Posted on 03/07/2013 7:15:31 PM PST by Salvation
Lesson 16 from the Baltimore Cathechism
The first commandment of God is: I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.
Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. (Exodus 20:3-4)
By the first commandment we are commanded to offer to God alone the supreme worship that is due Him.
It is written, "The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and him only shalt thou serve." (Luke 4:8)
We worship God by acts of faith, hope, and charity, and by adoring Him and praying to Him.
Faith obliges us: first, to make efforts to find out what God has revealed; second, to believe firmly what God has revealed; third, to profess our faith openly whenever necessary.
Therefore, everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32)
Hope obliges us to trust firmly that God will give us eternal life and the means to obtain it.
Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, in accordance with the faith of God's elect and the full knowledge of the truth which is according to piety, in the hope of life everlasting which God, who does not lie, promised before the ages began. (Titus 1:1-2)
Charity obliges us to love God above all things because He is infinitely good, and to love our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
And one of them, a doctor of the Law, putting him to the test, asked him, "Master, which is the great commandment in the Law?" Jesus said to him, "'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.' This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40)
A Catholic can best safeguard his faith by making frequent acts of faith, by praying for a strong faith, by studying his religion very earnestly, by living a good life, by good reading, by refusing to associate with the enemies of the Church, and by not reading books and papers opposed to the Church and her teaching.
I know that after my departure fierce wolves will get in among you, and will not spare the flock. And from among your own selves men will rise speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. (Acts 20:29-30)
A Catholic sins against faith by apostasy, heresy, indifferentism, and by taking part in non-Catholic worship.
A Catholic sins against faith by taking part in non-Catholic worship when he intends to identify himself with a religion he knows is defective.
This is why I was born, and why I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. (John 18:37)
The sins against hope are presumption and despair.
A person sins by presumption when he trusts that he can be saved by his own efforts without God's help, or by God's help without his own efforts.
Nay I do not even judge my own self. For I have nothing on my conscience, yet I am not thereby justified. (I Corinthians 4:4)
A person sins by despair when he deliberately refuses to trust that God will give him the necessary help to save his soul.
May no temptation take hold of you but such as man is equal to. God is faithful and will not permit you to be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also give you a way out that you may be able to bear it. (I Corinthians 10:13)
The chief sins against charity are hatred of God and of our neighbor, envy, sloth, and scandal.
Charity does not envy. (I Corinthians 13:4)
Besides the sins against faith, hope, and charity, the first commandment forbids also superstition and sacrilege.
A person sins by superstition when he attributes to a creature a power that belongs to God alone, as when he makes use of charms or spells, believes in dreams or fortune-telling, or goes to spiritists.
Neither let there be found among you any one that ... consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens. Neither let there be any wizard, nor charmer. (Deuteronomy 19:10-11)
A person sins by sacrilege when he mistreats sacred persons, places, or things.
They have set thy sanctuary ablaze, they have profaned the dwelling of thy name on the earth. (Psalm 73:7)
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
The Baltimore Catehcism: Part One: The Creed, The Holy Ghost and Grace
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Redemption
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Incarnation
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, Actual Sin
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Creation and the Fall of Man
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, Creation and the Angels
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Unity and Trinity of God
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, God and His Perfections
The Baltimore Catechism: Part One: The Creed, The Purpose of Man's Existence
Baltimore Catechism Ping for Lent!
"Thou shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
Or, if you're looking after the expulsion from the Garden, then I believe it's "be fruitful and multiply, fill the Earth and subdue it."
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