The Ten Commandments PDF

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS “What good deed must I do, to have eternal life” – “If you would enter into life, keep the Commandments” (Matthew 19:16-17) 2 WHAT ARE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS? The 10 Commandments are a set of Biblical principles...

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS “What good deed must I do, to have eternal life” – “If you would enter into life, keep the Commandments” (Matthew 19:16-17) 2 WHAT ARE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS? The 10 Commandments are a set of Biblical principles that are very important in Christianity and Judaism. They are also known as the Decalogue, which is a word that comes from Ancient Greek and Latin. The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law. It is made known to us by divine revelation and by human reason. – means literally “Ten Words”; revealed by God to his people on the holy mountain; handed on to us in the books of Exodus 14 and Deuteronomy 15 3 The Decalogue  The “Ten Words” point out the conditions of a life freed from the slavery of sin.  The Decalogue is a path of life. 4 The 10 Commandments can be understood as a moral guidebook which try to explain how people should behave towards each other. Most religions will have similar guidelines that help people make decisions and act in what they believe to be the right way. 5  THE STORY OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS The story of the 10 Commandments can be found in Exodus in the Bible. The story begins with a group of people called the Israelites. Moses was one of the Israelites, so he was part of the group. They were travelling through the desert when they came to Mount Sinai. Moses decided to climb the mountain so that he could talk to God. He was already more than 80 years old at that time. 7  THE TEN COMMANDMENTS 1.I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other Gods besides me 2.You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain 3.Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day (Sabbath Day) 4.Honor your father and your mother 5.You shall not kill 6.You shall not commit adultery 7.You shall not steal 8.You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor The First Commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against FAITH: 1. Voluntary doubt – disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief 2. Involuntary doubt – refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity 3. Incredulity – is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. 4. Heresy – is the obstinate post- baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith 5. Apostasy – the total repudiation of Christian faith 6. Schism – refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church Sins against HOPE: 1. Despair – man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins; this is contrary to God’s goodness, to his justice – for the Lord is faithful to his promises and to his mercy 2. Presumption – divided into two a. Presumption upon man’s own capacity – hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high b. Presumption upon God’s almighty power or his mercy – hoping to obtain God’s forgiveness without conversion, and glory without merit 11 Sins against CHARITY : 1. Indifference – This is when someone doesn’t care about God’s love or doesn’t think about it. They ignore the fact that God is good and loving. 2. Ingratitude – This happens when someone doesn’t appreciate or acknowledge God's love and doesn’t respond with love in return. It's like not saying "thank you" after someone does something kind for you. 3. Lukewarmness – This is when someone is half-hearted or lazy about loving God. They might feel unsure or hesitant about responding to God’s love. 12 4. Acedia or Spiritual sloth – This is when someone rejects the joy that comes from knowing God. They might feel bored, apathetic, or repelled by the goodness of God, not wanting to engage with it. 5. Hatred of God – This is the opposite of loving God. It’s when someone is angry at God, denies His goodness, or even curses God for not letting them do what they want (like sinning without punishment). 13 Virtues of Religion: 1. Adoration – the first act of the virtue of religion. This is to acknowledge God as our God, the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love 2. Prayer – lifting up of mind and heart toward God as indispensable condition for being able to obey God’s commandments 3. Sacrifice – every action done so as to cling to God in communion of holiness and achieve blessedness 4. Promises – as in Baptism and Conformation, Matrimony and Holy Orders. Fidelity to promises made to God is a sign of the respect owed to the divine majesty and of love for a faithful God 5. Vows – a deliberate and free promise to God concerning a possible and better good; an act of devotion in which the Christian dedicates himself to God or promises him some good work 14 Acts and Deviation practices that can affect the worship to the true God: 1. Idolatry – believing or venerating other than the one true God; false pagan worship 2. Divination and magic: a. Conjuring up the dead b. Horoscopes c. Palm reading d. Astrology consultation e. Interpretation of omens f. Phenomena of clairvoyance g. Recourse to medium 15 3. Spiritism – involves the wearing of charms and amulet 4. Sacrilege – consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things or places consecrated to God; a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist 5. Simony – defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things in exchange of power 6. Atheism – rejects or denies the existence of God 7. Agnosticism – postulates the existence of transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and about which nothing can be said; makes no judgement about God’s existence, declaring it impossible to prove or even to deny or affirm 16 Duties of Family Members in relation to the Fourth Commandment Duties of Children  Respect for parents (filial piety) – derives from gratitude toward those who, by the gift of life, their love and their work, have brought their children into the world and enabled them to grow in stature, wisdom and grace  Obey the parents  Love and care  As much as you can, give them material and moral support in old age, in times of illness, loneliness and distress 17 Duties of Parents  Education is the first responsibility and must extend to moral and spiritual formation  Must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons  Evangelizing the children (education in the faith)  Providing for their physical and spiritual needs 18 Human Life – is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end; God alone is the Lord of life from beginning to the end. Direct and intentional killing is gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance (examples: infanticide, fratricide, parricide, abortion, euthanasia, suicide and murder of spouse) 19 Respect for the Dignity of Persons a. Scandal – an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil; a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense b. The use of drugs – inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, (except on strictly therapeutic grounds) is a grave offense as it constitutes direct cooperation in evil and encourage people to practice gravely contrary to moral law c. Organ transplants – are in conformity with the moral law if the physical and psychological dangers and risks to the donor are proportionate to the good that is sought for the recipient; organ donation after death is a noble and meritorious act… It is not morally acceptable if the donor or his proxy has not given explicit consent 20 d. Kidnapping and hostage taking – bring on a reign of terror; morally wrong e. Terrorism – threatens, wounds and kills indiscriminately; is gravely against justice and charity. f. Torture – uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred, is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity g. Amputations, mutilations and sterilizations – when directly intended and performed on innocent persons are against the moral law, except, when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons 21 Offenses against Chastity 1. Lust – a disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure 2. Masturbation – the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure 3. Fornication – a carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman 4. Pornography – consists in removing real or stimulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. 5. Prostitution – does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure; it violates the chastity to which his/her Baptism pledged him/her and defiles his/her body, the temple of 22 the Holy Spirit 6. Rape – is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity; deeply wounds the respect, freedom and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right 7. Homosexuality – Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, homosexual acts are acts of depravity and declared intrinsically disordered; contrary to the natural law; do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementary. However, homosexuals must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. They are called to fulfil God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. They are called to chastity. By the virtues of self- mastery, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection 23 Offenses against The Dignity of Marriage 1. Adultery – refers to marital infidelity, an injustice, as one fails in his/her commitment to the spouse 2. Divorce – a grave offense against the natural law; it does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. It is immoral because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn them 3. Polygamy – not in accord with the moral law; directly negates the plan of God which was revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal personal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is total and therefore unique and exclusive 4. Incest – designates intimate relations between relatives or in- laws within a degree that prohibits marriage between them; corrupts family relationships and marks a regression toward animality. 24