Thursday, March 15, 2007

Receiving Communion

We had an interesting digression during our Great Adventure study this week. Someone brought up receiving communion in other Christian churches, such as Lutheran and if it was permissible for Catholics to do so. Our group is all women, and range in age from late 20's to 60's. The upper reaches of the age group recalled that in their younger days, it was considered a sin to even enter a church of a protestant denomination. The younger of course did not believe this but were unclear as to why they should not receive. Actually, so were the older ladies. I explained that since we believe that Jesus is fully present in the Eucharist, and others do not share that belief, it is wrong to receive since it implies that you believe whatever they believe and you do not. It saddened that people are so unfamiliar with the teachings of our Church. And these are not people who are not searching, it just seems that no one gives clear answers any more. We talked for about 20 minutes on this topic and I did not even get into the validity of other denomination's holy orders.
I know the Holy Spirit was with us as we had our discussion. I pray the Spirit continues to lead all of us to seek the truth.

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