Scrupulosity: Condition Or Cross?

[FutureCarmeliteClaire]

[quote name='BarbaraTherese' timestamp='1326266311' post='2366813']
One of the most encouraging books of the Bible for those suffering or under temptation is the Book of Job. We read in the opening paragraphs that the devil cannot do anything whatsoever unless first it asks permission of God to do so:


Try very hard and with prayer to put into practise what your spiritual director advises. Obedience is a powerful virtue.
Put your problem that you feel Satan is trying to keep you from Holy Communion to whoever is advising you and ask how to respond. Were it me, I would simply trust in God's Mercy and go to Holy Communion, providing my spiritual director had not advised me otherwise.If
I felt I might have committed a mortal sin and forgotten it, I would do exactly what you did and either refrain from the Communion Procession or join it for a blessing only. This is no victory at all for Satan - rather it is a victory over Satan. Do you think that The Lord would abandon you to less Grace, His Love and Mercy, because of the confusing state you found yourself in and refrained from Holy Communion. Not at all, NEVER! I would then go to Confession at the first opportunity.
There is nothing at all sinful, rather it is a virtue, to refrain from Holy Communion if I feel I may not be in a position to go to Holy Communion. However, for the person suffering scruples, their course would be to be obedient to their director as the safest and surest response.
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About refraining from Communion, I can't do that. Because I KNOW that I did not commit a mortal sin, it's all mental for me. If I don't ever receive Communion, that would be a victory for Satan because I know that is what he is trying to get me to do. He doesn't want me to receive Communion. My Confessor told me that I frequently receive Communion and frequently go to Confession, he said that when I commit a sin, to get down on my knees, ask for forgiveness from Our Heavenly Father, and move on with the rest of my day. It is true, I know the difference from when I actually commit a mortal sin and when I am being scrupulous. When you are in mortal sin and a practicing Catholic you feel dead, and hopeless, but when you are scrupulous there is more suffering and anxiety, at least for me.

[BarbTherese]

Follow just what your director has advised you to do with confidence.

Apologies. I didn't mean that you should refrain from Holy Communion, but that if you did for some scrupulous reason it would be a victory over Satan rather than a victory for Satan, for even if you were wrong in not going to Holy Communion, transcending that is the fact that you were trying to be obedient to The Church, The Mystical Body of Christ on earth. If we think that we have some valid reason not to go to Holy Communion, then it is best not to go and that this is a virtue rather than the opposite. But always be guided without hesitation by your director with great confidence.
Rest assured that Grace present is always far superior than anything Satan can tempt us to do - and that is all the thing can do i.e. tempt. Never force, while temptation can be very strong.

Edited January 11, 2012 by BarbaraTherese

[BarbTherese]

[quote]for even if you were wrong in not going to Holy Communion[/quote]

I would just like to qualify my statemen above. It would have been better worded "even if you made a mistake in not going to Holy Communion and had been, in fact, able to go to Holy Communion". It was an honest mistake at that time and transceding that mistake would be that you were honesty trying to do what was right.

Speak with your director about your conviction that Satan is trying to keep you from going to Holy Communion. Follow your director's advice.

Here is what Cardinal Cottier OP had to say in an introduction to a book by Fr Amorth, an exorcist in Rome :
[quote] [url="http://catholicinsight.com/online/church/vatican/article_751.shtml"]http://catholicinsig...ticle_751.shtml[/url]
It is appropriate to recall some principles. The evil of sin is committed by a free will. Only God can penetrate the depth of a person's heart; the devil does not have the power to enter that sanctuary. He acts only on the exterior, on the imagination and on feelings of a sentient origin. [u][b]Moreover, his action is limited by the permission of Almighty God[/b][/u].

The devil generally acts through temptation and deceit; he is a liar (cf. John 8:44). He can deceive, induce to error, cause illusion and, probably more than arouse vices, he can support the vices and the origins of the vices that are in us. ....................

The devil is much more dangerous as tempter than through extraordinary signs or astonishing external manifestations, because the gravest evil is sin. It is no accident that we ask in the Lord's Prayer: "Lead us not into temptation." Against sin, the Christian can fight victoriously with prayer, prudence, in humility knowing the fragility of human freedom, with recourse to the Sacraments, above all Reconciliation and the Eucharist. He [u][b]must also ask[/b][/u] the Holy Spirit for the gift of discernment, knowing that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are received with the grace of Baptism.

.........................[u][b]In the face of deceit, it is desirable that the Catholic faithful have an ever-more-profound knowledge of Christian doctrine[/b][/u]. The apostolate must be promoted on behalf of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is of extraordinary usefulness to combat ignorance. The devil perhaps is instigator of this ignorance: he distracts man from God and it is a great loss that can be contained by promoting an adequate apostolate in the media, in particular television, considering the amount of time that many people spend watching television programs, often with contents that are culturally inconsistent and immoral.
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Edited January 12, 2012 by BarbaraTherese

[FutureCarmeliteClaire]

Thanks for all the help

[BarbTherese]

[ImageTrinity]

I struggled with scrupulosity for years and I feel your pain. That only thing that helped me was to find a spiritual director who is a priest and psychoanalyst...he was able to address both the spiritual and psychological sides of my struggle which was a huge blessing! If you have a spiritual director you trust, listen to his counsel. Mine told me that I should not go to confession more than twice a month (I had been going a few times a week or sometimes a few times a day!), that I should receive communion everyday and that I should find ways to help others. As tough as it was at first, I eventually discovered God's mercy and peace through these habits.
My spiritual director has dealt with plenty of scrupulous people, and he has referred some to a psychiatrist for further counseling and medication for OCD. It really depends on the person.