First Holy Communion (reflections)

[Sal]

What I did like was the homily. The priest talked about cultivating love within oneself, not only for family and close ones, but also for strangers. This seems like a good idea to me. I have reservations about equating love with Jesus or advising one to express love to an imaginary being. But where else (outside of religious institutions) do people intentionally and meditatively cultivate love within themselves? Hippies do it, I guess. But otherwise this sort of thing is only practiced in a religious context.

Loving oneself is all well and good, also showing compassion and love to strangers, but I would set the  limit to loving your enemies. They are your enemies after all.

Freed from its doctrinal trappings, I think this sort of spiritual exercise may be of benefit. What do you say? Is gathering together with other people to intentionally cultivate love within oneself a beneficial spiritual exercise? Or is it just wishful/imaginative thinking that serves no real purpose whatsoever? As atheists, I think we sometimes forget that maybe some people don't go to church just to hear about Sky Fairy. Perhaps some are motivated to participate in a spiritual exercise they can't really do anywhere else.

I think it's irrelevant and a superfluous experience that can be had without the religious strings attached. Not that it doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever, just that it can be had without the religious stuffing attached to it.

It's a communal experience, not exclusive to a church or ministry. I can get the same caliber communal experience in a club or some other social event. It's the people that matter, not the setting, IMO

[chimp3]

I was 8 and was just going along. Every Wednesday Catechism then confession. What drudgery. By 11 I stopped going to confession and communion. I always faked the confession thing, sometimes made up shit to confess because I was a pretty good kid at that age. Then I would pretend I was doing my Hail Marys. Soon as I could think on my own I was out of Catholicism. By 13 an atheist.

Regarding Baptism into the RCC, I was trained to do this as a Pediatric nurse. Baby is dying, Priest unavailable : Make the sign of the Cross over the baby and say "I Baptize you (or name), in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!" Any nurse would do , did not have to be Catholic. They were in like Flynn. I would not have done this though, but I would have taught the family or find another nurse that would. I do the same thing now when one of my residents ask for prayer. I go get someone else.

[CapnAwesome]

I went through first communion and its one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. All first communions are preceded by a first confession, where you have to confess all your sins privately to an elderly virgin in a small creepy room.

An 8 year old doesn't have sins, so I literally made stuff up, as did my brother and lots of other kids. Also you have to memorize a lot of prayers and dress up in uncomfortable clothes publically. None of the kids really wanted to be there. It's humiliating and terrible really.

I have to say, probably one of my least favorite childhood experiences with the church, and you are told if you take communion with sin in your heart, it's a mortal sin, or that god might literally smite you.

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I was 8 and was just going along. Every Wednesday Catechism then confession. What drudgery. By 11 I stopped going to confession and communion. I always faked the confession thing, sometimes made up shit to confess because I was a pretty good kid at that age. Then I would pretend I was doing my Hail Marys. Soon as I could think on my own I was out of Catholicism. By 13 an atheist.

Lol, I also made stuff up! That's funny.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Yeah...anpthsr reason not to covert. My confessions would take longer than RCIA. That, followed by 3 billion Hail Mary's

[Minimalist]

Ever wonder what "god" does with all those stupid-assed prayers?

[vorlon13]

Redeems them for S&H Green Stamps ??

[Quick]

Tl;DR,

I always find it ironic all the rules and regulations and otherwise structure that Catholicism has attributed to their religions when Christ's message was pretty contrary to an organized "dos and don'ts"

The message I get from Christ is that one is to live by the influence of the holy spirit. As such as soon as one starts playing this game of what one is "supposed" to do, Christ's message is largely lost.

[ignoramus]

Ever wonder what "god" does with all those stupid-assed prayers?

They collect them to level up.
Every billion prayers, they get to create another universe in our multiverse. True Story!

[Succubus]

Yes. Holy water does not affect the validity of a sacrament.

And it is one of the few Catholic sacraments that can be performed by anyone, not just a priest.

Yes, that was a hurriedly knocked together amendment by the church to counter the flood of embarrassing enquiries as to what happens to the soul of infants who die without baptism.

Help! Little Timmy has just fallen out of his cot and landed on a steak knife, there's no time to find a priest! No problem misses just lick your finger and mark a cross on his head and he's good to go.
How very convenient, but! He's good to go where? When the church scrapped the idea of Limbo they shot themselves in the foot, they now openly state they don't know where un baptised children go.

[Seraphina]

I went through first communion and its one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. All first communions are preceded by a first confession, where you have to confess all your sins privately to an elderly virgin in a small creepy room.

An 8 year old doesn't have sins, so I literally made stuff up, as did my brother and lots of other kids. Also you have to memorize a lot of prayers and dress up in uncomfortable clothes publically.  None of the kids really wanted to be there. It's humiliating and terrible really.

I have to say, probably one of my least favorite childhood experiences with the church, and you are told if you take communion with sin in your heart, it's a mortal sin, or that god might literally smite you.

---

I was 8 and was just going along. Every Wednesday Catechism then confession. What drudgery. By 11 I stopped going to confession and communion. I always faked the confession thing, sometimes made up shit to confess because I was a pretty good kid at that age. Then I would pretend I was doing my Hail Marys. Soon as I could think on my own I was out of Catholicism. By 13 an atheist.

Lol, I also made stuff up! That's funny.

Count me as a member of the made-up sins in confession club lol. I went to Catholic school grades K-12 and when they took us to confession, I made up sins to tell the priest because I was a pretty decent kid too other than typical kid-squabbles with my 4 brothers.

-Teresa