CATECHISM

Q. How do we show that we love God?
A. We show that we love God by keeping his commandments: for Christ says: ‘If you love me,
keep my commandments. John 14:15, Mt. 19:16, Rom. 13:8-10

Q. How many Commandments are there?
A. There are ten Commandments.

Q. Say the Ten Commandments.
A. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of
bondage.
1. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing,
nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, nor in the earth beneath, nor of those
things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them.
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
4. Honour thy father and thy mother.
5. Thou shalt not kill.
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7. Thou shalt not steal.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s goods.
Ten Commandments. They are sometimes called the ‘Decalogue’, which means ten words
or precepts. They are written on two stone tables: the first three, relating particularly to
God, being on one; and the remaining seven, which relate immediately to our neighbours
and ourselves, being on the other. These Commandments are of themselves always
binding under pain of sin. They teach us our Morals, or what we must do to be saved.
They can never be altered.
Egypt. A country in the north-east of Africa, where the Jews were treated as slaves, until
delivered by Moses.
Bondage. Captivity, slavery, deprived of liberty.

Q. Who gave the ten Commandments?
A. God gave the ten Commandments to Moses in the Old Law, and Christ confirmed them in the
New.