually something real, or is this idea a Protestant fiction to bribe children to be pleasant? What treasure is there other than God?

    [2] It is not clear to me how I could possibly commit a mortal sin, because whenever I commit grave sin, I always appear either to be lacking one of those other two criteria. I never want to do what hurts me when I am aware that it will hurt me. Hence it seems to me I always lack full knowledge when I commit grave sin. Can you clarify this point? I wonder if I’ve ever committed a mortal sin.

    [3] I wish more of the Liturgy were in Latin, but it seems in this era emotion trumps reason, so people value the comfort of their native language more than ideals of universal inclusion or holy language.
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  1. Perhaps if you start living out the faith rather than just depending on going to Church will help. Going to Church to the Mass is only one piece of the puzzle. The Mass can only work for you when you decide to take Christ out into the world. It doesn’t work any other way. It is like this. You go to Church to pick up power. God works at the Mass to give to us incredible graces. What we do with these graces depends on what we do outside the Mass and the Divine Liturgy. So the problem as I see in your post is you are coming to Church but what you are not doing perhaps is utilizing the power which you received outside the Mass. It is like this. I will give you this parable to understand better. There was a very rich man who every time you come to visit him on a Sunday will give to you $100,000. All he asks of you is to do some good with the money he has given to you to share it among those around you for he knows his money can do some good. The incredible thing about this gift of money is the more you spend or share it the more it increases. This is a small analogy of what our Holy Communions are. At every Mass the Lord gives to us an incredible investment, wages that Jesus has earned for you. The Mass is the work and sacrifice of God and not ours. What we receive at the Mass is the incredible “earnings” which the Lord Jesus has worked for so that He will impart into us, this $100,000 if you can say. What Jesus wants us do with this $100,000 is to spend it and to share it outside the Mass and the Divine Liturgy. When we do worthy acts of mercy outside the Mass and the Divine Liturgy than the investment that was given for us will actually increase in us.That is how we increase the Holy Spirit within us. You go to Church to receive great power and graces but you need to channel that power and grace once you are out in the world. That is how you increase it. Your work and sacrifice must compliment His work and sacrifice.
 
EasterJoy said:
Sara saw that despair was the wrong response to her difficulties. She chose to trust God, instead. Do you?
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I did and I have, and He’s repeatedly disappointed me, and allowed me to fall into ever greater suffering.
EasterJoy said:
Do you believe that in all justice God, as the author of all things, ought to be blessed by all He has made, rather than ignored or defied? What will you do with the gift of your God-given freedom to choose? Will you give God glory, or will you refuse?
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These are not the right questions to be asking me. I do not have the choice to consider whether God ought to be blessed, nor can I choose to “give God glory”, whatever that means, without first finding Him. I have not found Him in the Eucharist, even though the Church promised me He would be there. So I am heartbroken and don’t know what else to do except give up and live as an agnostic (hoping God will reveal Himself).
 
vsedriver said:
Can you not give one hour a week to Jesus? Do you remember how he suffered in the garden and yet his closest friends couldn’t stay awake and pray for him? He suffered and died for you, for love of you, so that you could have eternal life. And you can’t give him one hour a week? I do not go to Mass to get something out of it. I go because I want to show Jesus I love him. Actually, once I made the decision I would go to Mass to show my love for Jesus, the Mass became incredibly beautiful and I was filled with joy to the point where now I hate to miss Mass at all. Even when the music is bad, the sermon is boring I look up and say, “see Lord, I will wait one hour with you.”
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ethereality said:
I did and I have, and He’s repeatedly disappointed me, and allowed me to fall into ever greater suffering.

These are not the right questions to be asking me. I do not have the choice to consider whether God ought to be blessed, nor can I choose to “give God glory”, whatever that means, without first finding Him. I have not found Him in the Eucharist, even though the Church promised me He would be there. So I am heartbroken and don’t know what else to do except give up and live as an agnostic (hoping God will reveal Himself).
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Yes, you can give God glory because you chose to have faith and hope in God, even though you have not had sensible consolations to encourage you in that direction.

I cannot explain this as well as I would like, but consider this chapter from the Screwtape Letters, in which a senior tempter explains this to a junior demon:

*My dear Wormwood,

So you ‘have great hopes that the patient’s religious phase is dying away’, have you? I always thought the Training College had gone to pieces since they put old Subgob at the head of it, and now I am sure. Has no one every told you about the law of Undulation?

Humans are amphibians-- half spirit and half animal. (The Enemy’s determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Father to withdraw his support from Him.) As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for as to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation-- the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life-- his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it.

To decide what the best use of it is, you must ask what use the Enemy wants to make of it, and then do the opposite. Now it may surprise you to learn that in His efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. The reason is this. To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself-- creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because he has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.

And that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to override a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs-- to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot ‘tempt’ to virtual as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

But of course the troughs afford opportunities to our side also. Next week I will give you some hints on how to exploit them,

You affectionate uncle
Screwtape*
 
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