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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

• 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 AngelusLet 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 Church1. 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

• Natural Law

• Old Law

• New Law

• Grace

• Ten Commandments

• Justification

• Covenant

• Precepts of the Church

• Beatitudes

• Decalogue

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

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

Defends: Resurrection, Eucharist, Creation, Covenant, and Hope of Salvation WHY DO I HAVE T

O GO TO MASS?

Don’ts:-Deliberately fail to attend Sunday Mass or Holy Day of Obligation -Unnecessary work

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

2) Recommended follow-up:

US/CCA, Chapters 25-27: “Life in Christ”

Catholicism, Episode II:“The Teachings of Jesus”

1) Session Evaluation & Feedback

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…