Catechism index

2091 I. "You Shall Worship the Lord Your God and Him Only Shall You Serve" The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption: By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or …
2092 I. "You Shall Worship the Lord Your God and Him Only Shall You Serve" There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power …
2093 I. "You Shall Worship the Lord Your God and Him Only Shall You Serve" Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. the first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for …
2094 I. "You Shall Worship the Lord Your God and Him Only Shall You Serve" One can sin against God's love in various ways: - indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power. - ingratitude …
2095 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity inform and give life to the moral virtues. Thus charity leads us to render to God what we as creatures owe him in all …
2096 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, …
2097 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the "nothingness of the creature" who would not exist but for God. To adore God is to praise and exalt him …
2098 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first commandment are accomplished in prayer. Lifting up the mind toward God is an expression of our adoration of God: prayer of …
2099 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of adoration and gratitude, supplication and communion: "Every action done so as to cling to God in communion of holiness, and …
2100 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit...." 17 The prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that …
2101 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" In many circumstances, the Christian is called to make promises to God. Baptism and Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders always entail promises. Out of personal devotion, the Christian may also promise to …
2102 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" "A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God concerning a possible and better good which must be fulfilled by reason of the virtue of religion," 21 A vow is …
2103 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice the evangelical counsels: 23 Mother Church rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the Savior's self-emptying …
2104 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" "All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it." 26 …
2105 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially. This is "the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies toward the true religion and …
2106 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" "Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or …
2107 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" "If because of the circumstances of a particular people special civil recognition is given to one religious community in the constitutional organization of a state, the right of all citizens and religious …
2108 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supposed right to error, 37 but rather a natural right of the human person to civil …
2109 II. "Him Only Shall You Serve" The right to religious liberty can of itself be neither unlimited nor limited only by a "public order" conceived in a positivist or naturalist manner. 39 The "due limits" which are inherent …
2110 III. "You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me" The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of …