The precepts of the Church set the floor beneath which a Catholic life cannot go and still be a practising one. Two of them concern the sacraments: every Catholic who has made first Communion is bound to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, and to do so in the Easter season; and every Catholic who has reached the age of discretion is bound to confess grave sins at least once a year. Because the two are usually fulfilled together in Lent and Eastertide, they have long been called the 'Easter duty'. This guide explains what the law actually says and how to fulfil it well, as a beginning rather than an end.

What you need

• The dates of Lent and the Easter season this year, and your parish's confession times
• An examination of conscience (the Examination of Conscience guide on this site)
• The Act of Contrition

When to pray it

The Easter season runs from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, fifty days. In the United States the time for the Easter Communion has long been reckoned more generously, from the First Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday.

Steps

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   Step 1: Know what the precepts say

   The Catechism lists the precepts of the Church, among them: 'You shall confess your sins at least once a year' and 'You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.' Canon law gives them their exact form. Canon 920 obliges every member of the faithful, after first Communion, to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, during the Easter season unless for a just cause it is done at another time. Canon 989 obliges everyone who has reached the age of discretion to confess grave sins faithfully at least once a year. These are minimums that keep a Catholic in living contact with the sacraments, not a description of a full sacramental life.

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   Step 2: Know the Easter season window

   The Easter season proper runs from the Easter Vigil to Pentecost Sunday, fifty days. In the United States, by a long-standing concession, the time for fulfilling the Easter Communion has been reckoned from the First Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost, which gives about fourteen weeks. Choose a Sunday inside that window now, ideally Easter Sunday itself or one of the Sundays of the Octave, and plan confession for the week or two before it.

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   Step 3: Prepare with an examination of conscience

   Set aside fifteen minutes in a quiet place. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the truth about yourself, then go through your life since your last confession using the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes and the precepts of the Church; the Examination of Conscience guide walks through them one by one. Note every grave sin, by kind and roughly by number, and the venial sins that weigh on you most. Then pray the Confiteor▾, which is the Church's own short act of confession, and go the same day or the next, before the resolve fades.

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   Step 4: Go to confession

   Go at your parish's regular time or to a Lenten penance service. Begin with the Sign of the Cross and 'Bless me, Father, for I have sinned; it has been (however long) since my last confession', say your sins plainly, listen to the priest's counsel and accept the penance, pray the Act of Contrition▾, and receive absolution. The How to Go to Confession guide gives the whole form, and the How to Return to Confession After Many Years guide is written for exactly that case. Do your penance as soon as you can afterward.

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   Step 5: Receive Holy Communion

   Go to Mass on the Sunday you chose, in a state of grace, having kept the hour's fast from food and drink other than water and medicine, and receive the Eucharist. That receiving fulfils the precept; but receive it as what it is, the Body of Christ given at Easter, and make a thanksgiving afterward in your place, with the Anima Christi or in your own words. If for a just cause you cannot receive in the season, the law allows another time, but do not let the year pass.

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   Step 6: Continue beyond the minimum

   The precepts mark the least that keeps a Catholic alive in the sacraments; the Church's hope is far more. Sunday Mass every week is itself a precept, and Communion at every Mass one attends, in a state of grace, is the ordinary practice the Church encourages. Regular confession, monthly for many, keeps the conscience clear and the will strong even when there is no grave sin to confess. Having fulfilled the Easter duty, decide when you will next go to confession and write it down; the duty is meant to open a door, not to close one.

Tips

• The annual confession precept binds strictly only for grave sins; if you are not conscious of any, you are not obliged, but the Church earnestly recommends regular confession of venial sins.
• You may not receive Communion while conscious of grave sin without first going to confession, whatever the season. The Easter precept does not override that.
• If you cannot fulfil the Easter Communion in the season for a just cause, the law allows it at another time of year.
• Many parishes hold Lenten penance services with several confessors; they are the easiest way to fulfil the precept if it has been a long time.

Related practices

• Ignatian Examen