The Ten Commandments

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

1. I AM THE LORD THY GOD: THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.

COMMANDS: faith, hope, love, and worship of God; reverence for holy things; prayer.

FORBIDS: idolatry; superstition; spiritism; tempting God; sacrilege; attendance at false worship.

2. THOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.

COMMANDS: reverence in speaking about God and holy things; the keeping of oaths and vows.

FORBIDS: blasphemy; the irreverent use of God’s name; speaking disrespectfully of holy things; false oaths and the breaking of vows.

3. KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY.

COMMANDS: going to church on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

FORBIDS: missing church through one’s own fault; unnecessary servile work on Sunday and holy days of obligation.

4. HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER.

COMMANDS: love; respect; obedience on the part of children; care on the part of parents for the spiritual and temporal welfare of their children; obedience to civil and religious superiors.

FORBIDS: hatred of parents and superiors; disrespect; disobedience.

5. THOU SHALT NOT KILL.

COMMANDS: safeguarding of one’s own life and bodily welfare and that of others.

FORBIDS: unjust killing; suicide; abortion; sterilization; dueling; endangering life and limb of self or others.

6. THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.

COMMANDS: chastity in word and deed.

FORBIDS: obscene speech; impure actions alone or with others.

7. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.

COMMANDS: respect for the property of rights and others; the paying of just debts; paying just wages to employees; integrity in public office.

FORBIDS: theft; damage to the property of others; not paying just debts; not returning found or borrowed articles; giving unjust measure or weight in selling; not paying just wages; bribery; graft; cheating; fraud; accepting stolen property; not giving an honest day’s work for wages received; breach of contract.

8. THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHBOR.

COMMANDS: truthfulness; respect for the good name of others; the observance of secrecy when required.

FORBIDS: lying; injury to the good name of others; slander; talebearing; rash judgment; contemptuous speech and the violation of secrecy.

9. THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S WIFE.

COMMANDS: purity in thought.

FORBIDS: wilful impure thought and desires.

10. THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S GOODS.

COMMANDS: respect for the rights of others.

FORBIDS: the desire to take, to keep, or damage the property of others.

UPLOADED BY MICHAEL G HAINS SYSOP CATHOLICS’ RESOURCE NETWORK COMPUSERVE ID 76711,1340


How to Love Your Difficult Parents

The Ten Commandments tell us to “honor thy mother and father”, but what does that really look like? Especially for adult children?

Parents are not perfect, and sometimes they make mistakes that leave us and others wounded. So when God tells us to honor them, what does he mean by that? There’s a certain respect that all are owed simply by their personhood, and then there’s a respect that someone deserves because of their role or position. But what if our parents are dishonorable people? Does this commandment change once we’re adults out of their direct care?

Today, Father Mike explains how we can love difficult parents.


Meditation of the Day – Out of the Darkness

“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: The Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death. By the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.”— J. R. R. Tolkien, p. 119

//Catholic Company//