What are the precepts of the Roman Catholic Church?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic AnswerSeven Precepts (or Laws, if you will) of the Church:

1. To assist at Mass and rest from servile work on all Sundays and holidays of obligation.

2. To fast and abstain on the days appointed by the Church;

3. To go to confession at least once a year;

4. To receive the Blessed Sacrament at least once a year, and that about Easter time;

5. To contribute to the support of our pastors according to our means;

6. Not to marry within certain degrees of kindred, nor to marry with solemnity at forbidden times.

7. To join in the missionary spirit and apostolate of the Church.

Roman Catholic AnswerThe "sign" or symbol for the Blessed Sacrament is usually Bread and Wine, or Wheat and Grapes.

Answer 2

The Precepts of the Catholic Church describe the minimum actions required of a person who is a practicing Catholic. In order to grow in holiness and become more fully the persons God created us to be, Catholics are expected to do more than the bare minimum; yet these precepts provide a basis for faithful practice of Christianity in the Catholic Church.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents five precepts (CCC, paragraphs 2041-2043). Sometimes an additional two are mentioned; these are also important and are treated in other areas of the Catechism.

The Precepts of the Church are:

1. To attend Mass on all Sundays and holy days of obligation.

2. To fast and abstain on the days appointed by the church.

3. To confess our sins at least once a year.

4. To receive Holy Communion during the Easter season.

5. To contribute to the support of the Church.

The additional two sometimes mentioned are:

6. To observe the laws of the Church concerning marriage.

7. To love God with all one's heart, soul, & strength, and to participate in sharing the Good News of God's love with all people in a spirit of compassion and charity.

For more details and helpful information and encouragement on how to live the Precepts, see this website: (below)

Answer 3

1 )To go to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.

2) To confess one's sins at least once a year.

3) To receive the Holy Eucharist during the Easter time.

4) To fast and abstain on the days appointed.

5) To contribute to the support of the Church.

6) Support the missionary spirit and apostolate of the Church.

7) To observe the laws of the Church.

AnswerI learned them slightly differently:

1. To assist at Mass and rest from servile work on all Sundays and holidays of obligation.

2. To fast and abstain on the days appointed by the Church;

3. To go to confession at least once a year;

4. To receive the Blessed Sacrament at least once a year, and that about Easter time;

5. To contribute to the support of our pastors according to our means;

6. Not to marry within certain degrees of kindred, nor to marry with solemnity at forbidden times.

7. To join in the missionary spirit and apostolate of the Church.

Answer 4

Called also simply THE COMMANDMENTS, COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, or THE DECALOGUE (Gr. deka, ten, and logos, a word), the Ten Words of Sayings, the latter name generally applied by the Greek Fathers. The Ten Commandments are precepts bearing on the fundamental obligations of religion and morality and embodying the revealed expression of the Creator's will in relation to man's whole duty to God and to his fellow-creatures. They are found twice recorded in the Pentateuch, in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, but are given in an abridged form in the catechisms. Written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, this Divine code was received from the Almighty by Moses amid the thunders of Mount Sinai, and by him made the ground-work of the Mosaic Law. Christ resumed these Commandments in the double precept of charity--love of God and of the neighbour; He proclaimed them as binding under the New Law in Matthew 19 and in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). He also simplified or interpreted them, e.g. by declaring unnecessary oaths equally unlawful with false, by condemning hatred and calumny as well as murder, by enjoining even love of enemies, and by condemning indulgence of evil desires as fraught with the same malice as adultery (Matthew 5). The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord's Day. The Council of Trent (Sess. VI, can. xix) condemns those who deny that the Ten Commandments are binding on Christians. For different explanations (Catholics, Protestants, Hebrews) of the Ten Commandments, see link There is no numerical division of the Commandments in the Books of Moses, but the injunctions are distinctly tenfold, and are found almost identical in both sources. The order, too, is the same except for the final prohibitions pronounced against concupiscence, that of Deuteronomy being adopted in preference to Exodus. A confusion, however, exists in the numbering, which is due to a difference of opinion concerning the initial precept on Divine worship. The system of numeration found in Catholic Bibles, based on the Hebrew text, was made by St. Augustine (fifth century) in his book of "Questions of Exodus" ("Questionum in Heptateuchum libri VII", Bk. II, Question lxxi), and was adopted by the Council of Trent. It is followed also by the German Lutherans, except those of the school of Bucer. This arrangement makes the First Commandment relate to false worship and to the worship of false gods as to a single subject and a single class of sins to be guarded against -- the reference to idols being regarded as mere application of the precept to adore but one God and the prohibition as directed against the particular offense of idolatry alone. According to this manner of reckoning, the injunction forbidding the use of the Lord's Name in vain comes second in order; and the decimal number is safeguarded by making a division of the final precept on concupiscence--the Ninth pointing to sins of the flesh and the Tenth to desires for unlawful possession of goods. Another division has been adopted by the English and Helvetian Protestant churches on the authority of Philo Judeus, Josephus, Origen, and others, whereby two Commandments are made to cover the matter of worship, and thus the numbering of the rest is advanced one higher; and the Tenth embraces both the Ninth and Tenth of the Catholic division. It seems, however, as logical to separate at the end as to group at the beginning, for while one single object is aimed at under worship, two specifically different sins are forbidden under covetousness; if adultery and theft belong to two distinct species of moral wrong, the same must be said of the desire to commit these evils. The Supreme Law-Giver begins by proclaiming His Name and His Titles to the obedience of the creature man: "I am the Lord, thy God. . ." The laws which follow have regard to God and His representatives on earth (first four) and to our fellow-man (last six). * Being the one true God, He alone is to be adored, and all rendering to creatures of the worship which belongs to Him falls under the ban of His displeasure; the making of "graven things" is condemned: not all pictures, images, and works of art, but such as are intended to be adored and served (First). * Associated with God in the minds of men and representing Him, is His Holy Name, which by the Second Commandment is declared worthy of all veneration and respect and its profanation reprobated. * And He claims one day out of the seven as a memorial to Himself, and this must be kept holy (Third). * Finally, parents being the natural providence of their offspring, invested with authority for their guidance and correction, and holding the place of God before them, the child is bidden to honour and respect them as His lawful representatives (Fourth). The precepts which follow are meant to protect man in his natural rights against the injustice of his fellows. * his life is the object of the Fifth; * the honor of his body as well as the source of life, of the Sixth; * his lawful possessions, of the Seventh; * his good name, of the Eighth; * And in order to make him still more secure in the enjoyment of his rights, it is declared an offense against God to desire to wrong him, in his family rights by the Ninth; * and in his property rights by the Tenth. This legislation expresses not only the Maker's positive will, but the voice of nature as well--the laws which govern our being and are written more or less clearly in every human heart. The necessity of the written law is explained by the obscuring of the unwritten in men's souls by sin. These Divine mandates are regarded as binding on every human creature, and their violation, with sufficient reflection and consent of the will, if the matter be grave, is considered a grievous or mortal offense against God. They have always been esteemed as the most precious rules of life and are the basis of all Christian legislation.

Answer 5

Catholic Answer

The Ten Commandments are listed twice in the Old Testament, in Exodus and Deuteronomy. The Ten Commandments are the same in all Christian churches. However, they are not numbered in The Bible. Verse numbers were put in many centuries later, and the verse numbers do not correspond to either numbering of the Commandments. Here are the Commandments as they are found in Exodus with the Roman Catholic numbering. The numbering in protestant lists is different, I believe that Protestant churches split the first commandment into two and combine the last two commandments into one. It makes no difference, we all believe the entire thing!
Fr. Rumble explains below.

Ten Commandments of God

Exodus XX

1. 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. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

3. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

4. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

5. You shall not kill.

6. You shalt not commit adultery.

7. You shalt not steal.

8. You shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9. You shalt not covet your neighbor's wife.

10. You shalt not covet your neighbor's goods.

from Radio Replies, by Fathers Rumble and Carty, 1942
1350. The Protestant Bible gives the second commandment as referring to images. But the Catholic Catechism gives it as referring to taking the name of God in vain, omitting the references to images.
Even the Protestant Bible does not give the second commandment as referring to images, though Protestants are usually taught that those words in the first commandment which refer to images constitute a second commandment.

1351. The Roman Church omits the second commandment, and then breaks up the tenth into two, in order to avoid having only nine.
The reverse is the case. Protestants make the first commandment into two, and then, to escape having eleven, turn the ninth and tenth into one! The first commandment, as given in the Bible, is as follows: "I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 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. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them. I am the Lord thy God, etc." Exodus, XX., 1-6

The Seven Commandments of the Church or Precepts of the Church are:

Seven Precepts of the Church

1. To keep holy the day of the Lord's Resurrection: to worship God by participating in Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation: to avoid those activities that would hinder renewal of soul and body, e.g., needless work and business activities, unnecessary shopping, etc.

2. To lead a sacramental life: to receive Holy Communion frequently and the Sacrament of Penance regularly.
- minimally, to receive the Sacrament of Penance at least once a year (annual confession is obligatory only if serious sin is involved).
- minimally, to receive Holy Communion at least once a year, between the First Sunday of Lent and Trinity Sunday.

3. To study Catholic teaching in preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation, to be confirmed, then to continue to study and advance the cause of Christ.

4. To observe the marriage laws of the Church: to give religious training (by example and word) to one's children; to use parish schools and religious education programs.

5. To strengthen and support the Church: one's own parish community and parish priest; the worldwide Church and the Holy Father.

6. To do penance, including abstaining from meat and fasting from food on the appointed days.

7. To join in the missionary spirit and apostolate of the Church.

Answer 6

Holy days of obligations

Holy communion

confession

abstinence

fasting