Monachus

What is Spirtual Communion

Spiritual communion is the act of being open to receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist in times that we are unable to attend the sacrifice of the Mass. We are all called to the table of the Lord for the sacrifice, yet not all are able to reeive him in the Eucharist on teh cummunion line. Many present will properly deny themselves from receiving Christ in the Eucharist for reasons only known to them. One of those reasons can be not having fasted before receiving or not having gone to the sacrament of reconciliation.

For this to be effective we all need to come into the temple with the devotion and the disposition

Venial sin and mortal sin are not the same

When the Holy Spirit calls us to the Mass, we all begin to get ready for the sacrifice that is about to be experienced. When the celebrating priest begins the Mass we all start with the prayer of contrition the "I confess ...". This prayer is used for all of those present who are not completely clean. yet do not have any mortal sin on their souls. The prayer is used for each of us to tell the Lord that we confess our venial sin. [5]

The contrition prayer, however, does not relive us from mortal sin. Only a contrite heart that has gone to the sacrament of reconciliation can attain this cleansing. A soul that is on mortal sin

The Efficacy or Prayer

The Catholic faith teaches that every prayer is effective. With that said, a prayer must be prayed within the context of the reason of the prayer. For instance, if we pray to God for us to win a race so that we can have the money, that is not necesarily the contect of unity with God. Praying the Communion Prayer for others is also not the best use of prayer time, as the context of the prayer is said in the first Person "I". [1]

The Urge of Intercession

We are all called to interced for others regardless of our circimstances in life. Yet, the prayer of spiritual communion brings us to pray for someone who is in mortal sin and further, the prayer does not ask for that person to remove themselves from the situations that bring them into that mmortal sin. This makes us intercessors of the sinner with the sin and that is not allowed by scripture 1 John 5:16-17[3] When we say this prayer is for someone who we know is sinning mortally and we are tending toward inteerceeding for the sin as well

[1] The Eucharist, Lawrence Feingold (Steubenville, OH, Emmaus Academic) 265.

Applying this two alternatives to the Eucharist, the two options are that either (a) christ's Body and Blood are moved into the bread and wine, which remain unchanged, or (b) that the bread and wine are converted into Christ's body and blood.

[2] Ibid 234.

Paschasius's central thesis is that Christ is present in the Eucharist with the same Body that was born of the Virgin, crucified, and risen.

[3] 1 John 5:16-17

If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. (17) All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.

[4] Aquinas on Transubstantiation: The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist (Washington, DC, The Catholic University of America Press) 29.

By the consecraion of the bread and wine, there takes the change [conversio] of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. And the holy catholic church has suitable and properly called this change transubstantiation.

[5] Aquinas on Transubstantiation: The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist (Washington, DC, The Catholic University of America Press) 31.

Spiritual Communion Prayer