When should I refrain from receiving Communion?

www.catholic.com/
Tim Staples answers a caller who asks how one can determine whether or not they should refrain from receiving the Eucharist.
Tim Staples is Director of Apologetics and Evangelization here at Catholic Answers, but he was not always Catholic. Tim was raised a Southern Baptist. Although he fell away from the faith of his childhood, Tim came back to faith in Christ during his late teen years through the witness of Christian televangelists. Soon after, Tim joined the Marine Corps.
During his four-year tour, he became involved in ministry with various Assemblies of God communities. Immediately after his tour of duty, Tim enrolled in Jimmy Swaggart Bible College and became a youth minister in an Assembly of God community. During his final year in the Marines, however, Tim met a Marine who really knew his faith and challenged Tim to study Catholicism from Catholic and historical sources. That encounter sparked a two-year search for the truth. Tim was determined to prove Catholicism wrong, but he ended up studying his way to the last place he thought he would ever end up: the Catholic Church!
He converted to Catholicism in 1988 and spent the following six years in formation for the priesthood, earning a degree in philosophy from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, Pennsylvania. He then studied theology on a graduate level at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for two years. Realizing that his calling was not to the priesthood, Tim left the seminary in 1994 and has been working in Catholic apologetics and evangelization ever since.
If you are interested in booking Tim Staples for an upcoming event, please contact Catholic Answers at [phone].

[@Rukia921]

i struggle with this same exact question this caller had all the time.

[@gregswartz8098]

Praise God! See your impact Catholic Answers?!?!

[@tomprovoenzano]

The formation in moral theology I received laid out the principle that to be culpable for a mortal sin the act committed is grave matter, is acted upon after proper reflection and with full consent of the will. If one of these elements is not present a person is not in a state of mortal sin, even if the act in question is objectively morally sinful. If the person is in doubt as to whether a particular act constitutes grave matter then they should find out. If they receive Communion while harboring this doubt, but before having a reasonable opportunity to inform their conscience then they would not be sinning. If they were to willfully maintain their ignorance, not seeking out the truth, then we would be talking about a sin.

[@KaiseRex42]

I must agree with Fr Tom and Will Branson comment below on the actuality of a Mortal sin. . thereby making it impossible to commit such a sin or at least being culpable in ignorance. I should add that I was always taught? that BEFORE we go to Communion we should make a private act of contrition (or after if we forgot?) but that we should say for example. . oh my God I am very sorry . .etc. Such a proper contrite act of faith is sufficient to receive Holy Communion. Of course there are exceptions? the Nazis, the Mafia or others that are in Mortal sin which is very difficult but requires the Sacrament of Reconciliation .. then we have Our Lords own warning of not being at odds with ones brother but first going and making peace with them . . .nonetheless, the trend in Tradition from Saints like Augustine to Faustina is that we should have confidence in Gods Love, his Mercy and his providence for us sinners. We are never worthy of Holy Communion, even if we were sinless the grace it affords us is greater than human identity can understand. Yet we should believe that God essentially wants us to receive him in the Sacrament and that it is for our eternal good .. . we must remember that for this he came down from heaven and died on a cross . .. that we might be redeemed. In that light we should probably go rejoicing to the altar? Worry and anxiety are useless, tools of the devil to displace our Confidence in Gods Goodness and welcome for his prodigals. Rather be of good cheer and thankful for his grace upon us. If we hold that attitude then we shall always be able to attend holy communion.

[@michaelamanansala1114]

I have a question, I realized that I have a legalistic spirit and now I am struggling with how I would know if it's legalism or just the call of the spirit. I wanna have a strong conscience for I know they have more freedom and they aren't easily offended and they know how to handle spiritual gray areas properly. I don't hate conservatives I admire them for being that way but for me I feel a little strangled. there are times that I have read about these things and they are indeed "okay" but my feelings keep on saying no no no and once I try to fight that "no", the aftermath is always a guilty spirit. How can I discern and how do I handle the accusing spirit if it is indeed wrong?