Chapter 25. First Commandment: Believe in the True God • 341
vice. The scope of Catherine’s apostolate has spread to more than twenty
houses on five continents.
Catherine’s life illustrates the First Commandment in that she lived
her life loving the Lord with all her heart, soul, and mind above all else
and, because of that, respected and worked for the dignity of every
human being.
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THE ROLE OF THE COMMANDMENTS
God helps us in many different ways to live a moral life. He gives us
grace, which awakens in us the desire to say no to temptation and sin
and to choose only that which is good. He gives us the Theological and
Cardinal Virtues and the grace to practice human virtues so that we can
grow stronger in them. God gives us help and grace through the Church
and through our reception of the Sacraments. He also teaches us how
we should live. One way he does this is by giving us laws to guide our
actions. The Ten Commandments are laws that God has revealed to us.
Heeding the guidance God gives us in the Commandments will help us
know how to serve God and how we should live with each other. It also
helps us to be open to the grace of the Holy Spirit and what God can
accomplish in us and through us by that grace.
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
The first three Commandments treat our relationship to God. The last
seven concern our relationship with each other. The First Commandment
calls us to have faith in the true God, to hope in him, and to love him
fully with mind, heart, and will. We respond to God, who has created
and redeemed us and extends his providential care to us every minute
of each day. The First Commandment fosters the virtue of religion that
moves us to adore God alone because he alone is holy and worthy of
our praise.