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Is it sacrilegious to make a sincere act of Spiritual Communion with unconfessed serious sin on one's soul?
John
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Is it sacrilegious to pray a Spiritual Communion with unconfessed serious sin on one's soul? }
Mike replied:
Hi John,
Thanks for the good question.
For those unfamiliar with a Spiritual Communion, the prayer goes this way:
Spiritual Communion
O Lord Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
I love you above all things, (with all my mind, with all my heart, and with all my soul).
I love you because you are infinitely good and worthy of all my love.
Since I cannot receive You now sacramentally, at least come spiritually into my heart.
I embrace myself entirely to You and unite myself wholly to You.
Never permit me to be separated from You.
Come Lord Jesus and glorify Yourself through my weak, broken body.
Amen.
This prayer can be said by anyone living on the face of the Earth.
I know of no official Church teaching on this specific question but having a desire to communicate with the Lord is never sacrilegious.
If a Catholic knows that he is not worthy (or properly disposed) to receive the Eucharist at Sunday Mass, but obviously wants to, expressing his desire by saying a Spiritual Communion is fine and a manifestation of his love and desire for the Lord. The difference here is between:
Expressing a desire through prayer but not acting on the desire, and
Expressing a desire and acting on the inappropriate desire
(Receiving Communion when you shouldn't.)
That is my two cents.
Mike
John replied:
John —
I concur with Mike.
It is never sacrilegious to ask God to commune with you especially if you do so with penitent heart. That is one of the purposes of praying a Spiritual Communion.
Indeed the Lord is pleased that you are conscientiously obeying Holy Mother Church and abstaining from sacramental Communion which, sad to say, too many Catholics don't do anymore.
John
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