Lesson 15
Can You Receive The Holy Eucharist?
There are four conditions a person needs to receive the Holy Eucharist. He or she should be: 1) a practicing Catholic; 2) having reached the age of reason – which is normally considered seven or eight years old –; 3) having kept the one hour fast from food and beverage; and 4) is in the state of grace, which means they are not aware of unconfessed mortal sins on their soul.
Only human beings may receive the Holy Eucharist, and they have to be alive, and be able to eat and receive, at least at some level. Perhaps a dying person on their death bed may seem unable to eat or comprehend, but doctors will tell you that the last sense to go is the sense of hearing. They could be aware. It could be possible in that situation, if a Mass were being celebrated in that room, that the dying person could receive a drop of the precious blood on their tongue. There has to be some possibility that the person is aware of what he or she is doing, and all possibility of profanation of the Holy Eucharist has to be eliminated. Let’s not be superstitious with the Sacraments.
Normally people receive Holy Communion at Mass. In the USA, the faithful are asked to receive Holy Communion standing up, but they are allowed to receive kneeling down, on their hands or on their tongue. At least that’s what the current law states.
Also, the Faithful can receive Holy Communion a second time “iterum” in a day if that second time is at a Mass. Priests are encouraged to celebrate Mass every day, and allowed to do so twice on Sundays if there is enough demand. That’s called bination. But in Mexico, priests can celebrate three Masses on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation because there are lots of Catholics, lots of villages, and not so many priests. And it’s been that way since Pope Leo XIII at the end of the 19th century. Finally, priests can celebrate three Masses on All Souls Day, November 2, and three Masses on Christmas Day, and it’s been that way since the fourth century.
All practicing Catholics are required to receive Holy Communion at least once a year, during the Easter Season, commonly understood to last for ninety days, from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost. They are also encouraged to make a good confession during that period.
But take my advice if you are able to: try to receive Holy Communion every day if you want to be a saint. And dress up in your Sunday best, or however you would if you were going to meet the “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.”
So tune in every day of Lent to learn more about your Catholic faith, because if you Learn it, then you can Live it; and if you Live it, you will Love it; and if you Love it, you will never Leave it!
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