The Church urges us to receive Communion frequently (even daily, if possible), it is a sacrament of initiation because, like Baptism and Confirmation, it brings us into the fullness of our life in Christ. 

In Holy Communion, we are eating the True Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, without which "you shall not have life in you" (John 6:53). 

There is an intimate connection of the Sacrament of Holy Communion to our life in Christ, therefore, we must be free of any grave or mortal sin before receiving it, as St. Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29. Otherwise, as he warns, we receive the sacrament unworthily, and we "eat and drink damnation" to ourselves. 

If we are aware of having committed a mortal sin, we must participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation first. The Church sees the two sacraments as connected, and urges us, when we can, to join frequent Confession with frequent Communion.