confession and the eucharist - try again

7/30/2019 Confession and the Eucharist - Try Again

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CONFESSIONAND THEEUCHARIST


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SITUATION OF THECHURCH

St. Teresa Avila said, it

suffices to receive one holycommunion, for a soul to

be transformed into a saint

(Gal 2:20: It is no longer thatlives but Christ living in me.)


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The truth

is that manygo to communion

and there seems

to be no

transformationin their lives.


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On the contrary

when they go

back to theirfamilies or

homes,they show the

ugliness of their

temperament

like before.


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PROBLEM

John Paul II, Domenicae Cenae,24 Feb 1980 # 11, is concerned that

many go to communion without going

to confession.

a. In this Culture of Death, many

commit the sins of contraception and

various kinds of sexual sins.


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b. Others commitsins of lying and

dishonesty, of

anger andunkindness to

others, of

arrogance and

self-indulgence.


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c. Today Catholics pray

little, sin much andare in danger of even

losing their faith

altogether; yet theconfessional are

empty and 100% of

the church goersreceive communion.


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d. While it is not a requirement to go to confessionbefore receiving communion, nonetheless a person in the

state of mortal sin cannot receive communion or else he

desecrates the Eucharist and finds himself infested andan enemy of God.


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Among the Magisterial

prohibition on the reception of

Communion are:

1) Catechism of the Catholic

Church

a. According to the Church

command, after having attained

the age of discretion, each of thefaithful is bound by an obligation

faithfully to confess serious sins at

least once a year.


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b. Anyone who is aware of having committed amortal sin must not receive Holy Communion even if

he experiences deep contrition, without having first

received sacramental absolution, unless he has a

grave reason for receiving communion and there isno possibility of going to confession.

c. Children must go to the sacrament of Penance

before receiving Holy Communion for the first time.(CCC 1457).


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2) Canon Law

prohibits from receivingCommunion:

a. Those who areexcommunicated or interdicted after the

imposition or declaration of the penalty and

b. Those others who obstinately persist in manifest

grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy

Communion. (Can 915)


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3) Local

Magisterium

a. Archbishop

Raymond Burke of

St. Loius, Missouri,

banns communion

to politicians and

legislators who

openly proposedanti-life policies. (Cf.

Can 915)


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b. There is no element of the common good

that could justify voting for a candidate whoalso endorses, without restriction or

limitation, the deliberate killing of the

innocent, abortion, embryonic stem cellresearch, euthanasia, human cloning, or

same sex marriage. (cf. A Pastoral Letter of

Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, "On our Civic

Responsibility for the Common Good." [Dec.

2004])


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4) Among others prohibited to

receive communion by the Church

Teachings are the following:

a. Divorced and remarried (CCC

1649, 1650, 1651) withoutprejudice to those exemptions

mentioned in Familiaris Consortio

(1984) and the CDF Instruction on

14 October 1994).

b. Civilly married


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c. Living habitually with

partner in concubinage.d. Ex-Priest and perpetuallyprofessed religious who

married without laicization.e. Those excommunicatedand interdicted who are not

yet absolved by the Holy Seeand Bishop or their delegates.(Can 1331)


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5.Those who sin against the Holy Spirit, e.g. those

who do not believe that confession cannot absolve

them from their sins because of their grave sins.(cf.John Paul II, Encyclical on the Holy Spirit, 1987)

Case: Jerome & Helen

6.Those who make bad confession because

of shame, or convenience. (cf. St. Teresa of

Avila)

7.Those who cannot forgive and forget their

enemies.(cf. Our Father)


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Solution:

I.Delicate Conscience(cf. Benedict XVI, Conscience of Our Times, edited by Vincent

Twomee)

1.Those who have not lost their sense of sins and sense

of God.

II.Proper Disposition

1. Proper disposition is needed so souls mayonce again find their joy and peace when they

receive communion and not be hexed due to

irreverence of the Eucharist.


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a.King Lothaires

sacrilegious communionwith his entourage,

despite the Popes

warning of his illicitrelationship with

Waldrada, died of a

mysterious and horrible

death.

(1Cor11:27)


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King Lothaire and his

entourage were attacked by

satan with malignant fever;

they lost their speech; they

were tormented by an inward

fire and their nails, hair and

skin fell off. On the other hand,

the lives of the kings suite who

refrained from receiving

communion were spared.


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St.TeresaAvila: Sacrilegious confession and

communion bring about lost of faith andreduction of our lives to brutes.

St. Peter Julian Eymard: Sacrilegiousconfession and communion is punished by

lost of faith, delay of graces and withdrawal

of graces already received.(cf. Fr. Michael Muller, The Blessed Eucharist,TAN 1994, p. 167)


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SOLUTION

1. Benedict XVI (cfGod

is Near Us, 2003, pp. 59-60)

traces the reasonswhy grave sinners

go to communion

without going toconfession:


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a. Some scholars say

that the Eucharist of

the early Church was

built upon meals that

Jesus shared with his

disciples day after day

(Ibid. p.59)


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b. Others teachthe Eucharist is

the continuation

of the meals thatJesus held with

sinners .


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c. Still some say theEucharist is an open

table to which all may

come to encounter the

universal God, without

any limit or

denominational

conditions.


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d. Moreoverothers teach

that the

Eucharist is itselfthe sacrament

of reconciliation.


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2. Benedict XVI (cf.

God Near Us, 2003)teaches that the

Eucharist is only for

the reconciled and notfor sinners.

a. Scripture tells us inPaul (1 Cor 11:27)


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b. The Teachings of the Twelve

Apostles, one of the oldest writingsavailable outside the New

Testament, at the beginning of the

2ndcentury said that: Whoever is

holy, let him approach, he who is

not holy, let him do penance.


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c. Traditions teach that the

Eucharist from the very

beginning of its institution,

was meant only for the new

family of apostles who

were reconciled with God.


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3. Dominicae

Cenae. John Paul II,(1980) said many go

to communion

without going to

confession becauseof the wrong

morality on what is

good and evil. (DC,

# 11).


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a. The sacrament of Penanceleads to the sacrament of the

Eucharist; the sacrament of theEucharist opens to the

Sacrament of penance.

(DC, #7)


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4. Pastores Dabo Vobis,

John Paul II, (1995)

a. The priests spiritual and

pastoral life like that of his

brothers and sisters, lay andreligious depends for its

quality and fervour, on the

frequent and conscientious

personal practice of theSacrament of Penance.


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b. The priests celebration of the Eucharist and

administration of the other Sacraments, his pastoral

zeal, his relationship with the faithful, his

communion with his brothers priests, his

collaboration with his Bishop, his life of prayerin aword, the whole of his priestly existence, suffers an

inexorable decline if by negligence or for some

other reason he fails to receive the Sacrament of

penance at regular intervals and in a spirit ofgenuine faith and devotion.


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5. Mane Nobiscum, John Paul II,

(2004)

a. The mutual abiding of Jesus in

us and we in Him, enables us to

have a certain foretaste of

heaven on earth.

b. The Eucharistic communion

was given so that we might be

satiated with God here on earth,

in expectation of our complete

fulfillment in heaven.


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STORY

St. John Vianney who spends

16 hours per day in the

confessional is the typical

example of the close link

between the Eucharist andReconciliation. Making

people worthy or at least

properly disposed in

receiving communion in tenyears time change the whole

Ars into a cilivilation of love,

a priestly nation.


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APPLICATION

1. Cardinal George Pell, member of theCDF, speaks of how he fought against ideas

of seminarians who do not go to

confession because of the new concept of

sin that man is not capable of really

committing mortal sin.

a. Moreover, he lamented why seminariansare taught by professors that they do not

need to go to mass daily.


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2. His Solution

was to dismiss allthe seminarians

and professors,

and close theseminary for one

year.


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After that he recruitedseminarians who are daily mass

goers and believe in regular

confession. Moreover he managedto change all the professors with

authentic doctrines and fidelity tothe Magisterium.


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3. The seminary

is overflowing

with goodseminarians,

faithful to the

Pope.


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CHALLENGE

1. Saints who go to confession daily orregularly before celebrating mass, have

beautiful experiences of ecstasies after

communion are St. Francis Assisi, St. Claire, St.

Francis Sales, St. Francis Borgia, St. DominicSavio, St. Therese of Child Jesus, St. Hugh, St.

Thomas Aquinas, St. Louis Bertrand, St. Joseph

Cupertino, St. Ignatius, St. Leonard of Port

Maurice, etc. (cf. Stefano Mannelli, Jesus, Our

Eucharistic Love, 1973, pp. 42-43).


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2. With regular confession to the

oratory boys of Don Bosco almost 1/3

of them fall into ecstasy after

communion.

3. St. Teresa of Avila, Magdalene of

Pazzi, Gemma Galgani, Rose of Lima,

Aloysius Gonzaga, they all fall intoecstasy after communion.


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4. If they can why

cant we so that

we have a

meaningful

encounter with

Jesus, really

present, Body,

Blood, Soul,Divinity of Jesus

Christ.

confession and the eucharist - try again

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