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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.

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.