Not all baptised Catholics can receive communion. There are additional requirements before you can receive the body and blood of Christ.
These include being in a state of sanctifying grace, making sure you’ve gone to confession since your last mortal sin, and observing the Eucharist fast.
The first two requirements are important in answering the question on whether you can receive communion if you are living with your boyfriend.
Fornication And Communion
Sex outside the confines of holy matrimony is fornication. As long as you are sexually active with your boyfriend – which you likely are – you are engaging in fornication.
Some Catholics go as far as referring to fornication as a mortal sin, a grave action that you commit consciously and with full knowledge of its consequences (separation between you and God’s grace).
Whether it’s a mortal sin or not, it’s still a sin from the perspective of the Catholic Church. Here’s what the Catechism of the Catholic Church states.
Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.
Fornication, along with infidelity and a host of other sexual sins are regarded as going against the sixth commandment on adultery.
Living with your boyfriend means you are in an ongoing state of sin, thus you are not in a state of sanctifying grace and cannot receive communion.
Even if you went confession before receiving communion, you’d still be in a state of sin, or mortal sin according to some believers.
The only way to make the situation right is to live separately from your boyfriend and don’t have sex until you are married in the church.
Once you are living separately, go to confession and seek forgiveness for your sin. You can then receive communion.
- Read also: How To Dispose Of Holy Water Properly?
Other Sexual Sins
It’s not just living with your boyfriend or girlfriend that make you ineligible for the holy communion. Many other sexual sins keep you from having sanctifying grace.
These include infidelity, pornography, masturbation, prostitution and lust. If you’ve committed any of these acts, you have to stop and seek forgiveness in confession. Once you are in a state of grace, you can then receive communion as long as you are a baptised catholic.
Notably, homosexuals are also eligible for communion as long as they are not engaging in sexual acts. If you are gay or lesbian, you can partake in the Eucharist.
Looking for a prayer for your boyfriend? Here’re 5 examples you can use.
Thank you for the kind advice.