- Feb 5, 2002
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I got marriage wrong, twice. Here’s why I’m grateful a priest never blessed me for being in that state.
got marriage wrong, twice. Here’s why I’m grateful a priest never blessed me for being in that state.
When I was in college, I entered into a relationship with another woman. She was a practicing Catholic; I was less practicing but more an occasional Catholic.
Weekly Mass attendance was still part of her routine, and we would sometimes go together. Usually, her sister went with us, so it felt more like a group activity than us going “as a couple.”
When we did go, I always felt self-conscious at the sign of peace, wondering if people would be able to tell that we were together by the way we quickly hugged one another. The same went for walking up for Holy Communion; I wondered if someone might look at me and know.
I now realize that feeling was Jesus looking at me—and knowing.
Sadly, the question of worthiness to receive never entered my mind. If it did hers, she never mentioned it.
State of grace catechesis seems not to have landed in my heart as a ’90s and early 2000s young Catholic. Perhaps it wasn’t emphasized enough. Or, I failed to understand its gravity, and that of mortal sin more broadly.
This is where current pastoral guidanceallowing for the blessing of couples in mortally sinful relationships further exacerbates, rather than ameliorates, the problem of practicing Catholics in immoral relationships.
Continued below.
crisismagazine.com
got marriage wrong, twice. Here’s why I’m grateful a priest never blessed me for being in that state.
When I was in college, I entered into a relationship with another woman. She was a practicing Catholic; I was less practicing but more an occasional Catholic.
Weekly Mass attendance was still part of her routine, and we would sometimes go together. Usually, her sister went with us, so it felt more like a group activity than us going “as a couple.”
When we did go, I always felt self-conscious at the sign of peace, wondering if people would be able to tell that we were together by the way we quickly hugged one another. The same went for walking up for Holy Communion; I wondered if someone might look at me and know.
I now realize that feeling was Jesus looking at me—and knowing.
Sadly, the question of worthiness to receive never entered my mind. If it did hers, she never mentioned it.
State of grace catechesis seems not to have landed in my heart as a ’90s and early 2000s young Catholic. Perhaps it wasn’t emphasized enough. Or, I failed to understand its gravity, and that of mortal sin more broadly.
This is where current pastoral guidanceallowing for the blessing of couples in mortally sinful relationships further exacerbates, rather than ameliorates, the problem of practicing Catholics in immoral relationships.
Continued below.
I’m Grateful a Priest Never Blessed My Same-Sex Marriage (or My Irregular One)
I got marriage wrong, twice. Here’s why I’m grateful a priest never blessed me for being in that state.
crisismagazine.com
