Welcome!
Life in Christ: Christian Morality
Session 2:The Commandments –
Love of God
How do the Commandments
both help us and challenge us
on our journey to the
fullness of life?
Session Schedule
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Opening Prayer
Paired Activity
Talk #1: The Moral Law
Standing Activity
Talk #2: The Ten Commandments
and the Love of God
• Small Group Activity
• Closing Prayer
Opening Prayer:
The Angelus
The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary . . .
Behold the handmaid of the Lord:
Be it done unto me according to Thy word.
Hail Mary . . .
And the Word was made Flesh:
And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary . . .
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,
that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
The Angelus
Let us pray:
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our
hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy
Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may
by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His
Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
Paired Activity:
Pair, Share, Compare
How do the Commandments impact my daily life?
Talk #1: The Moral Law
“All law finds its first and ultimate truth in the eternal law”
(CCC, n. 1951).
“The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and
every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good
and forbidding him to sin” (CCC, n. 1954).
WHERE DO RIGHTS COME FROM?
Expressions of the Moral Law
• Eternal Law: reflected in the whole created order
• Natural Law: written on the hearts of every human person;
it is universal and immutable
• Revealed Law: Given by God in the old and new covenants (Ten
Commandments and Beatitudes), since sin has
obscured the natural law
• Jesus’ New Law: “Love one another
as I have loved you.”
Grace: The gift of God’s life and love
Necessity of Grace:
-Offers us participation in
the divine life
-Draws us into the life of God
-Enables ongoing conversion
and change of heart
Sanctifying Grace: “an habitual gift, a
stable and supernatural disposition
that perfects the soul itself to enable
it to live with God.” (CCC, n. 2000)
The Commandments
• Eternal life and obedience to
God’s commandments are linked:
“God’s commandments show man
the path of life, and they lead to
it.” (VS, n. 12)
• The commandments “represent
the basic conditions for love of
neighbor....They are the first
necessary steps towards freedom.”
(VS, n. 13)
New Commandment
“This is my commandment: love one another
as I have loved you.” (Jn 15: 12)
Precepts of the Church
1. Attend Mass on Sundays
and holy days of obligation
2. Confess sins at least
once per year
3. Receive Holy Communion at
least during the Easter season
4. Observe days of fasting
and abstinence
5. Help provide for the needs of
the Church
Standing Activity:
Terms and Concepts
• Moral Law
• Justification
• Natural Law
• Covenant
• Old Law
• Precepts of the Church
• New Law
• Beatitudes
• Grace
• Decalogue
• Ten Commandments
Talk #2: Ten Commandments
& the Love of God
Ten Commandments
- A gift from God to help explain
what it means to keep the covenant.
- The moral life is essential to our complete
and total response to the love of God.
- “They bring to light the essential duties,
and therefore, indirectly, the fundamental
rights inherent in the nature of the
person.” (CCC, n. 2070)
The First Commandment
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or
that is in the water under the earth;
you shall not bow down to them or serve them.” (Ex 20:2-5)
• Embraces the Theological Virtues
• God’s Covenant is at the center of the
created order
• Reveals the deepest duty and desire of the
human heart: Seeking union with God
The First Commandment: I am the Lord your God;
you shall not have strange gods before me.
Do’s:
- Order our worship and prayer
- Faith
- Adoration
- Hope in God
- Sacrifice
- Embrace the virtue of religion
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Don’ts:
Idolatry
Superstition
Atheism
Agnosticism
Divination and Magic
Sins against hope:
despair and presumption
Irreligion
++++++++++++++++++++++
“Summons man to believe in God,
to hope in him, and to love him
above all else.” (CCC, n. 2134)
The Second Commandment: “You shall not take
the name of the Lord your God in vain”
“Prescribes respect for the Lord’s name” (CCC, n. 2142)
Do’s:
-Invites us into a relationship
-Foster a sense of the sacred
Don’ts:
- Blasphemy
-Perjury
Defends: the mystery of God and the sacred reality
that the name invokes (CCC, n. 2144)
Third Commandment: Keep holy the Lord’s day
Do’s:
-Worship owed to God
-Joy in response to the Lord’s Day
-Works of Mercy (esp. to the poor)
-Relaxation of mind and body
Don’ts:
-Deliberately fail to attend Sunday Mass
or Holy Day of Obligation
-Unnecessary work
Defends: Resurrection, Eucharist, Creation,
Covenant, and Hope of Salvation
WHY DO I HAVE
TO GO TO MASS?
Small Group Activity:
Commandment Conversations: As easy as 1,2,3
Discuss one of the first three Commandments:
 What does it teach? Why is it important?
 What are common reasons that many people think it is
not important?
Role play a scene in which a conversation
develops about one of the first three
Commandments: why is it important,
yet often misunderstood or disregarded?
I. Have no false gods
II. Do not use the Lord’s name in vain
III. Keep Holy the Lord’s Day
Review & Reflection
How do the
Commandments
both help and challenge us
on our journey to the
fullness of life?
Follow-up Reflection and Resources
1) Session Evaluation & Feedback
2) Recommended follow-up:
US/CCA, Chapters 25-27:
“Life in Christ”
Catholicism, Episode II:
“The Teachings of Jesus”
3) For Catechists & Catholic School Teachers:
“Record of Formation,” including:
required reflection & documentation
Closing Prayer:
The Divine Praises
Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
Blessed be the name of Jesus.
Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His Saints. Glory be…