The Ten The 10

Commandments Commandments
  Decalogue means “Ten Words”
 These are the 10 words that God revealed to His people
in the mountain

THE  The Story of Moses

DECALOGUE  The 10 Commandments state what is required in the
love of God and love of neighbour;
 The first 3 reminds us of our love for God
 The remaining 7 reminds us of our love for our neighbour
  The Decalogue brings man’s religious and social life into

unity.

 It forms a coherent whole.

The Unity of
 Each “word” refers to each of the others and to all of them.
the
Decalogue  This means that to transgress on one commandment is to

infringe all the others;

 You cannot honor another person without blessing God his

Creator or adore God without loving all his creatures.

The Decalogue and the
Natural Law

“From the beginning, God had implanted in the

heart of man the precepts of the natural law. Then
he was content to remind him of them. This was
the Decalogue.”
“I am the Lord your God.
“I am the Lord your God.
You shall not have other
You shall not have other
gods before me”
gods before me”
The First Commandment (Exodus 20:2-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21)
 “You shall
worship the  God’s first command to man is to accept Him

Lord your and worship Him

God and  This is our duty as Christians

Him only  The first commandment embraces faith, hope,
shall you and charity. (The 3 Theological virtues)
serve”
  One of our duties to God is to believe in Him and

Faith to bear witness to Him

 The 1st Commandment requires us to nourish and
protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and
reject everything that is opposed to it.
  There are various ways of sinning against faith:
 Voluntary doubt – disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has
revealed and the Church proposes for belief

Faith
 Involuntary doubt – refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming
objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by faith’s
obscurity.
 Incredulity – the neglect of revealed truth or the wilful refusal to assent to it

 Heresy – the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be

believed with divine and catholic faith
 Apostasy – the total repudiation of the Christian faith

 Schism – refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with

the members of the Church subject to Him
  Hope is the confident expectation of divine

Hope blessing and the beatific vision of God.

 It is also the fear of offending God’s love and of

incurring punishment.
  The First commandment is also concerned with
sins against hope, which are:
 Despair – a feeling of not having hope or when we

Hope
cease to hope for salvation of God
 Presumption – it has two kinds:

1. Man hopes to be able to save himself without the

help of God;

2. Man hopes to obtain forgiveness without

conversion, and glory without merit.
  The First Commandment enjoins us to love God
above everything and all creatures for him and
because of him.

Charity
  Sinning against God’s love, in various ways, is considered sinning
against the first commandment. They are listed below:
 Indifference – neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity;
denial of charity’s power
 Ingratitude – fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to
return him love for love
 Luke-warmness – hesitation or negligence in responding to divine
love; refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity

Charity
 Acedia/spiritual sloth – refusal to the joy that comes from God

 Hatred of God – this comes from pride; contrary to love God

 Him
 Part of our duties to God is to serve Him, which we can do through
the following:

only
 Adoration – to adore God is to acknowledge Him as God, as the Creator
and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exist, as infinite and
merciful life.

shall  Prayers – the acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first
commandment are accomplished through prayer; this is our way of

you expressing our adoration

 Sacrifices

serve
 Promises and Vows – we are called to make promises to God; vows are
deliberate and free promises made to God concerning a possible and
better good which must be fulfilled by reason of virtue of religion
  The first commandment forbids

You shall honouring gods other than the one Lord

have no who has revealed Himself to His people.

other gods  It proscribes superstition, idolatry,

before me divination and magic, and irreligion

(tempting God, Sacrilege, Simony,
Atheism, Agnosticism)
  Superstition – represents perverse excess of religion; deviation of religious feeling

and of practices this feeling imposes

You shall  Idolatry – the worship of other gods, false prophets and idols, silver and gold;

 it can also be a constant temptation to faith;

have no  the first commandment condems polytheism;

 It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one

other gods true God;

before me  Divination and magic – all forms of divination are to be rejected; magic refers to

an attempt to tame occult power

 Irreligion – God’s first commandment condemns the main sins of irreligion:

tempting God, sacrilege, simony

  A vice contrary by defect to virtue of religion

 Tempting God – consists in putting His goodness

and almighty power to test, by word or by action.

Irreligion  Sacrilege – consists in profaning or treating

unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical
actions, as well as persons, things or places
consecrated to God.

 Simony – buying or selling of spiritual things

  This term covers many different
phenomena.
 Commonly, it is a rejection or denial of the
Atheism existence of God.
 It is often based on a false conception of
human autonomy, exaggerated to the
point of refusing any dependence on God.
  This also assumes number of forms.
 Commonly, the agnostic refrain from denying
God;
Agnosticism  They postulate the existence of a transcendent
being which is incapable of revealing itself.
 It can sometimes include a certain search for
God, but it can equally express indifferentism.
“You shall  The divine injunction included the prohibition of every
not make representation of God by the hand of man.
for  Deuteronomy explains: “Since you saw no form on the

yourself a day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the
midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by
Graven making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of

Image” any figure…”

“You shall  The Cathecism of the Catholic Church explains that:

not make  “The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to

the First Commandment which proscribes idols.”
for  Indeed, “the honor rendered to an image passes to its

yourself a prototype,” and “Whoever venerates an image the

Graven person portrayed in it.”

 The honor paid to sacred images is a “respectful
Image” veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone.
“You shall not take the
“You shall not take the
name of the Lord your
name of the Lord your
God in vain”
God in vain”
The Second Commandment (Exodus 20:2-17; Deuteronomy 5:6-21)
  The second commandment prescribes respect for the
“The Lord’s name.

name  It governs our use of speech in sacred matters.

of the  Therefore we should not introduce God’s name to our

own speech except to bless, praise, and glorify it.

Lord is  Respect for his name is an expression of the respect

Holy” owed to the mystery of God himself and to the whole

sacred reality it evokes.
  Promises made to others in God’s name engage divine
honor, fidelity, truthfulness, and authority.
 To be unfaithful to these promises is to misuse God’s
The Second
Commandment name
forbids the  Blasphemy – it consists uttering against God – inwardly
abuse of God’s
or outwardly – words of hatred, reproach, or defiance,
name
speaking ill of God, in failing in respect toward him in
one’s speech, and in misusing God’s name.
 It is directly opposed to the 2nd commandment;
“Taking  The second commandment forbids false oaths;
 Swearing or taking an oath is to take God as witness
the to what one affirms.

name of  A false oath calls on God to be witness to a lie.

the Lord  Perjury – this is committed when a person makes a

promise under oath with no intention of keeping it,

in Vain” or when after promising on oath he does not keep it.
  The sacrament of Baptism is conferred “in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The  In Baptism, the Lord’s name sanctifies man, and the

Christian receives his name in the Church.

Christian  Therefore, EVERYONE’S NAME IS SACRED and SHOULD

Name BE RESPECTED as a sign of dignity of the one who bears it.

 The Christian begins his days, prayers, and activities with

the Sign of the Cross as this sign strengthens us in
temptations and difficulties
Thank you for listening!
References: Echoes of God’s Love, CCC
  Ask your parents, relatives, and/or guardian
about the meaning behind your name. Write
their explanations/descriptions in your reflection
For your notebook, then, answer these questions:
reflection  In your own belief, what do you think is the real
and rightful meaning behind your name?
 What do you want people to think whenever
they hear your name?