Reception of Holy Communion
Anyone aware of having committed a grave sin is obliged to refrain from receiving Communion without first obtaining absolution in the sacrament of Reconciliation. In addition, canon 1331 ยง1 of the Code of Canon Law forbids an excommunicated person, even one who has incurred a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication, from receiving Holy Communion or any other of the sacraments of the Catholic Church. Also forbidden to receive the sacraments is anyone who has been interdicted. These rules concern a person who is considering whether to receive Holy Communion, and in this way differ from the rule of canon 915, which concerns instead a person who administers the sacrament to others.
Canon 915 is immediately followed by canon 916, which concerns the recipient of Holy Communion, not the minister administering it to that person: "A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to celebrate Mass or receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible."
Read more about this topic: Canon 915
Famous quotes containing the words reception of, reception, holy and/or communion:
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding.”
—Bible: New Testament St. Paul, in Philippians, 4:7.
The words are also used in the Book of Common Prayer, Holy Communion (1662)
“There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)