Tag: Sabbath

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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

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Minute Meditation – Living in the Present

Much derails us. Noise, distraction, an inability to say no, an inability to have boundaries for a healthy self. Our internal worrier will continue to pester us: “What’s the secret? How do we actually practice it?” But that is the enigma, isn’t it? Life turns left and does somersaults when we least expect it. So, we juggle and we multitask. And we want someone to give us the answers. We want someone to balance it all or give us the list. Living in the present, fully alive and wholehearted, is not a technique. There is no list. And chances are, we pass by life—the exquisite, the messy, the enchanting, the untidy, the inexplicable—on our way to someplace we think we ought to be. When life throws us a curve that makes our present moment loom larger than anything else, we learn to shift our focus. There is meaning—consequence, value, import—only when what we believe or teach touches this moment. In other words, it’s the small (and specific) stuff that really does matter. Belief is all well and good, but there has to be skin on it—something we touch, see, hear, taste, and smell. The ordinary really is the hiding place for the holy.

To stand still is to practice Sabbath—meaning literally, to rest. To stop. To savor uncluttered time. To be gentle with yourself. And yes, to waste time with God. The bottom line? I’m no longer chasing what I assume will fill empty spaces in order to make me something I am not. Replenishment begins here: “I am enough.” In our Western mindset, living in the present becomes a staged event—staged to be “spiritual,” as if this is something we must orchestrate or arrange. No wonder we sit stewing in the juices of our self-consciousness (“Am I present? What am I doing right or wrong?”), all the while missing the point.

—from the book Stand Still: Finding Balance When the World Turns Upside Down,
by Terry Hershey, page ix

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Minute Meditation – The Grace of Sabbath

We are reminded of the truth of the creation—that our work, though called and needed, is not necessary. The world will continue without us and came long before us. Our work is to live from and with these gifts so that we can use what time we have, what little time we have, to tend their flourishing rather than exploit them for the gains that will soon fade with the rot. The practice of Sabbath also has the effect of elevating the value of labor and of the people engaged in it. It is not a break so that we might become renewed and refreshed for more work, but is rather a time when we live in the simple reality that we are creatures whose lives are given by God. On the Sabbath, we are able to be apart from our achievements.

— from the book Wendell Berry and the Given Life,

by Ragan Sutterfield

//Franciscan Media//

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The Bible in a Year – Day 180 – Giving Time to God

As we conclude the book of Amos, we hear Amos rebuke the people for grudgingly giving their time to God, as in prayer or on the sabbath, and counting the minutes until they could do whatever they wanted. Fr. Mike points out that if we don’t give our hearts and minds to God, we won’t be able to stand heaven, where prayer and praise are everlasting. The readings are 2 Kings 13-14, Amos 7-9, and Psalm 124.

Click on link:
https://youtu.be/BQytVvj7lQ4