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The Essentials of the Catholic Faith   Introduction As we begin our inquiry into the Catholic religion, it is important to explain briefly what we are about. Our purpose is very simple. We want to learn what the Catholic Church teaches her members should believe, where to obtain the help they need from God to live as faithful Christians, how He wants them to serve Him, and how they are to pray. These four dimensions of the Catholic religion are as old as Christianity. They may be expressed in four words: faith, sacraments, commandments, and prayer. They are, in...

Seeking Lord, Our God, with Our Heart and Being by Ari Bussel “And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore unto thy fathers.” Deuteronomy 6:18 To Journey We Go How often do you read the Bible? Many of my Christian friends carry a well-annotated Bible with them at all times. Reference a verse, and they immediately flip through the pages to the correct citation. For the Jews, the Bible is...

The principle is really quite simple. G-d lays it out clearly in this week's Torah portion, Bechukotai (Leviticus 26: 3-12). First, we have the condition: If you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them;Second, the economic reward: Then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread until you have enough,Third, the security reward: And you will...

Did the Ten Commandments Exist Before Moses? Many people assume that the Ten Commandments and the covenant God established with ancient Israel are identical—and that both were abolished by Jesus Christ's death. They believe that the Sinai Covenant and God's commandments came into existence together and went out of existence together. But is such reasoning biblical? The facts show it is not. A close look at the Scriptures reveals that breaking the Ten Commandments was a sin before the covenant at Mt. Sinai, so arguments that they came into existence with that covenant and were terminated with it cannot be...

As we come to the Ninth Commandment, we again arrive in disputed territory. As you will recall, the Ten Commandments can be and have been split up differently so as to yield ten and not eleven commandments. Some Protestants break apart the First Commandment (yielding what I call the 1.5 Commandment against graven images). The Catholic tradition, in contrast, leaves the First Commandment whole and breaks apart the following text:   You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that...

  "You shall not steal," says Exodus 20:15. Once again, the Decalogue faces us with an injunction that seems like common sense (and is), but which is also fraught with all sorts of difficulties and distinctions.   Consider, for instance, the fact that a Catholic writer like me has the obligation to never write an original thought in my life. Indeed, one of the few earthly perks of being a Catholic writer is that you get to plagiarize all the time and call it "being faithful to the Tradition." The Catholic Faith consists of a huge body of ideas that...

  "Exodus" is the Greek name for the second book of the Bible. In Hebrew, it is called the Book of Names. That's because, like Catholic encyclicals, the Hebrew books of the Bible are titled by the opening words of the book: "These are the names . . . ."   It is fitting that this title be given to Exodus, since Exodus is a book in which names play a huge role, both in the way they are emphasized and the way they are strategically de-emphasized. Exodus pauses to tell us the names of the two earliest pro-life...

 Catholic Morality: Life in Christ Catholic morality is about life: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10) Faith & baptism give us new life in Christ. That life involves far more than simply following a set of rules. This article provides an overview of basic principles of Catholic morality. It is essential to know these principles: they are the how-to manual for living fully your new life, for obtaining that abundant life Christ has promised you. The Catholic Catechism starts its section on Catholic morality with St. Leo the Great's beautiful words: Christian, recognize...

How Do We Know That We Love God? The Bible states over and over again exactly how we are to demonstrate our love to God. The simple answer may surprise you! by Lyle Welty How do we know we genuinely love God? That probably seems like an odd question to most of us. Of course, we love God, and we just know that we love Him. But is that good enough? Is it enough to just know and feel that we love God? Is anything else involved? Actually, the Bible-God's inspired Word-is clear about how we show love to God....

The 'Curse of the Law' Galatians 3:10-13 is one of the most frequently misused passages in the Bible. In both writing and preaching, scholars and pastors alike turn to this passage to support a badly misguided assumption that Paul viewed God's law as a curse. But how could he view it as a curse since he stated in Romans 7:12 that God's law was holy? Paul indeed speaks of "the curse of the law" (Galatians 3:13), meaning a curse decreed by the law. But he does not refer to the law itself as a curse. What Paul actually says is...

Thou shall not drive under the influence of alcohol. Thou shall respect speed limits. Thou shall not consider a car an object of personal glorification or use it as a place of sin. The Vatican took a break from strictly theological matters on Tuesday to issue its own rules of the road, a compendium of do's and don'ts on the moral aspects of driving and motoring. A 36-page document called "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road" contains 10 Commandments covering everything from road rage, respecting pedestrians, keeping a car in good shape and avoiding rude gestures while behind...

Did the Ten Commandments Exist Before Moses? Many people assume that the Ten Commandments and the covenant God established with ancient Israel are identical—and that both were abolished by Jesus Christ's death. They believe that the Sinai Covenant and God's commandments came into existence together and went out of existence together. But is such reasoning biblical? The facts show it is not. A close look at the Scriptures reveals that breaking the Ten Commandments was a sin before the covenant at Mt. Sinai, so arguments that they came into existence with that covenant and were terminated with it cannot...

The story you are about to read is true. Some names have been changed to protect the guilty. Some names have been omitted to protect us from the grumpy. The story first started thousands of years ago, when the world was young... An angel descended heaven to sell the Torah to the world and his first drop was high in the Tibetan mountains. "It's a Torah," he told the Master as the llamas looked on. "We appreciate new teachings," intoned Master. "Tell us your wisdom." "I am L-rd Your G-d. Have none before me." The master smiled sympathetically; the llamas...

Dixie courthouse unveils the Ten Commandments (headline) Http://www.gainesville.com

MURFREESBORO — A word of advice to whoever stole the Ten Commandments monument from Sharon Bennett's yard: read Number Eight. Bennett noticed the 3-foot-tall concrete pillar with its admonition not to steal missing Wednesday. "I feel sorry for whoever did it," Bennett said. "They obviously don't have many values and must be lost." She installed the pillar three years ago at the bottom of a flag pole for about $200. During holidays, Bennett, who has a son in the Army Reserves, would decorate the monument and the flagpole with red, white and blue stars. The Northside Baptist Church member and...

Reason disputed for monument By Sheila K. Stogsdill The Oklahoman MUSKOGEE - A Stigler resident testified Tuesday that religion in the form of a Ten Commandments monument has no business on government property. "The Ten Commandments have nothing to do with our law," said Sharon Nichols, an American Civil Liberties Union member and self-described naturalist. "The Ten Commandments is a historical document with limited significance to Haskell County." Nichols said she was offended by the monument, erected on the Haskell County Courthouse lawn, because she is not a Christian. She also testified she was offended by the words "In God...

STIGLER, Okla. - The 8-foot granite slab planted in the Haskell County courthouse lawn makes the Ten Commandments easy to read and hard to miss from the state highway that doubles as this town's main thoroughfare. The monument, erected with private money in 2004 with the county's approval, doesn't stop traffic and courthouse visitors on a recent morning barely gave it a glance.

Quote of the day: “All in the wild March-morning I heard the angels call; It was when the moon was setting, and the dark was over all; The trees began to whisper, and the wind began to roll, And in the wild March-morning I heard them call my soul.” — Lord Alfred Tennyson, English poet (1809-1892) As income tax time approaches, did you ever notice: When you put the two words “The” and “IRS” together it spells “THEIRS”? The 10 Marriage Commandments — Commandment 1: Marriages are made in heaven. But so again, are thunder and lightning. — Commandment 2:...

Values group hails unanimous decision Tuesday CINCINNATI -- In an astounding return to judicial interpretation of the actual text of the United States Constitution, a unanimous panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Tuesday issued an historic decision declaring that "the First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state." In upholding a Kentucky county's right to display the Ten Commandments, the panel called the American Civil Liberties Union's repeated claims to the contrary "extra-constitutional" and "tiresome." See Cincinnat Enquirer at: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051221/NEWS01/512210356/1056 See U.S. Court of Appeals decision, page 13: http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/05a0477p-06.pdf "Patriotic Americans should...

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A group of pastors fired up a crowd of more than 300 people during a rally around a monument engraved with the Ten Commandments on the Haskell County Courthouse lawn. U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn spoke Saturday at the gathering in favor of the monument, which a recent American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit says is a sign of the government favoring one religion over another. But Coburn and others who were vocal at the rally contend that the statements listed in the Ten Commandments are guidelines to a moral, law-abiding society regardless of religious beliefs. "I wish...