The mosaic manifesto : or the ten commandments simply explained for children and converts


OR

r THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

SIMPLY EXPLAINED FOR

CHILDREN AND CONVERTS

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Imprimatur Die 5a Feb. 1940

Joannes Gregorius Murray

Archiepiscopus Sancti Pauli

OsacMscf



CHAPTER 1

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
SIMPLY EXPLAINED FOR
CHILDREN AND CONVERTS

What good shall I do that I may have life everlast-
ing? (Matt. xix. 16.)

“If thou wilt enter into life/’ says Christ, “keep the
Commandments.” (Matt. xix. 17.)

I am to keep the ten commandments of God and the
commandments of the Church.

THE LAW OF CONSCIENCE
Men are able to know, and serve, and love God.

They do not follow laws blindly like stones and plants.
And they have special laws from God. When Cain
killed Abel he ran away terrified. Why? His con-
science reproached him and would not give him peace.
Conscience is the Voice of God which speaks within
the soul. It reproaches and blames even the pagan
savages, when they steal and try to hide themselves.
It reproaches the boy who is disrespectful to his father.
It says to a man, “Don’t do it. Don’t steal that money.
It is not yours. Do not say that immodest word. It
is wrong.’’ Conscience tells us that we must do some
things, and that we ought not to do other things; and
after our actions, it gives us peace, or makes us un-
happy.
Conscience is the Voice of God. It is a natural law

which God has put in every soul. And our thoughts,
and words, and actions should obey conscience or this
natural law. This law of conscience is called a moral
law, because it regulates our conduct or morals.

THE COMMANDMENTS
After the sin of our first parents, men did not al-

ways follow their conscience. Often they would not
listen to it. They broke the natural law very often
indeed, and committed many sins.
Now when a schoolmaster finds that not one or two

children are careless, but that all begin to break the
rules, what does he do? He speaks seriously to the
whole class one day. He tells them the law, which
they seem to have forgotten, and he tells them of the
punishment that awaits those who do not behave
properly. Some will be chastised; others will be kept
in; some may even be expelled from the school. God
did just this same thing. He gave to Moses, written
on stone, the laws the people must obey; and to make
them easy to remember He collected all the laws into

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ten commandments. And God promised great blessings
to those who would keep the ten commandments,
whilst He punished very severely those who broke
them.
Since God is very Holy, He wishes us to do good,

and not to do evil, and we must try to fulfill His Holy
Will. We shall see afterwards that every command-
ment orders us to do something good, and forbids us
to do something evil. In each one, therefore, we shall
have to look for what it orders us to do, and what it
forbids or prohibits. And all that we discover we
must try to put into practice.

OBEDIENCE
If a child refuses to obey his parents, or does not

treat them with respect, he does not fulfill his duty as
a son. By duty we mean something one ought to do,
or is obliged to do. Sometimes our conscience tells us
our duty. At other times our lawful superiors tell us.
We know we ought to obey superiors. When the
schoolteacher gives a task to be done he says, “You
must have it done by tomorrow." Anyone who does
not do it fails in his duty. In the same way God says
to us, “You must not steal,” or, “You must keep* holy
the Sabbath day.” And it is our duty to obey. It is
a strict obligation, a command, and we ought to obey.
The ten commandments contain many duties. First-

ly, there are duties to God, and these are the most
important. We owe everything we have to Him, and
the man who neglects his religious duties and his pray-
ers to God is very ungrateful and wicked.
Secondly, there are duties to ourselves; to our body,

by making it obey the soul; and to our soul, by learn-
ing all we can, by loving what is good, and keeping
free from sin. This is God’s law. and we must obey it.
Thirdly, there are duties to our neighbor, for we do

not live alone.
Our conscience tells us that we should do these

things. But God also commands obedience. God knows
what is right. He cannot make a mistake. Sometimes
men tell us that we ought to do things, and we find
out afterwards that they are wrong. But God cannot
be wrong. And He has the right to command us, for
He made us.
Anyone who refuses to obey, and breaks a com-

mandment of God in serious things, commits mortal
sin. He turns his back on God and deserves to be
without God forever. And that, of course, means that
one deserves to go to Hell.

ARE THEY TOO HARD?
Jack knows that he ought to tell the truth; but, all

the same, he is ready to hide his faults by telling a
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lie. Willie knows that it is wrong to steal, but only
yesterday he put another boy’s pocketknife into his
pocket, and this morning took ten cents which he
found left on the table by mother. You all know that
you should be obedient. Yet how often you are dis-
obedient! Children and grown-ups, men and women,
all very often break God’s commandments more or less
seriously. Then is it impossible to keep them? If you
were to look at the top of a very high mountain it
might seem very steep. You would say, “I can see no
track. It must be impossible to climb right up to the
very top.” Yet, if somebody had a good guide who
knew the way, and plenty of courage, he could get
to the top.

If a workman has to move a big block of stone he
calls another workman to help him, and when both
lift together they do not find it very hard.
Now there is a guide, and there is extra help for

the soul in the difficult work of doing good and avoid-
ing evil. It is grace. Divine grace gives us light and
guidance when we are in doubt as to the way, and
gives us extra strength in difficult duties.

Our Lord, however, expects us to ask for this grace
by prayer. When we need help in this life we ask
others to help us. If we want something, we ask for it.
It is only right that we should ask Our Lord also for
light and help. And if we do not ask, if we do not
pray, then it is our own fault if we fall. The man
who does not pray says to God, “Oh, I do not need
Your help. I can manage myself.” Then God lets him
try to manage by himself, and he falls into sin. When
Willie was tempted to take the pocketknife he did
not pray against the temptation. He knew that it was
wrong to take it, but he tried to manage by himself,
and in the end he broke God’s commandment. Our
Lord told us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”
And again He said, “Ask and you shall receive. What-
ever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give
it to you.” And, of course, we cannot ask bad things
in the Name of Christ. With the help of God’s grace,
therefore, the commandments are not too hard. We
can keep them, and we know that thousands of good
people, especially the Saints, have kept them; and
many of those who have faithfully served God have
been far more severely tempted than we have been.
I’m afraid many of our sins are due to sloth. We are
too lazy to resist, and too lazy to pray. But now that
we know why we fell into sin before, we shall be on
our guard and pray quickly and fervently when the
next temptation comes. Then we shall not fall half
so often, nor half as badly as we have done in the
past. Now let us look at the commandments.

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The ten commandments of God are:

—

1. I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have
strange gods before Me.

2 . Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy
God in vain.

3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
4. Honor 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

neighbor.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.

10.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.
If I were to ask a little Catholic boy, “What is the

fourth commandment, he would reply at once, “Honor
thy father and thy mother.” But if I were to ask a
little Protestant boy, “What is the fourth command-
ment?” He would reply, “Remember that thou keep
holy the Sabbath day.” I would say, “No! That is the
third commandment,” and he would reply, “You are
wrong. It is the fourth.” What is the matter? Why do
Protestants call our fourth commandment the fifth?
The first Protestants wanted to do all they could

against the true Church. Above all, they did not like
to see pictures and statues which remind us of Our
Lord and Our Blessed Lady. So they wished to pre-
tend that God had forbidden anyone to make these
pictures and statues. They turned the first command-
ment into two commandments and said, “The first
commandment is : Thou shalt not make images of
things in Heaven and on earth to worship them.”
Then, because that would make eleven commandments,
they made the ninth and the tenth one, and that gave
them ten again.
The Catholic Church did not change them. She has

them just the same now as always, from the very time
of Christ. The Protestants changed them in the six-
teenth century, and they must say why they changed
them. They had no right to do so!
In the Bible the commandments are much longer

than in the Catechism, but they are not really differ-
ent. Just look at the first commandment as it is given
in the Bible: “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, mighty,
jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the

4



children, unto the third and fourth generation of them
that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands to
them that love Me, and keep My commandments.”
Exod. XX. 2-6. Deut. V, 6-10*
All that is one commandment, commanding people

to be true to God, and never to make idols or false
gods. But isn’t it long! And wouldn’t it be hard to
remember? So the Catholic Church puts the same
thing more easily in the Catechism in a few words. “1
am the Lord tl^ God; thou shalt not have strange
gods before Me.” That is not changing the command-
ment. It is giving the same commandment in easier
words.
This is what the Catholic Church does in the Cate-

chism, in order that you children may easily learn
the chief thing God wished to tell us. But the Catholic
Church has never divided the first commandment into
two, as the Protestants have done. The command-
ments, as given in the Catechism, contain briefly just
what God intended, and they are given in exactly the
right order, and according to the right numbers.

CHAPTER 2
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

(A)

The first commandment is: I am the Lord thy God;
thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.
We are commanded by the first commandment to

adore God, and to adore Him alone.
When the King gives a law for all his people, he

begins by saying, ‘T, King of this country, command
and will,” and then he adds what he wishes his people
to do. He begins, therefore, by stating his title to
authority.

Now God, Who is King of the whole universe, begins
also by saying, ‘T am the Lord thy God.” These words
remind us to listen carefully to all that He has to
say. It is not merely a man who is speaking to us.
It is He Who has created the world, and Who is our
Divine Lord and Master.
A boy must treat his father with great respect and

reverence. Is not that so? Yet his father, although his
superior, is only a creature. What shall we say of
the respect we owe to Him Who is the Creator of all,
the Master of all? The word respect is too weak. Even
reverence is not enough. We must admit that He is all,
and that we are nothing. We have no rights against
God. If He treats us as His dear children, it is only
because He is so good. We acknowledge our de-
pendence, therefore, by adoring and worshipping God,

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and when He says, “I am the Lord thy God,” He
commands us to adore Him. Then, because there is
only one God, we must not adore anyone else; so we
are commanded to adore God alone.
We are to adore God by faith, hope, and charity, by

prayer and sacrifice.

When we believe God, we say, *‘0 God, Thou art
Infinite Truth,” and by admitting that, we adore Him.
So, too, hope shows that we adore His Infinite Power
and Mercy; charity offers Him adoration by loving
His Infinite Goodness. We adore, also, when we pray
to Him, because we mean that He alone can give us
all we need; whilst sacrifice acknowledges His Infinite
Perfection which we had no right to offend.
Faith is a divine virtue, by which we firmly believe

the truths which God has revealed.
Firstly, faith is a virtue. What do we mean by that?

You will say goodness, just as vice is wickedness, and
in a way you are right. But virtue is really a good
habit. A boy who has the habit of always telling the
truth, has the virtue of truthfulness. He has the con-
stant will to tell the truth. Faith is the constant will
to believe all that God has revealed, and the Catholic
Church teaches. It is a good habit, indeed, always to
believe God.

Blit how did we get that good habit or disposition?
You have faith. But did you get this good habit just
as you got the good habit of writing nicely? How did
you get the good habit of writing nicely? It was by
hard work. You kept making letters, till you could
make them clearly and beautifully. You began with
lines and pothooks, and after a lot of practice you had
the good habit of making them well. So you see that
you got this habit by exercise. You used your natural
powers, and the good habit was a natural habit.
Now is it natural to be in the habit of believing all

that God says? No. That is why the Catechism says

—

“Secondly, faith, is a divine virtue.” When you were
baptized, God gave sanctifying grace to your soul, and
with this grace He put good habits into your soul.
Faith was one of them, and it is called a divine virtue
because it comes from God, and not from your own
natural efforts. It is because of this divine virtue of
faith that a little baptized Catholic child is ready to
believe all that God says as soon as he hears it.
Thirdly, by faith we believe firmly. When we know

that God has revealed something, we do not say, “Then
I think, too, that it might be true.” Nor do we say,
“It seems that it might be true, if God says so.” No.
There is no doubt at all. It is true. God has said it.
Perhaps my little mind does not quite understand it,

6



or even, perhaps, if God had not told me, I would
have thought something else. But if God says it, 1
know it must be true, and I feel absolutely certain of
it. Why does this divine virtue tell me to believe so
firmly things I do not always understand? And how do
I know what things I must believe like this? Let us
take the second question first.

We know what God has revealed by the authority of
His Church, which is the pillar and the ground of truth.
I Tim. III. 15.

Protestants say, “We know what God has revealed
by reading Scripture.” But they have been reading it
for four hundred years, and they do not know yet
what God has revealed. So that cannot be the way.
Besides, all that God has revealed is not in Scripture,
so that, even if they could understand the whole of
Scripture, they would not know all.
What God has revealed is contained in Sacred Scrip-

ture and in Tradition. By Sacred Scripture we mean
the Holy Books contained in the Bible, both in the
Old Testament and in the New Testament. God in-
spired different men to write these books, and they
wrote just what He wished. So they do contain God’s
Word.
By Tradition we mean all the other things which

Jesus taught to the Apostles, and which were not writ-
ten. The Apostles taught these other things to their
followers, and these again taught them to their suc-
cessors, and so they have come down to us.
Thus what God has taught is contained in Sacred

Scripture and Tradition. But this is not our question.
The question is, “How do we know what is contained
in Scripture and Tradition?” By studying it for our-
selves? No. We need a teacher, just as at school we
need a teacher to explain to us what our books con-
tain. The truth contained in Holy Scripture and Tradi-
tion is not always clear to us. God knew that it would
be difficult for us to find out for ourselves, and, to
save us from mistakes He left us an infallible church
to teach us; and we know what God has revealed by
believing all that the Catholic Church teaches us. This
church alone has the right to tell us* the true meaning
of all that is contained in Scripture and Tradition.

We believe what God teaches because He is the in-
fallible truth, and therefore cannot deceive nor be
deceived.

Infallible only means that God cannot think what is
wrong, and cannot tell us what is wrong. God could
not deceive us, by telling us a lie; nor could He be
mistaken Himself or be deceived.
Now you see how we adore and worship God by

7



faith. The first commandment says, “I am the Lord
thy God.” By faith we reply, “Yes. Thou art our
Lord and our God.” Every time we make an act of faith,
and say the words, ‘T believe,” we say, “God is Truth
itself, and cannot make a mistake. God is holy, and
cannot tell a lie. God is my God, and I am His little
creature. Therefore I believe this is true, because He
says it, and I know He says it because the Catholic
Church, which He told to go and teach all nations, tells
me so.” Is not that a great act of adoration and wor-
ship offered to God?
Thus we see the first thing the first of the ten com-

mandments orders us to do. It orders us to have
faith, and to believe in all that God teaches us through
His Holy Catholic Church. If we did not do this, we
would break the first commandment.
The second thing ordered by the first commandment

is that we should hope in God. Let us see, therefore,
something about this hope.

Hope is a divine virtue, by which we desire eternal
life, and the means to obtain it.
Hope, therefore, is a divine virtue, just as faith is a

divine virtue. It is a good habit put into our soul with
sanctifying grace. But it does not give us a constant
will to believe, as does faith. It does something else.
When Jesus ascended into Heaven, the Apostles

watched Him till He disappeared from sight. But their
hearts went with Him, and they would have liked to
have gone with Him. Yet they could not go then. It
was not time yet, for they had a lot to do for God.
They knew, however, that Jesus had gone to prepare
a place for them in Heaven, and right through their
lives they kept hoping that soon He would take them
there.

But is Heaven only for the Apostles? No. It is for
all who love Christ, and who keep the commandments.
Yet it is not easy to keep the commandments. We

have bad inclinations. The world and the devil try
to drag us away from our good resolutions. So we
hope, also, that God will help us. We pray to Him
to guide us, so that we shall not miss the way, and to
help us to overcome our temptations.
We desire t© go to Heaven, and hope that God will

give us the means to get there. We trust in God’s
promise. We have no right to go to Heaven, and we
rely on God’s goodness. Would a poor workman have
the right to say, ‘T keep the laws of my king, so he
ought to treat me as his son. I shall go to his palace,
and walk in, and live there with him?” How then
could we little creatures say this to God, Who is ever
so much greater than any earthly king? Yet, because
God has promised us that some day, if we are good,

8



we may come to the Palace of Heaven, we hope and
trust in Him. And that leads to cur next point.
We hope in God because He is infinitely powerful,

good, and merciful, and has promised all graces, even
Heaven itself, through Jesus Christ, to those who keep
His commandments.

When many sufferings and sorrows came upon Job,
a holy man of whom Scripture tells us, he said, “Even
if God were to take my life, I would still hope and
trust in Him.” The holy martyrs lost their lives, and
died, still hoping in God. What made them hope like
this? Firstly, their faith. They believed God’s words.
Then they relied on His power and fidelity to His
promises. God says to each one of us, “I shall be thy
reward, exceedingly great.” And then, “Ask, and it
shall be given thee.”
Men promise many things, but often they cannot

keep their promises, and often, even though they can,
they will not do so. But God does not promise more
than He can do, for He can do all things. And because
He is infinitely good. He will certainly keep His prom-
ises.

Then, too, our hope increases when we come to know
Jesus Christ, and realize how He merited all graces
for us by His sufferings and death; God did not spare
His own Son, but sent Him to save us. How can we
refuse to hope in God and trust Him?
The first commandment says, “I am the Lord thy

God.” Every time we desire Heaven, and hope to save
our souls, we say, “Yes. Thou art our God. Thou art
infinitely powerful, and Thou cans’t save us. Thou art
good, and dost wish to save us. Thou art merciful, and
wilt forgive us our sins.” You see how we adore and
worship God’s power, and goodness, and mercy, when
we make acts of hope. No wonder the first com-
mandment orders us to hope in God, and to trust in
His promises, and in the merits of Jesus Christ His
Son.

If a man refused to hope in God, he would insult
God, by saying, “God cannot save me,” or else, “God
does not want to save me. He is not so good as that.”
Look at the Good Thief on the cross! Moved by grace

and hope, he trusted in the merits of Jesus, and cried
out, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your
Kingdom!” St. Peter, even after he had denied Christ,
repented. He did not think that it was useless to hope
in Our Lord. Hope told him that Jesus would forgive
him, if he repented.
Jesus gave a parable especially for Christians who

fall into sin. No matter how great their sins, they
must not give up hope in God. He said that the
nrodigal son, reduced to great misery, thought of his

9



father. And a great hope came into his heart. He
repented of his sins, thought out how he would make
his confession, and then started for home, trusting that
his father would forgive him.

St. Augustine had sinned like the prodigal son. But
he repented, and turned to God with great sorrow and
prayer. In the end he became a great saint! Yet what
would have happened if he had said to himself, “Oh!
what is the good of hoping in God!”
Let us, therefore, obey God’s commandments, and

always hope in Him. God wishes us to be saved. His
promises come from His infinite goodness, and He will
be true to those promises. No matter how great our
sins, He can save us, because He is omnipotent, and
He will save us, if we repent, because He is good and
merciful, and because Jesus died for us. God rightly,
therefore, commands us to glorify and adore Him by
hoping in Him always and everywhere, as long as we
are in this life. After death, of course, hope stops.
Those who lose their souls have no more hope. Those
who save their souls obtain all the things they hoped
for, and they do not hope to get what they have
already received. Hope in God, and hope for Heaven,
children, and pray to Our Lord that you may be among
the happy ones who obtain all that God has promised.

CHAPTER 3
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

(B)

Charity is a divine virtue, by which we love God
above all for His own sake, and our neighbor as our-
selves for the love of God.

Charity, like faith and hope, is divine, because it is
given us by God with sanctifying grace, and is a virtue
because it is a good habit, giving a constant will to
love God. And it makes us, or rather helps us to
love God above all other things.
You will say, “Oh, but I feel much more love for my

mother than I do for God! And I feel more unhappy
when I have a pain, than after I have offended God!”
That is quite natural. You see your mother, but you
do not see God. And a pain in your tooth, or in your
head, may be very real and strong. Yet you must love
God more than you love Mother, or Daddy; more
than any creature in this world; more than yourself!
How can you do it?
Faith tells us that God is better than any of the

creatures He has made, and that we should love Him
more than all creatures.
But there are two ways of loving: one by the natural

10



sentiment of our feelings, the other by the deliberate
choice of our will. We can love by our feelings. If
you feel happy when Mother is home, and unhappy
when she is' away, that shows that you love her.
The other way you love her is by doing her will.

If she wants you to do something, you do it at once,
because you love to please her.
Some children cry when Mother goes away. They

love her with their soft-hearted feelings. But when
she is at home and asks them to do something, they do
not want to do it; they do not love her enough for that.
Now we can love Mother and Father more with our

feelings, but we must love God more than anything
else with our will.
Yet not only must we love God above all things for

His own sake. We must love our neighbor as our-
selves for the love of God.
We must not do to our neighbor what we would not

like him to do to us. And we must show him the same
kindness we expect from him. Of course, it is easy to
love our friends. Even those who are not Christians
do this. But we have to imitate Jesus, forgiving those
who offend us, and loving them also because we love
God. Even our enemies are our neighbors. Do you
remember how Our Lord said that the good Samaritan
was kind even to a complete stranger? Think of St.
Vincent de Paul, with his great heart full of love for
men. The poor, and the sick, strangers and even ene-
mies, always found him ready to help them. He was
their kind father and friend always.
Learn, therefore, to forgive your enemies. Never let

hatred stay in your heart. God would rightly say to
you, ‘Tf you hate those whom I love, how can you
expect Me to love you?” If you see an enemy whom
you can help, then help him. St. Bernard said one
day, “There are many Christians who pretend that they
do not wish to do any evil to their enemies. But they
do not wish to do any good to them, either, and they
will not speak to them. What if God said to them,
T will not do you any evil, but I shall not give you
any grace, nor shall I ever look at you or speak to
you.’ Do you think they would be happy?”
By charity, therefore, we are commanded to love

God above all things, and our neighbor as ourselves
for the love of God. Our neighbor is also made in the
image and likeness of God, and is our brother, sharing
in God’s love.

We should love God above all for His own sake, be-
cause God alone is infinitely good and perfect.

St. Francis of Assisi loved God so much that he
could not help crying out, “My God, and my All!” To
love God because He is so good in Himself is perfect

11



charity. It offers Him an act of adoration, worship-
ping His goodness. The first commandment says, “I am
the Lord thy God." Charity replies, “Yes, Thou art
my Lord and my God. Thou art infinitely good, and
dost deserve all my love." Do we not, then, adore
and worship God when we make acts of charity?
Of course we can love God in other ways, too. We

can love Him because He has created us, and given us
all that we have. This is love of gratitude. But this
love is not so perfect as loving God for Himself. If
you love your Mother because of herself, your love is
unselfish. But if you love her only because she gives
you her care, your love is rather selfish. We must try
to love God, therefore, for Himself, as well as loving
Him because He is good to us.
We should frequently make acts of faith, hope, and

charity, and particularly at the hour of death.

If a little grain of wheat is left idle on a table, it
just stays there as it is. But if it is put into the ground,
the warm rays of the sun and the moisture of the
earth make it begin to grow. Now the divine virtues
of faith, hope, and charity, which are put into the
soul at baptism, are like this little grain of wheat.
They remain as they were first put there, until the
warmth of our goodwill, with the help of actual grace,
begin to make them grow. God gave us our reason,
and our free will, and He expects that we should use
our will in trying to become holy. Just as we use our
mind by studying again and again, so we piust use
our will in choosing good things by many acts of vir-
tue. And above all we should make many acts of
faith, hope, and charity. The more often we do, the
stronger they grow.
Sometimes people say, “If faith is a gift of God,

then it is not my fault if I do not believe!" That is
foolish. It is true that faith is a gift of God. But God
has given this gift to all who are baptized, and if peo-
ple lose their faith, or hope, or charity, it is because
they would not make acts of these virtues. If they
had often made such acts, paying attention to the in-
spirations of grace, these virtues would have grown,
and become strong.
WHEN should we make acts of faith, and of hope,

and of charity? Of course we should do so as often as
possible. It is an act of faith to recite the Apostles’
Creed. In the Our Father it is an act of hope to say,
“Give us this day our daily bread," or “Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil." “Hallowed
be Thy Name, Thy will be done," are acts of charity.
We can exercise these virtues, also, by so many ejacu-
lations, those short little prayers we all love. Isn’t it
an act of hope when you say, “Heart of Jesus, I put

12



my trust in Thee?” At Mass we look up at the
Blessed Sacrament during the elevation, and we say
those beautiful words of the Apostle, St. Thomas, “My
Lord and my God.” This is an act of faith. As for
an act of charity, could you think of a better one
than the one you know so well. “Sweet Heart of
Jesus, I implore that I may love Thee more and more!”
We should make such acts, above all, in moments of

temptation. “Jesus, help me!” “Oh, Jesus, I do not
wish to sin, because I love Thee!” These acts give us
the will to resist and fight against sin. When we make
them we tell Our Lord that we hate sin, and love Him.

St. Paul says that such acts are like a shield. When
the devil throws the spears of temptation at us they
fall to the ground without hurting us. We fight for
virtue by these acts of faith, and hope, and love, and
if we are always ready to make them, we shall at last
gain the crown of victory.
We ought to make these acts, also, when we have

very important duties to do; above all, religious duties.

CHAPTER 4

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
(C)

The First Commandment forbids all sins against
faith, hope, and charity, and other duties of religion.

Do all people keep the first commandment? Alas,
no! There are sinful men who will not believe. They
do not trust in God, nor do they love Him; and they
do not practise any religion. That is bad enough. But
some men are worse still.
Supposing that your mother asked you to do some-

thing, and you said, “I won’t!” That would be wrong
already. But supposing you were mean and spiteful,
and did just the very opposite, would not that be far
worse? Just imagine a boy who, instead of putting
some wood on the fire when told to do so, would go
and put the fire right out by pouring water on it

!

Thus God orders us to have faith, and hope, and
charity, and to worship Him by our duties of religion;
and He also forbids us to do the very opposite by
sinning against these virtues.

A person sins against faith by not endeavoring to
know what God has taught, by not believing what God
has taught, and by denying his belief in what God has
taught.

By faith we believe what Jesus came to. teach men.
Our Lord came all the way from Heaven to teach us,
and it cost Him ever so much suffering, and even His

13



death. If He thought it was worth all that, wouldn’t
it be sinful if we said that it was not worth learning?
Of course it is a sin to refuse to try to find out what
God has taught. And if, when we find out what God
has taught, we refuse to believe it, that is a greater
sin still. Again, a man might find out, and really be-
lieve it in his heart, yet when someone asks him if
he believes it, he might say “no,” through shame or
human respect or fear. And that would be sinful also.
They who do not endeavor to know what God has

taught are those who neglect to learn the Christian
doctrine.

You see, it is not a question of “They must teach
me.” “It’s a question of “I must learn it.” There are
hundreds of people who do not know their Christian
doctrine, and who do not try to learn it.
Now, when you die, God will examine each one of

you. Wouldn’t you like to pass His examination? What
questions do you think He will ask you? Will He ask
you about history or geography? No! Will He give
you some sums to do? No! Will He ask you about
Christian doctrine? Yes! So now you can guess how
important it is to know Christian doctrine, and how
foolish they are who do not try to learn it! Besides,
reading and writing and arithmetic help you to make
a success of your short little life on earth; Christian
doctrine helps you to make a success of your eternal
life.

They who do not believe what God has taught are
the heretics and infidels.

The word infidel means a man without faith. Some
infidels call themselves atheists, or people who say
there is no God. But there are very few real atheists.
A lot of those who call themselves atheists, believe in
their hearts that there really is a God. Yet even a lot
of these say that they do not believe that God takes
any notice of men, and they deny that Jesus is His
Eternal Son. Then, of course, they refuse to believe
what Jesus taught. These men are infidels, and they
break the first commandment very seriously. They
live just as if there were no God, and as if Jesus had
never come to this earth at all!
The word heretic means one who takes what he

pleases. Some people say that they are not infidels.
They keep telling us that they believe in God, and in
Jesus Christ, and that they are Christians. But we
know that they are not true Christians, for they do not
belong to the true Church. They are heretics. Protes-
tants are heretics, and, of course, many Protestants
today do hot realize that they are heretics, because
they took what they pleased of Christian doctrine, and

14



refused to believe the rest. Those born of Protestant
parents can be in good faith, but no Catholic could
behave like this, without a mortal sin against the first
commandment.
Henry VIII., of England, was once a good Catholic.

But because the Pope would not give him a divorce,
and let him marry Anne Boleyn whilst his first wife,
Catherine, was still living, he left the Catholic Church,
and said, “Oh, I don’t believe that divorce is forbidden.
If the Pope won’t give me a divorce, I shall leave the
Church, and make a Church of my own, and my own
Church will have to give me what I want.’* In this
way the Anglican or Church of England began, al-
though many good Anglicans today do not seem to
realize it. Very, very few Catholics today ever dream
of leaving the Catholic Church to become Protestants
or heretics. But we must be on our guard. The first
heretics were once Catholics and they sinned in this
way. And if they could, we could.
They who deny outwardly the true religion cannot

expect salvation, for Christ has said: Whosoever shall
deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My
Father who is in Heaven. Matt. x. 33.
When we die, we all hope that Jesus will be our

Friend. But how can we expect this if we deny that
He is our Friend? He will rightly say to us, on the
last day, “Oh, no! I am not your Friend. You said
I was not when you were on earth, and if you would
not have Me then, you cannot have Me now!’’
At our Baptism we renounced the devil and the

world, and we gave our souls to Christ. We are happy
that we did so. But we must not renounce Christ, and
give our souls back to the devil and the world.
In the early Church it was much harder to be a

Catholic than it is now. Catholics were arrested and
tortured, and even put to death; for many, even little
children, preferred to die rather than deny Christ. But
some Catholics then grew afraid, and denied our Lord
to save themselves from suffering; St. Cyprian wrote
to some timid Christians like these, “Christ says that
He will be ashamed of those who are ashamed of Him.
Do you think you are a Christian, if you blush and
deny that you belong to Christ?”

If anyone ever asks you, then, whether you are a
Catholic, do not deny it, but say at once, “Yes. I have
the happiness to be a Catholic.”

^

Be proud of your
faith, and Our Lord will be proud' of you.
We are ob>liged to make open profession of our

religion, as often as God’s honor, our own or our
neighbor’s spiritual good requires it. “Whoever,” says
Christ, shall confess Me before men, I will also confess
him before My Father who is in Heaven.” Matt. x. 32.

15



Of course, we need not tell everybody we meet that
we are Catholics. We profess our faith sufficiently, as
a rule, just by living as good Catholics. When we go
to Mass on Sundays, and refuse to eat meat on Fri-
days, people see that we are Catholics, and that we
are not ashamed of it. But there are times when we
are obliged to let people see in a special way that
we are Catholics.
God’s honor demands that we profess our faith when-

ever we are asked by public authority, as in a law
court. If some ordinary man were to ask us, we'
could not deny our faith, but we could tell him to
mind his own business. But even then, as a rule, it
is better to say straight out, “Yes. I am a Catholic.”
We ought not to wait until we are obliged to say so.
We should welcome the opportunity of being loyal to
Our Lord.
The Catechism tells us that we must profess our

faith, also, when our own spiritual good requires it.
Supposing that you were with some people who were

talking about religion, when some non-Catholic said,
“Well, one religion is just as good as another!” And
supposing that a Catholic who was present, and who
was ashamed of his iaith, replied, “Yes, I think so,
too.” Would it not be wrong for a Catholic to admit
that a false religion is just as good as the true religion
given us by Our Lord? To save this weak Catholic
from committing further sins through human respect,
you should say, “We Catholics, of course, cannot and
do not admit that one religion is as good as another!”
Thus you would profess your faith, and at the same
time do something for the spiritual good of the weak
Catholic by giving him courage.
Sometimes, also, besides saving weak Catholics, such

a profession of faith helps to convert non-Catholics to
the true Church. Ever so many converts have come
to the Catholic Church through the good example of
Catholics who showed that they were proud to confess
their faith. No wonder Our Lord says that He will
confess those in Heaven, who confess Him on earth.
The sins against hope are despair and presumption.
If you were to eat too little, you would get thinner

and thinner, and perhaps die of hunger and starva-
tion. But if you were to eat too much, you would ruin
your health, and perhaps kill yourself in that way.
You must keep in between too little and too much,
if you want to keep well. To eat rightly you must
not take too little, nor must you take too much. In
the same way, to hope rightly you must not hope too
much. To hope too little is mistrust. If you do not
hope at all, it is despair. And if you hope too much,
it is presumption. Thus we sin against hope in two

16



ways: either by not having enough hope, or by having
too much.

Despair is the loss of confidence in God.

A man who loses all hope in God has committed a
sin of despair. The first commandment says, “I am the
Lord thy God.” The man who despairs says, perhaps,
“Thou are the Lord,” but he says in his heart, “Yet
Thou are not my God. I do not hope in Thee and I
do not believe that Thou canst love me or help me.”
However, a man can sin against hope long before he

comes to complete despair. He sins by mistrust, by
not having enough confidence in God. We must trust
Our Lord.
Do you remember how He once went in a boat with

His disciples. He was sound asleep, when a great storm
arose. The poor frightened disciples woke him up
and said, “Lord, save us. We perish.” Our Lord said,
“Why did you fear. Oh you of little faith.” He re-
buked their, want of trust.
How often storms come in our lives. Sickness comes,

those we love die; we meet with poverty or disgrace;
we find it hard to see how God can really be looking
after us. Like the disciples we forget that Our Lord
is with us, and we begin to be afraid.
Some people are always anxious lest they should

not be able to get what is necessary to live. Then,
when we look around the world, we see wars, revolu-
tions, and persecutions. The good people suffer, and
often the wicked seem to do well. People without
trust in God say, “Oh, there cannot be a God, or if
there is a God He does not care. If He did care
things would not go wrong like this.” Never speak
like this! There is a God, and He loves us. He gives
us many good things, and permits suffering only for
our greater good.
When everything is going well, people say, “Isn’t

God good!” Then, when things go wrong, they should
say, “Since God is good. He must be permitting this
trial for my good. I must continue to trust Him.”

If want of trust offends God, despair offends Him
still more. The devil persuades men to commit sin,
and then to make sure that they won’t repent, he
sends another temptation to despair, “It’s no good,”
he whispers, “it is impossible for you to be saved.
God will never forgive you, no matter what you do!”
This is an insult to God, because it denies His infinite
mercy. Think of the wicked sin of Judas. He be-
trayed Our Lord to His enemies. Then he felt mis-
erable, because sin never makes anyone really happy.
The money disgusted him, and he went and threw it
back to the Jewish priests. Then what did he do? If
he had asked Jesus to forgive him, do you think Our

17



Lord would have done so? Of course He would! Or
supposing that Judas did not have the courage to go
to Jesus, but went to Mary and begged her to ask
Jesus to forgive him, do you think he would have
recovered God’s grace? Certainly Mary would not have
sent him away, and Jesus would not refuse His
Mother’s prayer. But Judas gave way to the tempta-
tion of the devil. He believed that he could not be
forgiven. “God could not be good enough to forgive
such a sin,’’ thought Judas, and he despaired of his
eternal salvation. This was another mortal sin, and it
led Judas to still a further mortal sin of suicide.

If you never begin by mistrusting Our Lord, you
will never end in despair. And there is no need to
despair. There is not a single sin which cannot be
forgiven, if only one repents.
One day, St. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, how often

must one forgive others—seven times?** Our Lord re-
plied, “not seven times, but seventy-seven times.** He
meant, “you must be always ready to forgive, as often
as those who offend you ask you to do so. God is
always ready to forgive all those who ask Him, and
men should forgive each other as God is ready to
forgive them, as often as they sincerely repent.’’
By mistrust and despair, we sin because we have too

little hope. Now let us see how men can sin by hoping
too much or by presumption.
God has not promised Heaven to all. He has prom-

ised Heaven to those who correspond with His grace,
and who try to serve Him. And we are only allowed
to hope for what God has promised. To hope to go
to Heaven without grace is hoping too much. So,
alas, it is hoping too much to say, “Oh, God’s grace will
save me. There is no need for me to do anything.’’
These are sins of presumption.

Presumption is a foolish expectation of salvation,
without making proper use of the necessary means to
obtain it.

It is a sin of presumption to think that we can save
ourselves without God’s grace. Proud presumption says,
“Oh, I trust in myself. I do not need to put my trust
in the Heart of Jesus.** Let us always ask Jesus to help
us with His grace. But, then, too, let us do our best.
What would you think of a pupil at school who hoped
to be promoted to a higher class at the end of the
year, yet who would not study and learn all that the
teacher had explained to him? Would not this be
presumption? All right, then, if a person thinks that
he can save his soul without trying to serve God, or
doing any good works, and not even going to Mass
and the Sacraments, do you think he is justified in
such hopes? No. It would be presumption.

18



A poor man might be in a state of sin all his life,
and have no good works. Then at the last, instead of
despairing, he might receive the grace of repentance.
His hope to be saved, even though he has no good
works, except his last act of corresponding with God’s
grace, is justified. But then he always knew that his
sins ‘were wrong, and that they did matter, and he
never hoped to be saved without repenting of them.
He did not commit the sin of presumption. But if
others said, “Well, he was saved after a life of sin,
we can commit sin, also; then we too shall be saved
by final repentance,” that would be presumption, for
such men would deliberately sin, presuming that they
must receive the grace of repentance when they want
it, and not when God wants them to repent. It is a
wicked thing to say, “Oh, God is merciful,” and then
offend Him just because He is merciful. Rather that is
an extra reason why we should love and serve Him.
Such a sin of presumption would deserve that a man
should die without having time to repent as he boasted
he would do at the moment of death.
A person sins against the love of God by every sin.
We are obliged to love God. Now Our Lord says,

“If anyone love Me, he will keep My commandments.”
If, then, we sin and break the commandments, we do
not love God really and with all our hearts. Every
sin, therefore, offends the love of God.
Usually, however, men love something which God

forbids. They keep thinking of the things they love,
and just forget God. Then they do what they wish,
throwing away God’s friendship. Often they say they
would like to have God’s love and the thing He forbids
as well. They say they do not hate God. But all the
same, they know they cannot have both, and then
deliberately choose what God forbids. It is a great sin
against the love of God, to say that any created pleas-
ure or thing is better than God. Yet far greater is
the sin of the man who really hates God, and who does
not want God at all, in any way. There are not many
men like this, but there are a few, and we must pray
that God will have mercy on them. This hatred of
God is a special sin against charity or the love of God.
But every sin is against the love of God in general.
A person sins against the love of his neighbor by

injuring him in any respect.
When we love people, we wish to do them good.

When we hear that they are hurt we are sorry. And
we are happy if we see them happy. Then how can
we say that we love them if we hurt our neighbors?
The Catechism says that to hurt them in any respect

is a sin against the love of our neighbor. If we take
19



our neighbor’s goods; or hurt his body; or destroy his
good name by telling nasty stories about him; or hurt
his soul by giving bad example or by tempting him
to sin—all these are sins against the love of our neigh-
bor. But we shall see more about these when we study
the other commandments.

CHAPTER 5
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

(D)

The first commandment, which says, “I am the Lord
thy God: Thou shalt not have strange gods before
Me,” obliges us to offer to God our religious worship,
besides believing in Him, hoping in Him, and loving
Him.
The first commandment forbids us to give to any

creature the honor due to God alone.
We read in the Old Testament that Moses went up

on to a mountain one day to speak to God, and when
he came down he was filled with holy indignation be-
cause the people had made a golden calf, and were
worshipping the idol as if it were God.
Even the Romans worshipped many gods made of

brass and stone, and poor pagan people today do the
same.
But divine worship is due to God alone. To worship

any creature as if it were God is foolish and sinful,
whether the creature be a man, or an animal, or a
statue. This is called the serious sin of idolatry.
The devil said to Jesus, “I shall give You all the

world if you will fall down and adore me!” But Jesus
said, “Get thee gone, Satan. It is written, *God alone
shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve.* *’
Many people nowadays, who do not fall into the sin

of idolatry, commit another sin against this first com-
mandment by superstition.
Some, instead of asking God to help them in their

difficulties, ask the devil. The devil is a clever evil
spirit, and he can do wonderful things at times which
even look like miracles. These wonderful things de-
ceive poor foolish men and lead them away from God.
Other people who call themselves spiritualists, say

that they do not speak to the devil, but to the souls
or spirits of their dead friends and relatives, who
answer their questions. Alas! How they deceive them-
selves! We can pray for the souls of our dear ones
who are in Purgatory, and we can ask God to give us
graces because they pray for us. But let us remember
that we are in this world, and the departed souls
are in another world altogether. Except in very special

20



cases, and always with God’s permission, they have no
means of speaking to us. Those who say that they can
speak with the souls of the dead whenever they like,
may hear replies, but whose replies? They are evil
spirits, often, who reply, and who mock and deceive
men. And it is a sin against the true religion of God
to talk with the devil and evil spirits. The Church
rightly forbids Catholics to have anything to do with
spiritualism, or any other superstitious ways of trying
to find out what God does not intend us to know.

Silly people think the number 13 unlucky; they be-
lieve in dreams; they think that stars and comets can
tell them future things; if they see a knife and fork
crossed on the table they say that an accident is going
to happen. All this is silly superstition, and denies the
Providence of God. God has care of us, and it is sinful
to say that God would use such silly and vain things
to fulfill His Holy Will. If Our Lord wants to tell the
future. He will not tell us in this foolish way.
Supersf-tion, therefore, is forbidden by the first com-

mandment. We cannot have recourse to vain means
of knowing the future, by cards, or fortune-telling, or
by asking evil spirits. This is giving to creatures
honor and respect which is not due to them, but to
God alone.
We must not, therefore, give to any creature the

honor due to God alone. But now there comes another
point.

We are not forbidden to honor the saints, but we are
forbidden to give them Divine honor, which belongs to
God alone.
All the souls in Heaven are holy and glorious. But

just as some stars are brighter than others, so some
saints are more glorious than others. Who are the
more glorious? Those who more closely copied their
Divine Master. Like Jesus, they practiced great virtue,
and sacrificed themselves for others. For the love of
God some saints suffered immense trials, sickness,
hatred, prison, and even death.
How does the Church know that someone is a saint?

First, the Church examines someone’s life, and virtue,
and writings. If the Church, after a long examination,
says, “Yes. This person had the true spirit of Christ,
and was heroic in the practice of Christian virtue,’’
she declares him Venerable, or worthy of being hon-
ored by all Catholics. If, after this, many who have
prayed to this Venerable and holy soul, obtain special
favors, the Church examines these favors, and if some
of them are proved to be real miracles, which God
alone can do, she beatifies the holy soul, and calls
him Blessed. Then if God still continues to grant
miraculous favors to honor the name of His servant

21



on earth, the Church canonizes him, and he is known
as Saint. Only the Pope can canonize a Saint, and
when he does so the Holy Spirit guides him, so that
his judgment is infallible. After a decree of canoniza-
tion, we are absolutely certain that a holy soul is in
Heaven.
But is it right to honor the saints like this? Protes-

tants say that we Catholics commit a sin by doing so.
They do not understand. They say they believe in the
Communion of Saints, but they do not know what it
means. Of course it is right to honor the saints. God
has honored them by giving them great graces, and by
working miracles to show that they are His special
friends. Should not we honor them also? It is true that
they are creatures. They are not God. We cannot,
therefore, adore them and worship them as we adore
God. But they are the friends of God, and we should
reverence God’s friends. It would not be a sin if we
honor those whom God has so honored. And if a
soul is worthy of being honored by God, is not that
soul worthy of being honored by us?

It is lawful to ask the prayers of the saints.

St. James wrote in his epistle V., 16: “The prayer of
a just man avails much.’’ St. Paul often asked those
to whom he wrote, “to help him by their prayers,’’
and he promised that he Would pray for them.
Now if the saints can pray for us while they are still
in this world, and obtain many graces for us, why
cannot they do so when they are in Heaven? Are they
less powerful there? Or are they less charitable? Of
course we can pray to them.

It is good to ask them to obtain many favors for
us. A Protestant said to me once, “But God loves you
more than any saint loves you. Why not ask God
always?’’ I replied, “Yes. But then, you see, God cer-
tainly loves the saints more than he loves me. The
saints are dearer to God, and if they offer my poor
prayers to God, He will answer them for their sake.’’
In the Old Testament we read these words, written
long after the holy prophet Jeremias had died. “This
is a lover of his brethren, and of the people of Israel;
this is he that prayeth much for the people and for the
holy city: Jeremias, the prophet of God.” II. Mach,
XV. 14. We rightly, then, pray to the saints, both for
temporal favors and for spiritual favors.

It is proper to show respect to the crucifix and
religious pictures, because they represent Christ and
His saints, and remind us of them.

Pictures and statues of Our Lord, Our Lady and the
saints speak to our souls and remind us of those whom
we love. In the early Church, away down in the Cata-

22



combs under the city of Rome, the first Christians
used to draw pictures of Our Lord and Our Lady on
the walls and always treated them with the greatest
respect. Before printing was invented the people used
to learn their Christian doctrine not only from the
voice of the Priest, but by seeing the beautiful holy
pictures in the churches. We do not adore or worship
the pictures. We honor those of whom the pictures
remind us, and we respect holy people. Protestants
foolishly say that we should not respect pictures and
images of Our Lord and Our Lady; and they will not
have such pictures in their churches. Then they go
home, and have pictures of their parents in their homes,
and respect them. If their parents deserve such beau-
tiful remembrance, does not Our Lord deserve it still
more? But when it is a question of religion they say,
“No. We must read only the Bible!” Yet do they know
more about their religion that way? I am quite sure
that a little Catholic child who makes the Stations of
the Cross, and sees before her eyes each of the four-
teen Stations, knows more about the Passion and
Sufferings of Jesus than most Protestants, even if they
did read Scripture, as they say they should.
We are not, therefore, forbidden to honor the crucifix

and other holy pictures and images. They represent
Christ and His saints, and remind us of them. After
the Great War they built in many cities a monument,
to remind us of the soldiers who died for their coun-
try, and even Protestants, as they go by, lift their hats
as a sign of respect. How can they complain when
Catholics show respect to a crucifix, which reminds us
of One who died for us all? But the devil makes non-
Catholics blind, because he wants to rob Our Lord of
all the honor and respect he possibly can. We Catholics,
however, will always reverence Our Lord, and respect
all that reminds us of Him, or of Our Lady, His
Mother, or of His friends, the saints.

Catholics honor the relics of the saints because their
bodies were the temples of the Holy Ghost, and will
be honored at the last day, and will be glorified forever
in Heaven.

In some churches the complete bodies of the saints
are preserved. They are kept in beautiful shrines, and
the faithful say their prayers before these shrines, and
touch their beads and prayer books on the shrine, feel-
ing that thus their pious objects are blessed. Usually,
however, we see small relics of the bodies of the saints,
or of things they have used during life.

If, when a mother were dying, she called her son
and said, “Son, here are my rosary beads. I have used
them all my life, and I want you to have them to
remind you always of your mother,” would he not take

23



them, and kiss them, and treasure them all his life?
So great would be his respect for them that he would
say, “These beads belonged to my mother. I would not
lose them for anything In the same way, we show
our respect and honor for the dear saints of God by
venerating their relics.
The saints always made their bodies serve God.

Whilst they were in their bodies they used them in
God’s service, practicing Christian mortification, keep-
ing them holy and chaste and pure, and working for
the love of their neighbors. They obeyed the voice of
grace and the Holy Spirit dwelt within them. Just as
we reverence a church in a special way when Jesus
is present in the Blessed Sacrament, so we reverence
the bodies of the saints, and any relics of their bodies,
because they were sanctuaries of the Holy Ghost.
Also we know that, at the last day, the bodies of

all will rise, and that God will honor and glorify the
bodies of those who have been saints, in a very special
way. Often God honors them even now, for He has
granted miraculous favors over and over again when
people have touched these relics with great faith and
confidence. And if God honors such relics as this, we
also should show our respect and hold them in great
honor and reverence.
We pray before the crucifix, and before the images

and relics of the saints because they remind us of
Christ and His saints.
A poor, good Protestant once said to a Catholic, “I

went into a Catholic Church one day, and saw a
Catholic kneeling down and praying to a statue!” The
Catholic smiled, and said to his friend, “You might
have seen a Catholic kneeling in front of a statue, but
you did not see him praying to it. When you were a
little child, I suppose you used to kneel down beside
your bed to say your night prayers. Now wouldn’t you
be angry if someone saw you, and then told everyone
that you prayed to your mattress?” The Protestant
then looked very foolish. We Catholics do not pray
to the wood, or marble, or plaster. No Catholic ever
dreams that a statue can hear prayers or give us
graces. Catholics pray to those whom the images and
pictures represent. When soldiers salute the fiag, do
we say, “Here! You must not honor a piece of rag
like that!” No. We all know that they are showing
respect to their country, and that the fiag reminds
them of their country. The holy pictures and images
enliven our faith. They remind us that we too should
be holy. And then we pray with greater earnestness
for the graces necessary to imitate Our Lord and Our
Lady, and to become saints ourselves.

It is not forbidden to make images; but it is for-
24



bidden to adore and serve them, as the idolaters do.
That is easy to understand, after all that we have

said. The first commandment says, “Thou shalt not
make an image of anything in the heavens above, or
in the earth beneath.” But it adds, “Thou shalt not
bow down and worship them.”
Some non-Catholics pretend that God forbade us to

make any images at all. But that is foolish. People
could not even go out with a Kodak and take a snap-
shot of a gumtree! They would be making an image
of something “in the earth beneath.” God forbade us
to make images in order to adore them, as idolaters
do. And we Catholics never do that. Why, God Him-
self ordered the Jews to carve two images of the
Angels, and put them over the Ark of the Covenant.
Would God order the Jews to break His own com-
mandment? No. God did not forbid the making of
images. He forbade the adoration of images; and the
Catholic Faith forbids this also.

CHAPTER 6

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT
(A)

The second commandment is: Thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Supposing that your parents gave you a name which

was not a common name, but different from the or-
dinary names other children usually have. Would you
be pleased if others used your name just to laugh at
you, ridiculing and mocking you? Yet God deserves
much more respect than we do. The Holy Name of
God, and the Adorable Name of Jesus deserve great
reverence, and it is sinful to make bad use of them.
So God forbids men to use His Holy Name how they
please, and tells them that they must not mention Him
without the greatest reverence and respect.

We are commanded by the second commandment to
speak with reverence of God, and of His saints, and
of all things relating to Divine Worship. We are also
commanded to keep our lawful oaths and vows.
God gave us our lips, that we might praise Him on

earth, and afterwards for all eternity in Heaven. It
is a beautiful thing to use our lips in this life to tell
God that we adore Him and love Him, and to ask
Him for all we need, as any little child would ask its
dear father.
In the Old Testament we know that the Jews were

never allowed to say the special word for God. Even
today, in Jewish prayer books, they do not print the

25



Hebrew word for God, and Jews never use It. Only
the High Priest was allowed to pronounce this Holy
Name.
But we Christians are rather the children of God

than the mere servants of God, and we may say the
Names of God, and Lord, and Jesus, as often as we
wish. But it is never lawful to speak disrespectfully
of these Names. There are many beautiful examples
of reverence for the Holy Name of God, and we should
often think of them.
Some years ago, in Italy, there was a poor farmer

who had great faith in Our Lord, and love for Him.
But a great trial came to him, for he got cancer in
his tongue. The doctor said that an operation was
necessary, and that his life would be saved, but that
after the operation he would lose the power of speech.
Just before the operation the good farmer said, “Let
me at least say the last words I shall ever speak in
this world. I should like to offer my last words to
Our Lord, and can only say, ‘Praised be the Holy Name
of Jesus.’” After that he would say no more, but
submitted to the operation.
Let us ask the same great grace of Our Lord, that

we may always pronounce His Holy Name with great
reverence; that we may love those words in the Our
Father, “Hallowed be Thy Name”; and that we may
often praise God and bless Him, above all when we
hear men insult God by taking His Name in vain.
Let us remember, also, that we must always speak

reverently of the saints. They are God’s special
friends, and we know that, even in this world, people
will not hear anything against their friends. If people
insult our friends, they insult us. And if people insult
the saints by irreverence they insult God.
Finally, we must speak reverently of all things con-

nected with divine worship, because all these things
are sacred by consecration to God.
But the second commandment not only orders us to

do all this, it also forbids certain conduct.

The second commandment forbids all oaths that are
false, rash, unjust, or unnecessary; it also forbids
cursing, swearing, blasphemy, and profane words.

It is forbidden to curse people. Sometimes people
who never pray to God, and live as if God did not
exist, will call upon God when they are angry, and
then only to invite Him to do their evil will, asking
Him to hurt or injure others. These are curses and
are absolutely forbidden by God. Such expressions are
always sinful, even if people do not really mean them.
But they are very wicked indeed, if really meant.
Such words should never pass the lips of a Christian.
Our Lord tells us to forgive our enemies, and pray for

26



them. Mow can anyone ask God, “Forgive us our
trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against
us,” if he curses those who trespass against him.
But not only curses are forbidden. Swearing is for-

bidden. Sometimes swear-words are not wrong in
themselves, for they do not really mean anything. They
would be wrong if they were used to express im-
patience or anger.
Some people, however, use Our Lord’s Name when

they swear. This is not blasphemy, for they do not
mean to insult Our Lord. But it is always a great ir-
reverence. Never use Our Lord’s Name jokingly, or
to show impatience, and wonder or surprise. Keep His
Holy Name for your prayers, treating it always with
the greatest respect.
Real blasphemy is still worse, and most strictly for-

bidden. Wicked men not only ask God to curse people
they do not like, but sometimes they even curse God.
They revile Jesus, and make a mockery of religion.
They really wish evil to God. They cannot hurt God;
they hurt only themselves. But they wish to express
their hatred of God. They are like silly children who
would try to throw stones at the distant stars, only to
find the stones falling on themselves and hurting them.
But such blasphemy is very wicked.
Profane words are also forbidden. They are not so

bad as blasphemy, for they do not wish evil to God.
But they show no faith at all. People say, “If God
were just He would not let us suffer like this!” Or
they speak lightly and irreverently of religious things.
These profane words are often occasions of worse sins,
destroying faith and confidence in God.
A man who blasphemes and uses horrible language

does not speak the language of Christians. He speaks
the language of hell. It is the devil who teaches such
language, for you will never hear such words in
Heaven. You can easily understand, therefore, why
God forbids such language by the second command-
ment.
An oath is the calling God to witness that what we

state is true, or that we will do what we promise.
If you were out one day with a friend, and you

both saw something wonderful happen, but you found
that people did not believe you when you told them
afterwards, what would you do? You would tell them
to ask your friend, for your friend would witness that
what you said was true.

It is never lawful to swear what is false.
We know that it is never lawful to tell a deliberate

lie. God says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”
When we tell lies we sin against the virtue of truth.
Then if it is not lawful to say what is false, it is much

27



worse to call upon God to witness that what we say
is true, when we know that we are not telling the
truth. This would be not only a sin against the truth,
but also it would be a sin of irreverence. Isn’t it a
great insult to God to behave as if God did not mind
lies? When a man swears an oath before God that
a lie is the truth, he commits a sin of perjury, and we
shall see in a moment how great a sin is perjury. It
is certainly never lawful to swear what is false.

It is lawful to swear what is true whenever God’s
honor, or the good of our neighbor, or the defense of
ourselves requires it.

Just as we are not allowed to take God’s Name in
vain, so we are not allowed to invoke Him, or call
upon Him to witness that we are sincere, unless there
is a real necessity. We are not free to take an oath,
even when we are really telling the truth, if the mat-
ter is not very important.
The Pharisee used to swear on oath for even trifling

things, and Our Lord forbade it. “Do not swear.’’ He
said, “but answer simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ ’’

However, it is lawful to take an oath before God for
serious reasons.
God’s honor may require it. When Moses explained

the commandments of God to the Jews, he wished to
make sure that they would honor God by keeping
them. And he swore by a solemn oath that God would
bless them if they did. “I call Heaven and earth to
witness this day,’’ he said, “that I have set before
you life and death.’’ Deut. xxx, 19.
The good of our neighbor may require it. To save

his children from making mixed marriages with people
who had not the true faith, Abraham called the chief
man of his house, and said, “I make thee swear by
the Lord God of Heaven and earth, that thou take
not a wife for my son of the daughters of the Cha-
naanites.’’ Gen. xxiv, 3.

So, too, today, if a man were arrested and charged
with some serious crime, and we knew that he was
innocent, we could go. to the law court and swear
before God that we knew he was not guilty.
When Our Lord was arrested, the Jewish priests

tried Him, and asked Him by what right He taught
the people. Our Lord would not reply, until they
asked Him to say by a solemn oath before God if He
were really the Son of God. “I adjure thee,” said the
High Priest, “by the living God, that thou tell us if
thou be the Christ the Son of God.” Matt.' xxvi, 63.
Then Jesus accepted the oath, and gave a complete
defense of all His actions, by replying, “Yes. What you
say is correct.” Matt, xxvi, 64. But the wicked Jews
would not believe even His sworn declaration, and

28



condemned Him to death. We, too, can give evidence
on oath in our own case, if the matter is really serious.
An unjust oath is an oath which is injurious to any-

one.

We may take an oath to save an innocent man, even
though because of our oath, the guilty man is con-
demned. For the guilty man deserves it. But we can-
not take an oath that will injure any innocent man.
When the daughter of Herodias danced before King

Herod, Herod promised her by a solemn oath that he
would give her whatever she asked. The oath was
wicked and unjust. She might ask for something
wicked and wrong.
When we take an oath we must know that it will

always be for something good and honorable. The
Freemasons take an oath without knowing whether it
will oblige’ them to do what is right or to do what is
wrong. And the oath taken by Freemasons is wrong.
No Catholic, therefore, can be a Freemason.
In the case of Herod, we know that the daughter of

Herodias asked for the murder of St. John the Bap-
tist, and, although Herod was afraid, he kept his oath
and sent an executioner, who put St. John to death.
How unjust to St. John was this oath of Herod!
A person is not obliged to keep an unjust oath.
Herod sinned by taking an oath just because a

dance pleased him. It was not lawful to take such an
oath. But when he had made it, and the girl asked
him to do a wicked thing, was he obliged to keep his
oath? No. It is never lawful to do wrong. Herod add-
ed the sin of murder to his sin of irreverence. Men
are obliged not to keep an unjust oath.

A person is obliged to keep a lawful oath; it would
be perjury to break it.

Certainly a man would commit mortal sin if he were
to promise some just thing under oath, yet had no
intention of doing it, at the time he took the oath.
For he would swear falsely, or commit perjury. But
he must not only have the intention of fulfilling his
promise. He is obliged to fulfill it when he can. Of
course, if he cannot, or if there are very serious rea-
sons why he should not, he, is excused.

It is perjury to break a lawful oath, or to take a
false one.

If it is lawful to take an oath, and you do so with
no intention of keeping it, then you commit perjury,
for you swear falsely. But if you really have the in-
tention of doing what you say, and afterwards, do not
do so when you are able, you do not commit a sin of
perjury, but rather one of infidelity to a serious prom-

29



ise. In this case you were sincere when you called
upon God to witness to your sincerity.
Perjury is swearing falsely. Poor St. Peter commit-

ted a sin of perjury when he swore by an oath that
he did not know Jesus. Many people today give false
evidence under oath in law courts, committing grave
sins of perjury. But they do not repent afterwards,
as did St. Peter, who wept bitter tears because of his
sin.

Perjury is a most grievous sin.
To swear what you know to be false is contempt of

God, because you know that He is the God of Truth,
yet ask Him to witness a lie. A promise under oath
to do something wicked is also contempt of God, for
you know that He is infinitely good, yet ask Him to
promise with you that you will commit a sin. Never,
therefore, allow yourself to commit perjury.

CHAPTER 7
THE SECOND COMMANDMENT

(B)

The second commandment is, “Thou shalt not take
the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.” It com-
mands us to keep the lawful oaths and vows which we
make in the Name of Almighty God.
A vow is a solemn promise made to God binding

under sin.
We have explained how a man can make a serious

promise to someone else, and take an oath by calling
upon God to witness that he intends to do what he
promises. But we can also make promises, not only
to our fellow men, but to God.
You can promise to God that you will try to be

more obedient, or more charitable, and if you make
such a good promise, you should try to keep it.
You made great promises to God when you were

baptized, or at least great promises were made in your
name, and you renewed them afterwards for yourselves
at your Confirmation. You promised to renounce the
world and the devil, and to serve Jesus Christ. And
because these promises are so important they are
called Baptismal Vows. However, they are not vows
in the real sense of the word. They are solemn prom-
ises to God, and we should make every effort to keep
them. But they cannot be real vows, or else every
single sin committed by baptized people would be a
sacrilege as well, and no one would say that.
A real vow is more than even a solemn promise. One

who makes a real vow not only makes a promise to
God, but he says, “And I intend to oblige myself in a



new and special way in the name of religion.” Thus
he makes his act sacred. If a man made a vow of
purity like this, and afterwards committed a sin against
that holy virtue, he would commit two sins, one of
impurity, and another of sacrilege by violating his vow
to God.

If one takes a vow he is obliged to keep it. If we
should be faithful to our promises to our fellow men,
how much more faithful we should be to vows made
to God! We read in the Old Testament of a holy
woman named Anna, who prayed to God for a little
child. She vowed that if God would give her a little
boy she would consecrate him to God’s service. Her
prayer was heard, and she kept her vow. She called
her little child Samuel, which means, “In the" Name of
the Lord,” and afterwards Samuel became a great
prophet.
We are not obliged to make vows, but if we do we

must keep them, unless we obtain a dispensation from
the Church. You remember how Our Lord said to His
Church, “Whatever you loose on earth, is loosed in
Heaven.” But unless we get such a dispensation, God
expects us to keep vows if we make them. He said
to the Jews, “When thou hast made a vow to the Lord
thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it; because the
Lord thy God will require it. And if thou delay, it
shall be imputed to thee for a sin. But if thou dost not
promise, thou shalt be without sin.” Deut. xxiii, 21, 22.
You can see that one should think carefully before

he makes a vow, for it is a very solemn promise in-
deed. No one should ever make a vow without taking
advice, and asking permission from a Priest in con-
fession. If a person made a vow privately, and after-
wards found it too hard to keep, what should he do?
He should tell a Priest in confession, and the Priest
will instruct him and help him and, if necessary, ob-
tain a dispensation for him, or perhaps change it to
something easier. Some vows can be dispensed only
by the Pope, or by some Priest who has obtained spe-
cial powers from the Pope. The Church is very careful
about vows, because they are serious. People in the
world, above all, should be very slow to make vows,
because it may be very difficult to keep them in the
midst of so many temptations.

CHAPTER 8
THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

The third commandment is: Remember that thou
keep holy the Sabbath Day.
The command as given by Moses in the Name of God

to the Jews was that the Sabbath, and not Saturday,
31



should be kept holy. The word Sabbath means rest.
The law includes two elements; one essential, that
one day in seven should be dedicated to God; the other
ceremonial, that the particular day should be chosen.
The Jews selected Saturday, while Christians decided

"

to observe Sunday.
Who changed the day for us? The Apostles. Our

Lord said to the Apostles, “Whatever you bind on
earth is bound in Heaven.” Using this power given
them by Our Lord, the Apostles changed the day for
Christians. They did this to show the change from the
Jewish to the Christian religion, and chiefly in honor
of the Resurrection of Christ, Who rose from the dead
on Sunday morning, thus completing the work of
redemption and in honor of the Holy Ghost who came
to give life to the church on Sunday, the first day of
the week. Sunday has always been known to
Christians as the Lord’s Day. Some Protestants, called
the Seventh Day Adventists, say that the Catholic
Church changed the day about the third century, and
because of this offended God by breaking the third
commandment. They say that Saturday is still the
day to be observed.
But the Seventh Day Adventists were never heard of

for over 1700 years after Christ, and it is absurd to
say that all Christians were wrong till then. Christ
said that His Church would never err.
Besides this, they are wrong when they say that the

change was not made by the Apostles, but by the
Catholic Church in the third century. There is no
difference between the Apostles and the Catholic
Church. The Apostles were just as Catholic we are.
As for the change being made in the third century,
we find it the first century. In the Acts of the Apostles,
XX., 7, we read, “And on the first day of the week,
when we were assembled to break bread, Paul dis-
coursed with them.” In an old book, discovered in the
year 1883, and written by the early Christians in the
first century, we read these instructions for the faith-
ful, “Meet on Sundays to break bread and give thanks,
after having confessed your sins that your sacrifice
may be pure.” Doct. of the Twelve Apostles, c. xiv., 1.
Thus you know what to say to those who tell you

that we Catholics are wrong in keeping Sundays as the
Lord’s Day.

We are commanded by the third commandment to
sanctify the Sunday by prayer and other religious
duties.

It is a strict duty to sanctify Sunday. This is the
only commandment where God says, “Remember.”
The commandments which follow tell us our duties to
our fellow men. But this commandment tells us our



duty to God. And it is so important that God says,
“Remember.” When God says “Remember,” He is
certainly not giving us permission to forget! It is a
very serious sin to break this commandment.
But besides being a sin of ingratitude, it is a sin of

injustice. We ought to give at least one out of 168
hours which we have in a week back to God. If men
pay the baker for the bread which nourishes their
bodies, is it not more necessary to pay God what He
asks in return for our bodies and our very life? Re-
member, therefore, to keep holy the Sunday, as God
commands.
The Catechism tells us that we must sanctify Sunday

by prayer, and other religious duties. We shall see
in a moment that we must also abstain from certain
work. But Sunday is not only a day of rest from
work. It is a day of rest for our bodies, but it is
also a day of spiritual exercise for our souls. We
are to do work of piety and religion for our own
sanctification and the honor of God. We shall see
that Catholics are obliged to go to Mass. But they
should keep the spirit of Sunday. They should not
only go to Mass, and then spend the rest of the day
without a thought of religion. They may have lawful
recreation, but they should say special prayers on
Sundays, be at Rosary and Benediction or other Church
services in the afternoon or in the evenings if possible,
and do some spiritual reading. He is a poor kind of
Catholic who does only what he is strictly obliged to do.
The chief duty of religion by which we should

sanctify the Sunday is the hearing of Mass devoutly.
You see how the Catechism calls this the chief duty.

It is not the only act of religion we should perform.
But it is the chief duty, because it obliges under pain
of mortal sin^, and because it is a public act which
we all offer together to God in Church.
We are present bodily, kneeling before the Altar,

because God gave us both body and soul, and we must
worship Him by reverence of body and devotion of
soul. And we do it together, because we live in
society, and we are meant to profess our faith in the
presence of others, besides giving good example to
others.
Some Protestants say, “Oh, there is no need to go

to Church, and show our religion publicly. It is
enough to worship God in our hearts!” That is not
enough. God gave men both body and soul, and it
is not enough to worship God with the soul only.
We must offer. God bodily and external homage. If you
were to ask people who say such things, when they
offer God this purely spiritual and interior worship,
what would they reply? If they were honest they

33



would have to admit that they scarcely ever think of
God. Those who give up the external practices of
religion nearly always lose the religious spirit al-
together.
Among the most important exercises of piety is the

hearing of Holy Mass devoutly. You know that Jesus
is present on the Altar, and that He offers Himself
in sacrifice for you, just as He did on the Cross,
except that in the Mass He no longer sheds His Precious
Blood. He offers Himself as a Victim to His Divine
Father, giving Him the infinite honor and worship
which all men together could never give. There is
no religious act so wonderful as the Mass, and the
Church obliges us to be present. But we must not
just be there. We must assist with great devotion,
just as if we were kneeling on Calvary at the foot of
the Cross. You should be asking God to forgive you
your sins; to accept the praise and worship of Jesus
to supply for your own poor service of God. And you
should ask for grace as earnestly as a starving beg-
gar would ask for a crust of bread to keep him
alive. You need God’s grace more than that poor
starving man needs a crust of bread. Remember,
therefore, to go to Mass on Sundays, and to assist at
Mass with great fervor and devotion.
Let me tell you a story.
There was once a boy whose father never went to

Mass. Whilst the boy was little his father never
said anything, but let the child go off to Mass every
Bunday. But when the boy was about fourteen, he
said to him one Sunday morning, “Where are you
going at this early hour?” The boy replied, “I am
going to Mass. You know that God commands us to
sanctify the Lord’s Day.” “Oh,” replied his father,
“the Priests tell you that. Believe me, God never made
such a law!” What do you think the boy replied?
He thought of the commandments for a moment, and
then said, “Well, is the next commandment, to honor
my father and mother, a lie also, and only invented
by the Priest?” His father was silent, and let the
boy go without saying any more. But while the boy
was at Mass the father thought over what his son
had said, and next Sunday followed the good example
of his child by going to Mass, a practice he kept up
ever afterwards. Keep God’s commandment, therefore,
and learn to love the Mass. God will bless you won-
derfully if you do.
The third commandment forbids all unnecessary

servile works on Sunday.

Sunday is a day of spiritual exercise for the soul,
and a day of rest for the body. We have to give up
minecessary servile work. Servile work is hard bodily

34



labor. Ploughing fields, or digging, carpentry, brick-
laying, tailoring, bootmaking and all works which
laborers do to gain their daily bread are forbidden.
They are called servile, because when God gave the
commandment, slaves and bondmen used to do them.
When the Jews were slaves under the Egyptians, the
Egyptians made them make bricks and build houses,
and do other hard bodily works. When the Jews
escaped and were free, God told Moses that they were
not to do such works for the future on the seventh
day.
Works which occupy the mind rather than the body,

however, are permitted, such as music or study and
reading.
Would it be lawful to play golf or other games on

Sunday, or to go for an outing or a picnic? Yes,
provided we fulfill our religious duties also. No one
regards these games and outings as servile work, and
they are a real rest for our bodies, even though we
come home tired and happy.
We have said that unnecessary servile work is for-

bidden. What about the man who rings the bell for
Mass on Sundays, or moves the seats in the Church, or
gets the vestments ready? Is such work lawful? Yes.
For it is necessary for Divine Worship. But even
for the needs of the Church, all servile work which
can be done on other days should be done during the
week.

In our own homes Mother can cook the meals,
and children can help in the housework, for this is
necessary. The Jews complained that the disciples
of Jesus plucked ears of corn on the Sabbath, because
they needed food. But Jesus excused them. Do you
think Our Lord would blame a poor farmer who
worked hard to gather in his crop on Sunday, because
rain was coming to ruin it? Of course not. Necessary
work is not forbidden.
Perhaps there is some work, not necessary for our-

selves, but for others. Supposing that a kind-hearted
lady knew that some poor children had not enough
clothing. Could she say, “I have some spare time
on Sunday. I shall work and make some dresses for
those poor children?” Yes. Charity excuses her, and
she can do so. So, too, people are allowed to work
on Sundays for the sick. Whatever necessary works
others would be allowed to do for themselves if they
could, we may do for them, from a motive of charity.
Let us remember, however, that we should try to do

all servile work during the week as far as possible,
so that we shall be free on Sundays to give our at-
tention to our religious duties.
The Church forbids business and shopping on Sun-

days, also. She permits certain shops to open for
35



necessary things, such as the apothecary or refreshment
rooms. But Catholics are not allowed to engage in
ordinary business.
Now we understand the third commandment. It tells

us to sanctify Sunday chiefly by being present with
devotion at Mass; by other exercises of religious de-
votion; and by refraining from servile work or bodily
labor, unless we are justified by necessity, or charity,
or some other grave reason.

CHAPTER 9
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

The fourth commandment is: Honor thy father and
thy mother.

How far can you go back by your memory? Can
you remember when you were a little tiny baby,
unable to leave your cot, and run about in the house
or out of doors? How much love and care you re-
ceived from your mother! Perhaps you remember ypur
first day at school, and your tears when mother left
you there among strange people whom you had never
seen before. During life we often have to part sadly
from those dear to us. But how happy we are to
go home once more to our dear ones! It is so good
to be home with our own family!
As each one comes into this world, he finds him-

self in a little society called the family. This is the
first little society, and the big society called the nation
is made up of hundreds and thousands of families.
Good families make good nations, and God gave a
special commandment for families as soon as He had
spoken of all we owe to God. The commandment is
for both parents and children. The children have the
duty to honor their parents, and the parents have
the duty to look after their children, and to see that
the children do give them the honor due to them.
We are commanded by the fourth commandment to

love, honor and obey our parents, and superiors.
Why are you alive today? You owe it not only to

God but to your parents also. If you took a little
tiny baby and left it out in the road it would die.
God gave you to your parents, and they took tender
and loving care of you. You will never guess the
sacrifices your father and mother have made for you.
Could you let them love you like this, and not love
them in return? You will certainly never be able
to repay them, no matter what you do for them, so
at least you must give them your love.
Secondly, you must remember that you and all in

the home belong to father and mother, and they are
36



the King and Queen of the family. That is God’s will.
You owe them, therefore, great honor and respect.
Even if they have faults, you must respect them, be-
cause they are your parents. Of course, it is a pity
if they have faults. But no one asks you to honor
their faults. You must honor them, and overlook their
faults.

In the Old Testament we read how Joseph was sold
as a slave into Egypt. But he rose until he became
the greatest man in the kingdom. One day his father
Jacob came to him, poor and starving, asking for
bread. What did Joseph do? Did he despise his father?
No ! As soon as he knew it was his father he went
to meet him, and shed tears of joy as he embraced
and kissed him. Everyone wondered to see the great
Joseph treat a poor man like this, but Joseph had
great respect for his father and did not mind what
people said.
You Should examine your own conscience. Haven’t

you been rude to your mother at times? I speak of
your mother because she is so gentle. Your father
knows how to make you keep your place. Some chil-
dren despise their parents, reply to them with anger
and bad temper, and even ridicule them. Proud chil-
dren think they always know best, and even at times
insult their own parents. At least, tell me that you
are not like this, but that you are always loving and
respectful children!

Thirdly, you must obey your parents. You do not
prove your devotedness by looking at your parents, and
by taking all they give you. You prove that you love
them by quickly and willingly doing all you can to
please them. Remember that they hold God’s place
in the home, and that their voice is the Voice of God
for you, in all lawful things.
However, if parents tell children to do sinful things,

such as to tell lies, or to steal, or not to pray, or not
to go to Mass, then children must not obey them. We
must obey God rather than men.
Saint Barbara became a Christian without her

father’s knowledge. When he found out, he tried in
every way to make her give up the faith. But Barbara
remained always respectful, yet said that ^e could
not obey in this one thing, because it would be sinful
to do so. Her father, who was a pagan, grew very
angry, and give her to the torturers. But she re-
mained faithful, and died a martyr for Our Lord.
Remember, howeyer, that Saint Barbara was obedient
in all lawful things, and try to imitate her obedience.
We must also help our parents in every way we can,
thinking of their comfort, without waiting to be told
to do things. We should be a consolation to them in

37



their sorrows, look after them with our earnings when
we leave school and go to work.
We should help them also in another way, very,

very easy, yet better than all the others. Can you
guess? Yes! By prayer every day. If they are care-
less about their religious duties we should try to
make them love Our Lord.

I remember a little boy who was preparing for his
first Holy Communion. One day he came home and
said, “Daddy, I learned today that Jesus is just as
really in the Blessed Sacrament as He was in the
Holy Land, when He spoke to the people. Why don’t
you go to Communion?” His father did not answer,
and the little boy was sad. He did not get happier
as the day of his first Holy Communion came nearer
and nearer, and one day his father asked him why
he was not happy. The child said, “Daddy, I know
that you love me, and want to make me happy. Give
me a present. Come with me when I make my first
Holy Communion, and receive Our Lord also.’* His
father was quiet for a moment, then caught the little
boy in his arms and said, “You are a little angel, I
shall go with you!”

If your parents are careless, be like this little boy.
Give good example, win them sweetly, and pray for
them. Be good to your parents, and God will give
you many blessings.
Now there is one last thing to explain. The fourth

commandment also tells us to obey our superiors.
There are others besides our parents who have au-
thority over us.
At school, for some hours every day, the teacher

takes the place of father and mother. Teacher works
hard to help you to learn and become intelligent, and
to teach you good behavior. You must love and respect
and obey your teacher also.
There was a great emperor called Theodosius, who

noticed one day that his sons, who were princes, did
not stand up when their teacher came into the room.
He' rebuked them for not showing respect to their
master, even though they were princes.
God punished very severely some boys who mocked

one of His Prophets or Spiritual Teachers. What shall
we say of those who mock and disobey the Pope, or
the Bishops and Priests! Jesus said of His Priests:
“He who hears you hears Me; and he who despises
you despises Me!” Luke x, 16.
Besides the Bishops and Priests, we must obey the

lawful authority in our country, for all lawful author-
ity comes from God.
What a long explanation this has been! But the

Catechism gives it all in those few words, “We are com-
38



manded to love, honor and obey our parents and
superiors.”

The fourth commandment forbids all contempt, ill-
will, and disobedience to parents or to others placed
over us.

After all that we have said, this is very easy to
understand. Still there are many children today,
especially those who have not our Holy Catholic Faith,
who have no respect for their parents, who even
injure them, and disobey whenever they wish. But
we belong to Our Lord, and no matter what others
do we must not imitate them when they give bad
example. If you were a Christian living in a pagan
country, would you be free to live like the pagans?
Of course not. You would have more grace than the
pagans, and God would expect you to be better. So,
too. Catholic children have more grace than non-
Catholics, and they should not imitate the faults of
those who are not Catholics. A Catholic child who
shows contempt, or ill-will, or disobedience towards
his parents is more guilty before God than other
children. Our Lord was once your age, and you should
ask Him to make you behave towards your parents
as He behaved towards St. Joseph and Our Lady
when He was young like you. You will do so if you
always remember that God has made your father and
mother King and Queen of the home, to rule there in
His Holy Name.

The chief duties of parents are, to provide for their
children, to instruct them and all others under their
care in Christian doctrine, and by every means in their
power to lead them to God. I. Tim. v. 8.

Parents are God’s Providence for little children. They
have duties to care for the bodies and souls of their
little ones. They must love their children. This is
a natural law. Even wild animals love little baby
animals, and a human parent who did not love his
children would be worse than a brute beast. And this
love should make it a joy to work for the little ones,
clothing them and providing food for them. It is very
wicked before God for parents to think only of them-
selves, spending everything on their own amusement,
and neglecting the children. If a man were a drunkard
or a gambler, and left his wife and children without
sufficient food and clothing, he would commit a mortal
sin of gluttony by taking too much drink, or per-
haps a mortal sin of prodigality by gambling; but
he would commit a far worse sin of injustice by neg-
lecting his duty to his home. And this sin of injustice
would cry to God for vengeance, because it is a sin
against nature itself.

39



Parents, too, should labor to settle their children in
life, educating them so that they can make their way
in the world; saving up money to give them a good
start; and advising them prudently. Every real Father
should say, “Well, my children will have better op-
portunities in life than I had, if I can possibly man-
age it.” Above all, parents should be overjoyed to
provide what is necessary, if one of their children
should be called by God to be a Priest or a Nun.
They should feel greatly honored, and willingly give
what they can towards the necessary expenses of
clothing and education. If a girl asks her Catholic
mother for the price of a religious habit, instead of
the price for a worldly dress, such a mother should
thank God from the depths of her heart that her
daughter should choose such a state in life.
But let us leave the temporal duties of parents, and

consider the far more important spiritual duties.
First and foremost, parents are strictly obliged to

give their children, not only an education to fit them
for this life, but also a moral and spiritual education
to fit them for eternal life. What is the use of a
mother bringing forth a child to temporal life if she
brings it forth to eternal death?
There are five ways in which parents are obliged to

train their little ones: by prayer, instruction, watch-
fulness, correction, and good example.
They must pray to God for light and help for them-

selves, that God may give them the grace to know
what is best. I was speaking to a holy Priest not
very long ago, and he was telling me about his mother.
“My mother,” he said, “used to pray to God about us
children always. Even when I had done wrong, and
she had to whip me, she used to make the Sign of
the Cross, say a little prayer to Our Lord, and then
give me a good thrashing for the love of God!” How
he smiled as he told that! “But,” he added, “I know
I deserved it, and it did me good. I owe my vocation
to that dear old mother of mine.”
But besides praying to know God’s will for them-'

selves, they should pray earnestly for their children,
that not one of them might ever be lost. Every true
mother should want every one of her little children
with her in Heaven, and pray for that.
In the next place, parents are obliged to instruct

their children. They must see that the children know
their prayers and Christian doctrine. Of course they
must send them to a Catholic school, if possible, when
they are old enough. It is a serious sin to send chil-
dren to a non-Catholic school if there is a Catholic
school near enough for them to go to. The education
of a child takes place not only in the playground and

40



among companions. In school, religion is left out, and
the child will think it not very important if it receives
a non-Catholic education; out of school its companions
will talk non-Christian and even anti-Catholic things,
of which the teachers and parents know nothing. So
parents should send their children to Catholic schools.
Yet long before they go to school, parents should

already have taught them their prayers and the chief
Christian doctrines. And even when they are learn-
ing Christian doctrine at school, children must still
be under the care of their parents. Parents have the
first duty. They may send their children to Catechism
classes, but they must not think that enough. They
must question, and teach, and make sure for them-
selves that the children are really making progress in
religious knowledge.

Thirdly, by watchfulness, parents must notice the
good and bad inclinations of their children; they must
keep them out of occasions of sin, and know all about
their companions and friends. All parents should
know where their children are, and never let them
go out without their knowledge and permission.
Fourthly, parents must correct their children, and

punish them if necessary. There is a little saying
that one who spares the rod spoils the child. Holy
Scripture says that he who spares the rod hates his
own child. Prov. XIII. 24. Such a father does not
worry if faults spoil l^is child. And certainly those
parents who think that there is nothing to be corrected
in their children are blind indeed.

Fifthly, parents are obliged to give good example.
It is little use to tell children that they must pray,
and go Jto Mass, and Confession, and Holy Communion,
if the poor little children never see their parents
doing these things also. To tell the children what
they should do, and not do it oneself, is like lighting
a fire with one hand and pouring water on it with
the other.
However, well-instructed children should fulfill what

they know to be right and if their parents do not set
a good example they should never imitate their bad
conduct. They should be like the little boy who rather
persuaded his father to come to Holy Communion with
him.

The special reward promised by God to dutiful chil-
dren is a long life and happiness even in this world.
God does not mean that every single child who

honors his parents will live a long life. Many good
children die young. They are so good that they earn
Heaven in a short time, and God gives them their
eternal reward very quickly. And of course such
children are very glad to enter upon their eternal

41



joy so soon. But most children are not saints. They
are very human and ordinary, and they like the joy
of their earthly life when they are healthy and happy.
They do not want to die too soon, and they do want
to live, untroubled by sickness and blessed by God
in their temporal goods.
Respect your parents, therefore, and you can hope

to be blessed by God in this life, as well as in Heaven.
But if you break this fourth commandment you have
no right at all to expect God’s blessing.

CHAPTER 10

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
In the first three commandments God speaks of His

own rights. In the fourth commandment He tells us
our duties to our parents; and in the fifth command-
ment He begins to teach us our duties to all men.
The fifth commandment is: Thou shalt not kiU.
Whenever we hear of some terrible accident, or

perhaps of a murder, our hearts grow cold with horror.
Why? Because we know that life is sacred, and the
greatest gift of God. God alone gives life, and He
alone has the right to take life. Any man who tries
to take the life of a fellow human being, even of a
tiny child, commits a terrible ^ime. Cain killed Abel,
and was filled with such horror and remorse that he
despaired of forgiveness. He fied after the murder
and wandered everywhere during his life, hoping to
escape the just punishrnent of God. Yet since the
murder of Abel by Cain, how many murders have been
committed? Anger, envy, theft, and other passions
made men kill each other, and God, Who gave us a
heart that we might love, had to give us the fifth
commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” Of course, if
a thief or a murderer tried to kill you, and you had
no way of saving your life except by killing him, you
would not be guilty of murder, if you did kill him
to save your own life. If you could defend yourself
by wounding him, you would have to try not to kill
him.
We are allowed, to kill another in order to save

our own life, if we cannot escape in any other way.
Soldiers are allowed to kill their enemies in war-
time. And public justice can condemn criminals to
death. But, apart from these cases, we are forbidden
to kill. However, there is much more yet in this
commandment.

The fifth commandment forbids all wilful murder,
quarrelling, drunkenness, hatred, anger, and revenge.

42



It also forbids injurious words and the giving of scandal
or bad example.
Any private person who wilfully kills another, when

it is not necessary for self-defense, is guilty of murder,
and this crime is most strictly forbidden by God.

It is also strictly forbidden by God to take one’s own
life. God is the Master of life. He gives us our life
when He wills, and He alone has the right to take
it when He thinks fit. We cannot do what we like
with our life, for it is not really ours. We belong
to God. Taking one’s own life is called suicide, which
is a word meaning the killing- of one-self. It is a dread-
ful sin, because a man or woman who commits suicide
breaks a very grave commandment, and often has no
time to repent after the sin, and to attain salvation.
How foolish people are who think that by suicide they
put an end to their lives! They cannot really kill
themselves; they only go to meet God in judgment.
They put an end to earthly troubles, only to meet
far worse troubles for all eternity.
The Church shows her horror of suicide by refusing

to allow any public prayers for one who takes his
own life, and by refusing Christian burial. However,
if a person has lost the use of reason, or lives on
for a little, and sincerely repents before dying, the
Church lets him off these severe penalties.
The commandment means more than you think. It

not only forbids you to destroy the life of another.
And firstly, it forbids quarrelling and fighting. Many
quarrels end in murder, but they are forbidden long
before they come to murder. When you see two chil-
dren fighting, each trying all he can to hurt and injure
the other, you know that they are not respecting each
other’s life. When a cat meets a dog, the cat will
spit and scratch, whilst the dog tries all it can to bite
and hurt the poor cat. But do you think God wants
children to behave to each other like these brute
animals? No. God forbids it.
Drunkenness, too, is forbidden by this commandment.

It is a sin by itself against the virtue of temperance,
and is one form of gluttony. But it is a dangerous
occasion of murder. So many murders have been
committed in drunken fits! Some people have even
been known to get drunk purposely, hoping that they
will do whilst they are drunk what they could never
bring themselves to do whilst they are sober. Be-
sides, a drunken man exposes his own life to danger
by falling, or by being run over by a car, or in many
other ways.
This fifth commandment forbids even hatred. Hatred

is a sin against the virtue of charity. It is by charity
that we love our neighbor, and if we really loved

43



our neighbor we would never do him any harm. If,
therefore, we hated no one, we would never injure
anyone. It is hatred of others, either because we do
not like them to stand in our way, that leads to
murder. And since hatred stops us from respecting
other people’s lives it, too, is forbidden. But what
about hatred and quarrelling? Now you have some-
thing to think about, for God does forbid these by
the fifth commandment. And there is still more.
Anger is forbidden. It is bad enough to hate people,
but it is worse to give way to one’s feelings of hatred
and allow oneself to be blinded by anger. Sometimes
people are like lunatics while they are angry. They
are really mad for a time, and are likely to do any-
thing. They lose the use of their reason, and feel like
killing people. No wonder God forbids it. Angry
people cry out, “I wish you were dead,” and other
dreadful things like that. It is breaking the fifth
commandment. Our Lord spoke very severely against
the sin of anger. ‘‘Whosoever is angry with his
brother shall be in danger of the judgment.” Matt.
V. 22.

Revenge also is forbidden. How can we even think
of revenge when Our Lord tells us to forgive injuries
and do good to those who prosecute us? St. Paul
told the Christians in Rome, where the pagans were
doing them harm in every possible way, not to think
of revenge. ‘‘To no man render evil for evil,” he
wrote, ‘‘but as far as you can have peace with all
men. Revenge not yourselves, but put away anger, for
it is

,
written, ‘Revenge is mine; I will repay,’ saith

the Lord. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil
by good.” Rom. xii, 17-21.
Injurious words are forbidden, likewise. Threats, in-

sults and evil wishes, which cause pain, not to another’s
body but to another’s soul, are sinful before God. Both
body and soul share in life, and we must respect our
neighbor’s complete life.
Yet there is another life in man, besides the life of

his body, and the natural life of his soul. There is the
spiritual, or supernatural life of Divine Grace, and this
is far more important. We must not injure this life
in any way at all. Yet men do so by scandal or bad
example.
But do not think it is enough to avoid giving scandal.

We must set a good example. What a good example
St. Stephen gave! The Jews were stoning him to
death, yet in the midst of all his suffering the Saint
did not curse them or show any bitterness. He prayed
for them, and cried, ‘‘Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge.” Acts vii, 59.
Now there is only one more thing to say. If we

44



have hurt anybody, whether the injury be to his body
or his soul, we are obliged to undo the harm we have
done. Yet how difficult it is with this commandment.
We feel that we have made some reparation if we
can make up for the damage we do.
There is some consolation if a man can say on his

deathbed, “Father, when I was young I stole a lot of
money. But I have worked hard and paid it all back!"
But if one man kills another, how can he give back
the life he took? How can we restore health to a
man if we have injured him, or crippled him, or made
him ill? When we have helped him in every possible
way, and given him money in place of the money he
could have earned, even then, though we make the
damage less, we cannot give back all we took from
him.
Above all, when we have given scandal, we are

obliged to bring back to God the souls we led into sin
by our wicked words and bad example. So many
people forget this strict obligation. They persuade
others to join them in mortally sinful conduct. Then
they repent. They go to Confession. And perhaps the
others die without repenting, and lose their souls. If
we have ever caused others to sin, we are obliged to
pray hard for their conversion, and to do all we can
to lead them back to the grace and friendship of God.
Remember, therefore, that this fifth commandment

not only forbids murder and suicide. It forbids all
quarrelling, drunkenness, hatred, anger, injurious
words, revenge, and scandal. And if we offend, it
commands us to repair, as far as possible, the harm
we have done to others.

CHAPTER 11

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
We now come to a commandment which is very

important, and which people often forget. It is difficult
to speak of the sin forbidden by this commandment,
for even St. Paul says, “Let not uncleanliness be so
much as named among you, as becometh saints." Eph.
V. 3. Yet the world talks of this sin as it pleases.
Poor world! It is so unchristian!
The sixth commandment is : Thou shalt not commit •

adultery.

Have you ever heard of adulterated milk? Some-
times dishonest milkmen, who have not enough milk
to go round, put water in> And then, of course, it
is no longer pure milk. The milk has been spoiled
and adulterated. It is not as it ought to be. To
adulterate, therefore, is to make a thing impure by

45



mixing with it something which is not good. To com-
mit adultery is to do actions which are not good, and
which spoil us in the sight of God. What actions? All
impure and shameful actions which we would not be
caught doing for anything; actions which would make
us blush and go red with shame if someone were to
see us doing such things. Our Lord said that such
actions defile us, and St. Paul says, “Know this, that
no unclean person hath inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ, and of God. Let no one deceive you. Be-
cause of these things cometh the anger of God."
Eph. V. 5-6.
Thus the commandment forbids all immodest actions

by ourselves, or with others, and above all with people
who are married.
The sixth commandment forbids all unchaste freedom

with another’s wife or husband, and all things contrary
to chastity.

Firstly, the commandment forbids all immodest and
unchaste conduct with people who are married to
others. When two people marry they promise to love
each other, and belong to each other always. Now
when you take what belongs to somebody else you
steal. That is unjust. If a wicked man persuades some
poor woman to leave her husband, he steals that man’s
wife, and if he sins against the sixth commandment
as well he commits two great sins: one of injustice
and one of impurity. This is a very wicked thing
indeed, and is therefore forbidden first.
But even when there is no unjust robbing of a wife

from her own husband, or of a man from the wife
who married him, the commandment forbids all things
contrary to chastity, purity and modesty.
The body is full of feelings, some quite good, others

not so good. If we give way to all the feelings of
the body, we become filthy and dirty like a pure stream
of water which runs through mud.
Consider a little stream of water, bubbling from a

hillside. Clear, fresh and sparkling, it comes so pure
and clean from the spring, but as it runs along the
ground it gets mixed with mud and dirt, so that no
one would drink it or go near it. Those who are
not modest and pure are like this. They have horrible
souls, and even if other people do not know it. Our
Lord and Our Lady, and their Guardian Angels do.
It fills them with disgust, of course. In your body
you are like the animals—and animals have no sense
of shame. But you have a soul, and your soul is like
the pure and spotless Angel’s when God creates it.
Now if your soul lets your body do what it likes,
it will be dragged into shameful actions. You must
be on your guard. Your dear, innocent soul says to

46



your body, “Oh, body, do what I tell you, and I shall
lift you to Heaven with me.” But the body often says
to the soul, “No, you won’t. I shall take you to Hell
with me.” And sometimes the body leads people into
sins of gluttony or drunkenness, sometimes into sins
against modesty and purity. Don’t let your body win!
Mortify it, and keep it in its place.

Tell me, would you like to go into a church and find
that someone had drawn horrible and immodest pic-
tures, and written filthy words on the Tabernacle?
Even you know that such a wicked action would be
a profanation of the Temple of God, and would offend
God Himself, Who is so Pure and Holy.
Well, then, there is another temple of God which

we must respect. It is the body. Your soul is made
in the image and likeness of God, and it dwells in
your body. God, also. Who is everywhere, is present
in your soul and body. Your Body has been con-
secrated to God by Baptism; it has been anointed
with Holy Oil in Confirmation; and it will be anointed
again when you die, and will be buried in holy ground.
Besides, how often you have received Our Lord as
your Guest within that heart of yours! Do not, there-
fore, disfigure your body, but keep it holy and pure.
Remember that the sixth commandment forbids all
things contrary to chastity.

It forbids you to look at everything. You must watch
your eyes. You know, God gave you eyes and eyelids.
He gave you eyes to see, and eyelids not to see. The
eyes are windows; your eyelids are the window-blinds.
Sometimes you must use the window-blinds by shut-
ting your eyes when you see something you know is
not fit for a Christian. Someone once gave St. Aloysius
a book to read which had immodest pictures in it.
But as soon as he opened it and saw the pictures he
threw the book into the fire and then went and washed
his hands, saying that his fingers felt filthy. If our
eyes look immodestly at ourselves, or at other people,
or at nasty pictures and books, evil thoughts will come
into our mind, and our soul will never win against the
body.
The sixth commandment forbids you to speak im-

modestly. Keep your words nice. Hate nasty words.
You cannot tell a nasty story and keep your heart clean
and pure. Do you know that not a single word should
come from your lips that you could not say in the
presence of Jesus and Mary? One of the Saints used
to say that an immodest tongue is the “devil’s car-
riage,’’ because it carries souls to Hell for him. Some
young people were once speaking immodestly, when a
holy old Priest came along. They did not hear him
coming, and he heard what they were saying. “And

47



are those the lips, my children,” he said “which are
going to praise God in Heaven for all eternity?” How
they blushed, and how ashamed they felt!
The sixth commandment forbids you to listen to im-

modest words. Some people want to hear everything.
But it is not good to hear everything, and, above all,
impure things. You know how the devil tempted Eve.
She was foolish to listen. If she had not listened
she would not have sinned and been miserable all
her life. If anyone says something not nice, show that
you are disgusted, or leave him at once. St. Aloysius
was brave like that. One day, at dinner, a visitor
to his father’s house said something wrong and im-
pure. St. Aloysius was only a little boy, but he re-
buked the visitor in front of everybody. “You have
no right,” he said, “to speak such words here.”

St. Vincent Ferrer said that he knew a girl who kept
as pure and innocent as a little white dove for thirty
years. Then one day she listened to some immodest
talk. She did not understand all that was meant, and
afterwards asked one of the wicked speakers all about
it. The other told her, and added a lot of horrible
things. The girl who had once been so good lost her
purity and innocence and committed so many sins that
St. Vincent said that “If the devil had a human body
he could scarcely be worse.” If you hear things which
you do not understand, and which your conscience
tells you might be wrong, then never ask wicked people
about them. Ask good people, like your father, or
mother, or some holy Priest in Confession. They will
be kind and tell you all that you should know. How
many sins have been caused by listening to wicked
words? Words against God; .against the Catholic Faith;
words asking people’s help in sinful conduct, in
murder, and stealing, and immodest behavior—really,
nearly all temptations from our fellow men come
through words, and if only we refused to listen as
soon as we saw that it was something wrong, we would
be saved from ever so many sins. Above all, remem-
ber that this sixth commandment forbids us to listen
to anything against modesty and holy purity.

Yet there is still more. We must not only keep
modesty of the eyes, and of our speech. We must
not only refuse to hear evil things. We must behave
modestly in our actions. We must always dress proper-
ly. I have told you before that some people dress,
not to keep themselves warm and protected from the
weather, but just to attract attention. They are vain
and immodest. They forget that they attract the at-
tention, not of good people, but of wicked people.
They become an occasion of sin to others, and this
is hateful to God. Some say, “Oh, we have to live

48



in the world, and if we do not dress like others, people
will laugh at us. We have to be in the fashion.** If
the fashion is not modest, no Christian girl should
ever adopt it. If it is modest, she may. But some
foolish girls think they will be laughed at if they do
not dress immodestly! If they had Christian courage,
it is all the more dangerous to enter occasions of sin.
Is it better to have people laugh at you for your
modesty, or laugh with you immodestly?
And now, children, what must you do if you do not

wish to offend God by sinning against holy purity?
You must do what the Saints did. You must pray. to
Jesus, and think always of Him. He loved holy purity
so much that He chose Mary, the Virgin most pure,
for His Mother, and the good St. Joseph as His guardian
on earth. See how He loved the little children, because
they were so pure and innocent! But it is not enough
to pray. You must run away from the occasions of
sin. Do not read bad papers and books. Keep away
from bad companions and from picture shows which
have nasty advertisements. Mortify your senses and
your bodies even sometimes in lawful things, just to
prove to yourself that your soul is master of your
body. Sometimes your eyes may see something quite
good, perhaps, in a shop window. You may think that
you would like to have it. Say to yourself, “Now I
must see if I could really make myself do without it.”
It is a good practice if you do it for the love of Our
Lord. Some children deny themselves sweets during
November for the holy souls. Others go without sugar
during Lent. They are mastering the inclinations of
their bodies, and they will never find it difficult, after-
wards, to reject temptations and wicked inclinations
against holy purity.

You must be pure and holy, too, in your actions. A
little boy, who wished some day to be a Priest, said
to Our Lord, “O Jesus, I consecrate to you my hands,
that they may be as pure and holy as the Sacred Host
they are going to hold during Mass. Do not let my
hands ever be defiled by touching anything You do
not like.” How often you have said, in your prayers
after Holy Communion, “O Jesus, Thou hast given
Thyself to me, and now let me give myself to Thee.
I give Thee my body, that it may be chaste and pure.
I give Thee my heart, that it may always love Thee.*’
It is purity and modesty that will keep your body
for God, as well as your soul.
Now let us finish this short but very important lesson

by asking ourselves once more what the sixth com-
mandment says. And remember that it is God speak-
ing—God, Who gave us our body and our soul, and
Who has the right to tell us how we are to use them.

49



Firstly, the sixth commandment tells us that we
must be holy in our bodies, having the greatest respect
for our own and for those of others, because they are
the work of God, and temples in which He is present
personally and by His holy grace.
Secondly, we are forbidden all impure or immodest

conduct in our looks, in our words, in our actions, and
by reading bad books or going to indecent pictures
or plays.

St. Paul was never tired of reminding the first
Christians that innocence and purity were necessary if
they wished to be pleasing to Our Lord. He wrote to
the Romans, “If you live according to the flesh, you
shall die; but if by the spirit, you mortify the deeds
of the flesh, you shall live.” VIII., 13. He said to the
Corinthians, “Having received these promises (of
Christ) let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of
the flesh.” 2nd Epist. VII., 1. To the Galatians he spoke
still more strongly, “Walk in the spirit, and you shall
not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lustest
against the spirit, and the works of the flesh are mani-
fest . . . uncleanness, immodesty . . . and I tell you
again, as I told you before, that they who do such
things shall not obtain the Kingdom of God.” Gal. V.
16-21. In many other places, too. He spoke in the same
way.

CHAPTER 12

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT
We now come to a commandment which you must

learn most carefully, and remember all your life. There
are ever so many people today who break this com-
mandment outside the Church, and even, alas, many
Catholics who behave as if God had never given us
this strict obligation. Some Catholics even speak like
the socialists and communists and bolshevists, who say
that no one has any right to own anything. They
say that it is not stealing to take what belongs to other
people, because it does not really belong to them.
But God says that each man owns his personal proper-
ty, and that it is a sin of theft to take what belongs
to others. If no one owns anything it would be foolish
for God to give us the seventh commandment. But let
us see what this commandment says.
The seventh commandment is: Thou shalt not steal.
Look around you, and see how many birds fly in the

air, and all the fish that swim in the sea, and the mil-
lions of animals that run about on dry land. God
gives them all they need, and, guided by instinct, they
use what God has provided as they wish.

50



Now Divine Providence has given men also means
of living. But men have reason, and men do not use
things just as the animals. Men gather the fruit of
the earth. They change things, and make new things,
and call them their own. Sometimes men put fences
round a special piece of land, and say, “We shall have
all the fruit, or perhaps gold, that comes from this
piece of land.” They work hard, and feel that the
land belongs to them.
One man might find a large piece of marble that

nobody claims or wants. He takes it, and carves a
beautiful marble statue. The marble was not worth
anything. Nobody wanted it, and nobody would buy
it. But the statue is worth a lot of money. Whose is
the statue? Why, it belongs to the man who made it,
and he can sell it for a lot of money if he wishes.

If a man works hard, and makes something which
he sells for a lot of money, the money is his. It is a
just return for his labor.
Sometimes men who own things ask other people

to work for them. Then the worker does not own
the thing he makes, but he receives wages, and he
owns the money he earns. He uses this money as he
pleases, and if he is careful he can save up and buy
land for himself, or a house, or other things he wants.
Men, therefore, can own things, and they do. The
communists do not tell the truth when they say that
it is wrong for people to own things. Each man has
a strict right to work, and save up, and own personal
or private property. The law of pur country admits
this right, and calls people who take what belongs to
others, robbers and criminals. But long before men
made this human law, God Himself gave us the seventh
commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.”
The seventh commandment forbids all unjust taking

or keeping what belongs to another. It also forbids all
cheating, or any other injury done to any person in
his property.

God, therefore, forbids all unjust taking of what be-
longs to others. Yet how many people are guilty!
We hear of robbers and criminals who treat innocent
people with violence, and take their goods. Burglars
break into houses, or threaten people with guns. Some-
times bands of robbers hold up even trains, and rob
the passengers. There are other wicked men also, who
are less bold, but guilty also. Bad children take money,
or steal food and other things which belong to their
parents, and which they are forbidden to touch; or
they steal pencils, and knives, and fruit, and other
things from their companions at school.
Young people, and old people, too, who work for

others, take money and goods from their masters and
51



employers, pretending that they are not paid all the
wages they deserve. Servants take home things be-
longing to their mistresses. How many dishonest
people there are in the world. All such people commit
robbery more or less seriously, and there is only one
name for them all. They are thieves! Now you must
remember well, children, that every theft and every
robbery is a sin. And it is forbidden by God. People
usually begin by taking little things. Many children
begin that way. Then, when they are not found out,
they take more and more, until at last they take some-
thing very important and valuable. They are dis-
covered, and caught, and end in prison. Yet from the
very first, even if men did not know, God knew. And
even if men never found out, these people would have
to answer to God for every single theft, little or great.
Never let yourself be guilty of even small thefts and
dishonesty, even at home. You do not own your
parents’ goods, and when you take them against their
will, you are guilty of theft. If you want something,
ask for it. Your parents love you, and if they can
they will give you what you want. But without per-
mission, it is not lawful for you to take whatever
you wish. ‘‘Thou shalt not steal.”
The Catechism says that we are not allowed to keep

what belongs to another. If it belongs to another then
it does not belong to you, and you are a thief as long
as you keep it. If you know a thing is stolen, you
cannot buy it, because the other has no right to sell
it to you. If a boy ^ave you a present, and some other
boy told you that it had been stolen from him, you
would have to give it back.
Not long ago a boy found a nice pocket knife just

outside the school gate. He brought it home, and
showed it to his mother with great joy. But his
mother was an honest and good Catholic, and she
said, “Perhaps some little boy at school lost that knife,
and he may be very sorry. It might have been a birth-
day present from his father or mother, and very
precious to him. You must take it to the teacher, and
ask him to find out.” The boy did not want to do it,
and cried, and said, “But I found it.” “It does not
matter,” said his mother, “for the boy who owned
it did not give it away just because he lost it. It is
still his, and it is not yours unless you cannot find
the owner. You must do as I tell you.” The teacher
asked the boys in the school whether anyone had lost
a pocket knife. One little boy said yes, and described
the exact knife which had been found. So the teacher
gave it back to him, and he was very happy. And the
boy who found it was happier, after all, in his honesty
than he would have been to have the knife. But he

52



remembered always that his mother had taught him
the lesson.
Now I am sure that you will remember that he who

takes a thing, and he who keeps a thing which is not
his, is guilty of theft, and breaks the seventh com-
mandment.
This commandment also forbids cheating. In the

world there are many cheats, and of course they are
dishonest men, and thieves. Some shopkeepers have
false weights or give short measure. If customers ask
for a pound of sugar they give a little less than a
pound and gradually save quite a lot of sugar to sell
to other people. Some men sell bad things, and al-
though they know these things are not really good,
they charge the full price. Others adulterate their goods,
mixing water with milk and sugar syrup with honey.
In a hundred ways men try to cheat each other, and
they always sin against the seventh commandment
when they do so, because they are frauds and thieves,
who deprive others of what should really be theirs.
Sometimes men who work for others for a number

of hours each day waste a lot of their time just doing
nothing, or talking, or perhaps doing something for
themselves. But they take full pay, thus robbing the
employer of the money given for the time they did
not give to him. It is quite dishonest to do this. Even
children who waste their time at school are dishonest,
because they rob their parents of the money spent on
them for their education. If your parents feed you,
and clothe you, and pay for you to be taught for some
hours each day, don’t you think that you are cheating
them when you waste your time, instead of trying
to learn as they would wish?
The Catechism says that the seventh commandment

forbids all these things, and any other injury done to
any person in his property. If a workman does his
work badly through carelessness, and spoils the material
owned by his employer, he sins. Even children are
obliged to take care of the things their parents buy
for their use. They should try not to wear out their
shoes and clothing too quickly, and should take care
not to break the cups and plates at home, or to spoil
their books and smash their pens. Some children cost
their parents far more than they should, 'and this in-
jury to the property of their parents can easily be
sinful.

We are commanded by the seventh commandment to
pay our lawful debts.

If you buy things, and do not pay for them when
you can and should, you commit an unjust action.
If you are in debt, and have not the money to pay
what you owe, you are obliged to work hard and earn

53



the money to pay it. Employers, also, are obliged to
pay those who work for them. If they do not pay
their workmen or servants when the time comes, per-
haps each week, or each month, or if they pay them
less than they agreed, they commit a sin of injustice,
robbing them of the fruit of their labor and toil. God
says that “the bread of the needy is the life of the
poor. He that defraudeth them thereof is a man of
blood and like him that killeth his neighbor. He that
shedeth blood and he that defraudeth the laborer of
his hire are brothers.” Ecclus. xxxiv. 27. No wonder
God commands us to pay what we owe to others!
There are men who stay at hotels and boarding houses,
and go away without paying their bills; families who
move out of their houses, but do not pay the rent,
and a lot of other people who try to avoid paying their
creditors. They all sin against the seventh command-
ment, and if not caught by men will have to answer
to God some day for such sins.
They who have ill-gotten goods, or keep unjustly

what belongs to another, must restore them as soon
as posible, as far as they are able; otherwise the sin
will not be forgiven them.

Anyone who steals, or receives what is stolen, is
obliged to give back to the right owner what belongs
to him. If we have used or destroyed the object stolen,
we have to give back enough money to pay for it. If
the man who owned it is dead, we must restore it to
his children or relatives, and if we cannot find anyone
who has a just claim to the stolen property, we must
restore it in other good and charitable works. But we
cannot keep it and spend it or use it for our own
benefit. It is not ours.
The Saints were very strict about restitution. When

someone gave his wife a lamb to kill and cook for
the family, the holy Tobias said, “Take heed, lest per-
haps it be stolen; restore it to its owners, for it is
not lawful for us either to eat or to touch anything
that cometh by theft.” Tob. II., 21.
In the New Testament we read of a man named

Zaccheus, who wanted to be Our Lord’s friend. Now
Zaccheus knew that Our Lord loved justice, and there-
fore said to Him, “Lord, if I find that I have been
unjust to anybody, I restore it to him four times over!”
And Our Lord replied, “This day has salvation come
to this house.” Luke xix, 8-9.
An old miser, who had robbed many people once

lay dying. But on his deathbed he was touched by
grace. He called his two sons, who were both good
Catholics, and confessed to them that he had become
rich dishonestly, and that he had ruined many families.
Then he said that he wanted the money given back to

54



the children of those who had been robbed, and begged
his sons to respect his last wishes. “Oh, father!” they
cried, “what a great consolation you give to us. Do
not worry. All shall be restored and you need no
longer feel this burden on your conscience.”
But people should not wait until the last moment of

life. They should restore at once. The Holy Spirit
says that it is better to have a little justly, than to
have a lot wickedly. This means that it is better to
be honest, even if it means that you must be poor.
Any real Christian would rather be poor than sin to
be rich.

Some people, however, steal, but say to themselves,
“It is only for a time. Later on I shall put it back.”
Yet they do not keep their resolution. When the time
comes to put it back, the devil keeps whispering ex-
cuses and making difficulties. Never make such a
foolish mistake.

There is one more thing to be said. Not only must
we give back what belongs to others. If we do any
injury to others at all, we must repair the damage we
do. If someone stole the tools of a poor gardener, so
that he could not work and earn his wages, then the
thief would be obliged to return the tools and also pay
to him the wages he lost during all the time he was
unable to work. If he did not do so, he would cer-
tainly have to answer to God for the harm he did.
And now, a last question. If a man has wilfully

stolen things from other people, is it enough for him
to repent and go to confession? No. Unless he prom-
ises to restore the stolen goods or repair the harm
he has done, he cannot be forgiyen. If a man came
to confession and said to the priest, “Father, I stole
$25,” the priest would say, “And are you sorry?” If
the man replied that he was sorry, the priest would
then say, “And have you still got the money?” If the
man then replied, “Yes,” the priest would have to say,
“Then I cannot give you absolution unless you promise
me sincerely that you will give it back or at least put
it back where you took it from.” If the man said that
he had spent the money, and no longer had $25, the
priest would have to make him promise to put it
back as soon as he could save up the amount. But
if the man would not promise to do his best to repair
the harm he had done, the priest could not give him
absolution. You can guess from this how important
is the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not steal.”

55



CHAPTER 13

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

The eighth commandment is: Thou shalt not bear
false witness against thy neighbor.

Since men have to live together in society, God has
given them the gift of speech, so that they can tell
each other what they think, or feel, or want. But this
gift is good only if men tell the ruth. If you say
a thing is true when it is not true, then your words
are like false money. If it is unjust to give a man a
bad coin for some fruit, because the bad coin is not
what it pretends to be, so also it is unjust to give
false words to others. We believe in God, because we
know He always tells the truth; and we believe our
fellow men because we feel that they are telling the
truth. If we did not believe that people usually tell
the truth, what a dreadful world this would be. We
could never really trust anybody, and everything
would be dreadfully upset. Children would not know
whether to believe their teachers. Sick people would
not believe their doctors; others would not believe
those who gave them directions where to go; in fact,
we would always be in anxiety and doubt. Our word,
therefore, is very important; and in the eighth com-
mandment God tells us that our words should always
be true.

The eighth commandment forbids all false testi-
monies, rash judgments, and lies; and also backbiting,
calumny, and detraction.

Firstly, we are forbidden to give false testimony.
Even false praise is false testimony. Silly flatterers
praise others for wicked actions as if they were clever,
or brave and strong. This only deceives them, causes
them to be proud, and even perhaps commit worse
sins. The Holy Spirit says, “It is better to be rebuked
by a wise man than to be deceived by the flattery of
fools!” Eccl. vii, 6.
But there is another kind of false testimony, much

more sinful. Sometimes in the law courts, people are
called as witnesses to give testimony. The judge has
to decide justly, and he asks the witnesses to tell him
the truth so that he will not make a mistake. How
important then becomes the word of a witness. If
the witness does not tell the truth, but gives false
testimony, the wrong man might be condemned! Per-
haps you may never be called as a witness in court.
Yet very often your parents, or teachers, or superiors,
may ask you about things, so that they can find out
the truth. “Who has touched this?” “Who broke that?”

56



“Who saw her?” “Who heard him?” Parents and
superiors have the right to ask such questions, and
you are obliged to tell what you know and to tell the
truth. Never mind what others will say or think. If
the culprit is punished, he deserves it. But you are
not allowed by God to give false testimony.
We are forbidden, also, to make rash judgments.

Many people judge far too quickly. They see only
the outside, and consider only appearances. If they
see a man get into a motor car and drive it away,
they do not wait to find out whether he owns the
car, but think at once, “Perhaps he is a thief.” Often
they make even good actions seem wicked, and it is
nearly always because they have wicked hearts them-
selves. If a boy at school is seen talking to a teacher,
others might whisper, “Why is he talking to the
teacher? He must be telling the teacher about the
other boys.” They have no reason, and no proof; it is
only a guess, and a rash judgment and a wicked sus-
picion. We are not allowed to judge like this, with
nothing to go on. God forbids it by this eighth com-
mandment. It is a sin against justice, and a sin
against charity. All lies are also forbidden, but we
shall see more about lies in a few special questions.
The Catechism tells us that backbiting, calumny, and

detraction are also forbidden. Backbiting means talk-
ing unkindly about others behind their backs, or when
they are not present. Every man has a right to his
good name. The Jews used to say that one who takes
away the good name and character of another eats
his fiesh. They knew that one’s good name is almost
as precious as one’s life itself. But all backbiting is
nearly always calumny or detraction, and it will do
if we study these two dreadful sins.
Let us take calumny first. Calumny is saying some-

thing evil of another which is not true. In some men’s
hearts there is a lot of pride, and hatred, and envy.
Instead of wishing the good of others, they wish only
evil, and their tongues invent poisonous words. They
invent faults in other people, faults which do not exist.
They take small faults which do exist, but exaggerate
them, and turn them into big faults. They deny any
good qualities which others may have. A boy does
well at school. Another boy commits a sin of calumny
by saying, “Yes, his father is a friend of the teacher.
Besides, I know that he copies his exercises from
others.” One who calumniates another is a thief. He
steals the good name of others. How can it be just
to say evil of another when we know that we made
it up?
Detraction is saying something evil of another which

does happen to be true. It is called detraction because
57



it detracts from, or lessens somebody’s good name. It
is bearing evil witness, even if it is not bearing false
witness against another.
Would you have the courage to say nasty things in

front of the people you talk about? No. Then should
you not be ashamed to speak evil of them when they
are not present? Holy Scripture says, “If a serpent
bite in silence, he is nothing better that backbiteth
secretly.” Eccl. x, 11.

If we cannot speak well of people, we should not
speak of them at all, unless we are obliged in con-
science to tell of their faults to save other people
from harm, or perhaps themselves. And if it is wrong
to speak of other people’s faults, it is wrong also to
listen to uncharitable talk. If we cannot make scandal-
mongers keep quiet, we must show our displeasure,
or try to change the subject, or else walk away and
refuse to listen.
Now I am sure you understand what is forbidden

by the eighth commandment. Let us, however, learn
a little more about lies, as we promised.

A lie is the saying of anything that we know to be
false.

A lie is a word, or a sign, or an action, by which
we deceive our neighbor and make him believe a
thing which we know is not true. If we think some-
thing is true, although it is not true, then we make
a mistake, but we do not tell a lie. To tell a lie we
must know that what we say is wrong. We can tell
lies also by writing, or by actions, such as by shaking
our head to mean no, when we should say yes.

St. Augustine says that no one regards as lies little
stories and jokes which anyone can know are not meant
to be true by the way people tell them. Also there
are certain ways of speaking which are not strictly
true, but which everyone understands. A servant, going
to the door, could say, “Mrs. Brown is not at home
today,” although she knows that Mrs. Brown is at
home, and is inside reading a book. Everyone knows
that she means, “Mrs. Brown is not at home to visitors,
and she cannot see you.” Such expressions are under-
stood, and do not really deceive people, and therefore
are not lies.

A real lie is deliberately meant to lead others into
error. And you must be careful never to say what is
not true. This does not mean that you must always
say what is true. You are obliged to keep some secrets.
But you can do that by not talking. There is no need
to say anything. Learn to hate lies, for we all know
that God hates them. Some children tell little lies easily,
and they get so used to it that they do not know what

58



is truth and what is not truth. They so often tell lies
that they would be foolish to believe them themselves.

It is never lawful to tell a lie.

It is never lawful to tell a lie for any purpose at
all, no matter how much good you think it may do.
Even jocose lies are venial sins. But did we not say
that we can tell jokes which are not true? Yes. And
we said that they were lawful, for we did not mean
people to think they were really true. But if we mean
people to believe that what we say really happened,
then jocose lies are venial sins, and forbidden.
Could you steal money because you wanted to give

it to a poor man? No. The good purpose will not
make it lawful for you to steal. How can you hope
to please God by offending Him? So, too, no good pur-
pose can justify a lie. Our Lord called the devil “a
liar, and the father of liars.” John viii, 44. One who
tells lies is a disgrace, and everyone despises him. But,
above all, God despises him, and that is worse than
anything else which could happen. God gave us speech
to tell the truth, not to tell lies; He gave it to us so
that we might help others, not deceive them. Let us,
therefore, avoid lies as evil things; and let us love the
truth above all else, for to love the truth is to love
God.

We are commanded by the eighth commandment to
speak of others with justice and charity.

Calumny is unjust, and detraction is uncharitable.
Now calumny and detraction are forbidden. So it
follows that God orders us to be just and charitable
in speaking of others. There is something good in
everybody, and if we are going to speak about others,
why not choose the good we know about them? We
have faults ourselves, and if others chose to talk
about our faults, they would have much to say, in-
deed! Yet we always like others to speak well of
us. Our Lord says, “Judge not, that you may not be
judged. . . . Why seest thou the mote that is in thy
brother’s eye, and seest not the beam that is in thy
own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam from
thy own eye.” Matt. VII., 1-5. Our Lord meant that
we should overcome our own big faults before we
begin speaking of other people’s little faults. Let us
speak of others, therefore, with justice and charity.
Our Lord promises a great thing to the charitable.
You do not want Him to listen to all the horrible
things the enemies of your soul will say at your judg-
ment, and He promises not to do so if you refuse to
listen to uncharitable things about others in this life.
He said: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged.”

59



And also, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy.” Matt. V, 7.

They who have injured their neighbor's character
in any way must repair the injury as far as they are
able and as soon as possible; otherwise the sin shall
not be forgiven them.

If a thief wishes to make his peace with God, and
save his soul, he is obliged to restore what he stole.
So, too, if a person is guilty of calumny, he is obliged
to restore the good name he unjustly took away. He
must unsay the lie he told.
Supposing a woman went to confession and said,

“Father I called an enemy of mine a wicked thief,
and told others that she lived by dishonest means.”
The priest would say, “And is it true?” Then, if the
penitent said, “No, Father, it was a lie,” the priest
would say to her, “Then you must go back to those
who were listening at the time and tell them that what
you said was not true, or I cannot give you absolution.”
“But, Father,” the poor woman might say, “they will
think that I am a liar if I do that.” What will the
priest say to that? He will say, “You should have
thought of that before you spoke. Anyway, isn’t it
better for you to be thought a liar when you are one,
than for that other woman to be thought a thief when
she is not a thief? I cannot absolve you unless you
promise to make reparation.”
Sometimes, however, the sin is not calumny, but

detraction. What is said is true, but the penitent had
no right to say it. Then it is very difficult to. make
reparation. The one who detracts cannot say that it
was not true, for that would be a lie. The only thing
to do is to ask forgiveness of the one offended, and
say as much good of him as possible to those who
heard the detraction, begging them not to repeat the
uncharitable words.
Those who are guilty of calumny and detraction are

bound, therefore, to make reparation. And they are
bound, also, to repair any damage or injury that re-
sults from their words. If, through your evil words, a
man loses his position, you will be obliged in conscience
to pay him for the time he is out of work through
your fault.
Remember always, however, that it is very, very

difficult to repair the harm done by calumny and de-
traction, no matter what efforts you make. Supposing
that you took a sack of little pieces of paper to the
top of a tower when a strong wind was blowing, and
emptied the sack, letting the wind carry the small
papers everywhere. If you tried to find every smallest
paper, and put it back into the sack afterwards, would

60



you succeed? No. Because the wind would have car-
ried the papers in every direction, far, far beyond
your reach.

Unjust and uncharitable words are like that. They
have scarcely left your lips before they are flying
from mouth to mouth, among friends and enemies
alike. And when the one who first said them wishes
to unsay them, he never succeeds in undoing all the
evil he did. St. Bernard says, “Uncharitable words
travel like lightning, and seem to be gone quickly.
But as they go they inflict dangerous and deep wounds.
They easily enter people’s minds, but are very hard
to get out.’’ A doctor nearly always looks at the
tongue first, and if it is coated and ugly he knows
that the stomach is sick.
So, too, an unjust and uncharitable tongue shows a

soul which is sick and diseased; a soul without sincer-
ity, or charity, or any real healthy goodness.
Look out for your words, therefore, and ask Our

Lord for the grace to be sincere and truthful, the
prudence to speak or keep silent at the right times,
and above all, that you may not sin against charity.

CHAPTER 14

THE NINTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS

We have seen the commandments which tell us about
our words and actions. But God now gives us two
commandments for our thoughts and desires. You
have visited a cemetery, I am sure. There you saw
beautiful marble monuments, and flowers growing, and
nice clean pathways. But there was something you did
not see. You did not see the inside of the tombs, the
dead bodies and bones. It is horrible even to think of
these things. Our Lord, however, said that some men
were like graves, beautiful on the /outside, yet at
heart filthy and repulsive. Matt, xxiii, 27. Appearances
are not enough. God, Who sees all, and knows every-
thing, wishes us to be good in our hearts as well. If
you were sick, would the doctor just come and touch
your forehead, and then go away, thinking he had
done enough? No. He would give you medicine to
take, for he would wish to make you well inside.
Now God knows that our bad conduct outside is

caused by something wrong inside, by bad thoughts,
and bad desires. Before you can do anything, you
have to think of doing it, and if only you never thought
of any evil, you would never want to do it.
Now there are some thoughts far more dangerous

than others, because they quickly lead to sinful actions,
61



and God gives two special commandments against
allowing such thoughts to stay in our minds. They
are impure and envious thoughts, and they each have
a special commandment.

The ninth commandment is: Thou shalt not covet
thy neighbor’s wife.

We said before that people who marry kneel together
before God’s Altar, and promise to belong to each
other forever. God gives them children to look after
for Him, and the family is His special sanctuary. Woe
to him who profanes and desecrates the family! No
man has the right to desire to be loved by any woman
who has given her life to someone else in marriage.
Nor has any girl the right to try to win the love of
a man from his lawful wife. God forbids this most
strictly, and forbids therefore, all thoughts and desires
which would violate the married state.

Yet, although these thoughts and desires are par-
ticularly hateful to God, that is not all He forbids.

The ninth commandment forbids all willful immodest
thoughts and desires, immodest books and pictures, and
all amusements dangerous to chastity.

It really forbids all interior sins of thought and de-
sire against the sixth commandment, which forbids
impure words and actions. And, of course, you re-
member how we explained that commandment.

If the soul, which should command and rule the
body, is full of evil thoughts, how can it keep the poor
body pure, and lift it to Heaven? Yet if it allows
immodest thoughts, evil desires follow almost at once,
and it is hard to resist them. Again, if we read im-
modest books, or look at immodest pictures, we are
bound to fill our mind with immodest thoughts. So,
too, flirtation, and kissing, and love-making, just for
the sake of amusement, are most dangerous to chastity,
leading to all sorts of immodest desires. No wonder
God gives a special commandment, forbidding all these
things! Yet silly people forget this commandment,
and do these things, and afterguards wonder why they
fall into great sins. They are like the little moth
which keeps flying round the flame of a candle,
dazzled by the bright light, and then wonders why it
falls into the flame, burning its wings and dying in
the hot melted wax. Keep this commandment, and
you will never break the sixth commandment.

Unchaste thoughts, when they are entertained wil-
fully and with pleasure, defile the soul. Matt, v., 28.

“But if bad thoughts come against my will,” you will
ask, “are they sins?” Such a lot of good people are wor-

62



ried like this. Now it is impossible to avoid all temp-
tations. The devil sends bad thoughts to everybody at
times. Sometimes bad thoughts come into one’s mind
before one knows it. We might be doing something
quite good, or reading, or talking, and suddenly we
find a bad thought in our mind. How on earth did
it get there? We were not even thinking of such
things! What must we do? We must refuse to let it
stay there. We must not want it. Everyone is tempted
some time or other. It is not, therefore, a sin to have
bad thoughts, or no one could avoid such thoughts. But
it is a sin to keep bad thoughts, and to want them.
If, when a bad thought comes, you make no effort
to get rid of it, and do not pray, but sit down and
dream about evil things, nursing those wicked
thoughts, and thinking out still worse things, then, of
course, you have committed sin.
A little boy was once tempted greatly by all kinds

of horrible thoughts, and he was miserable. “O Jesus,”
he said, ‘‘You know that I would much rather be with-
out such thoughts.” Yet still they came back at dif-
ferent times, and he told a good priest about them.
Do you know what the priest said to him? ‘‘My child,”
he said, ‘‘can you stop the sparrows from sitting on
the branches of the tree outside your window? No.
But you can stop thein from staying there, and build-
ing a nest, by driving them away, no matter how often
they come back. It is like this with bad thoughts.
You cannot stop them always from coming into your
mind, but you can stop them from becoming sins, by
never letting them stay there.”
As often as you find a bad thought in your mind,

put it away quickly, just as you would brush a spider
off if you saw one crawling on your coat. And the
best means is to turn your mind to Jesus and Mary,
calling upon them to help you, and keep you for them-
selves. Now let us turn to the last commandment.
The tenth commandment is: Thou shalt not covet

thy neighbor’s goods.

Covetousness and envy of things owned by other
people lead to ever so many other sins, and God,
therefore, gives us a special commandment, forbidding
covetous thoughts.

The tenth commandment forbids all covetous thoughts
and desires of our neighbor’s goods.
In the Old Testament we read that a great king

called Achab could see from his window a little or-
chard belonging to a poor man named Naboth. Ill
Kings xxi, 1-6. Naboth’s father had left the orchard
to his son, and Naboth took great care of it. But the
king one day thought that it would make a nice flower

63



garden for himself. There was nothing wrong with
this thought. So he asked Naboth to give it to him.
But Naboth refused, saying- that he wanted to keep it
in memory of his father. Then Achab grew angry,
and fretted. He would not eat his food, but flung him-
self in a bad temper, and wilfully thought out a way
to make the orchard his own. Ah! Then he sinned by
covetous thoughts.

How many people are like Achab! They think of
themselves, and care nothing about other people’s
rights. They desire to become rich, no matter how
other people may be ruined. Wicked men wanted the
last great war to keep going because they were making
money. They did not think of all the poor soldiers
being killed. Some people wish others to fall sick, or
meet with accidents, so that they will have their
position at work. There are men who hope that a
drouth will come, so that they can sell their goods
to poor ruined farmers. Or others hope that rich
people will die so that they may have their money.
You can easily see how such covetous desires lead to
wicked actions. Take Achab and Naboth! Achab
murdered Naboth so that he could have the orchard.
But Achab did not enjoy it for long. God punished
him by sending a war in which Achab was killed. And
just before the war God sent Elias the Prophet to tell
Achab that it would be a just punishment. “Thus
saith the Lord,’’ cried Elias, “In this place wherein
the dogs have licked the blood of Naboth they shall
lick thy blood also.” Ill Kings xxi, 19. How God hates
injustice!

The best way to avoid such sins is to. be content with
what God gives us. Do you know that poor people
are nearly always happier, and enjoy more peace than
rich people? Rich people may seem to have a lot of
things, but they have far more desires which they
cannot satisfy, and very many anxieties and cares.
We are allowed, of course, to use all lawful means

to make ourselves better off, and more comfortable.
We should work, and save up for a rainy day, or for
sickness and old age. But if God chooses to leave
us poor, let us accept it patiently, and make poverty
our gateway to Heaven. Jesus could have chosen to
be rich. Yet He wished to be poor, to teach us to
love poverty. He is God, and owns the whole world.
Yet where was He born? See His poor life, and His
poor friends! He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for they shall ppssess the Kingdom of Heaven.’’ Matt.
V, 3. No one will ever become really holy whose heart
is attached to the goods of this world.

Thus the tenth commandment tells us to be just
and moderate in our desires to become well-off in this

64



world, and to bear with Christian patience the suffer-
ings of this life. It forbids us to desire things unjustly,
caring nothing for the rights and well-being of others.

The ten commandments may be reduced to these
two great precepts of charity: Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole
soul, and with all thy strength, and with aU thy mind;
and thy neighbor as thyself. This do, and thou shalt
live. Luke x., 27.
Our Lord Himself said that love of God and of our

neighbor sums up all the commandments. Why? Be-
cause if you really love God you would never do
anything to offend Him, and if you really loved your
neighbor you would never be guilty of an unjust or
uncharitable word or action against him. So the man
who really loves God and his neighbor would keep all
ten commandments. St. Augustine said that super-
natural love of God is simply everything. “Love God,”
he said, “and do what you like.” Does that mean that
I have only to say with my lips, “O my God, I love
You,” and that I can then go and commit any sins I
like? No. If I did that my words would be false, for
I would not really love God at all. What St. Augustine
did mean is this. “Love God sincerely and with all
your heart, and then do what you like, for you will
like only what God likes.” You will then love God
and your neighbor, giving to your neighbor all you
should for the love of God.

My neighbor is all mankind, without any exception
of persons—even those who injure us, or differ from
us in religion.

If you love God you love all those whom He loves.
Now it is God’s love that moved Him to let you live.
You would not exist at all if God did not love you.
I have only to see you sitting there, and I know that
He loves you. He loved you so much that He thought
you were worth making. But if this is true of you,
it is true of every other human person who has ever
lived or will live. And if God thinks others worth
making, you should think them worth loving. It is
not that you love them for themselves. It is your love
of God which overflows and goes out to all whom God
has made. As God has been kind to them, we must
also be kind to them, and wish them all well.
We must love, in this way, even those who injure

us, as we shall see in a moment, and also those who
differ from us in religion. We can never admit that
other religions are right. We know that they are
wrong, and that if people want the right religion they
should become Catholics. But whilst we know this,
others do not. In any case, no matter how wrong

65



others may be, we have to speak of them kindly and
treat them well, though we cannot share their religion
with them. We must not injure them in any way
because they are not Catholics. A Catholic m*ight say,
“I shall buy from this grocer because he is a Catholic.*’
That is quite good and charitable. But we cannot say,
“I won’t buy from this man because he is a Protestant.”
For that is not a desire to do go®d, but to do harm.
We cannot buy, perhaps, from both. But if we choose
to buy from the Catholic, it must be because we wish
to do a good turn to a fellow-Catholic, and not from
any desire to hurt a non-Catholic. We must never
bear a grudge, or think uncharitably of those who do
not belong to the Church. Non-Catholics, even though
they do not believe as we do, are our neighbors, and
we must love them, even though we do not love their
mistakes.

As you would, says Christ, that men should do to
you, do you also to them in like manner. (Luke vi., 31.)

Here is a great test. You know the things that hurt
you, and Our Lord tells you that these are the things
that you must not do to others. And as you like others
to be devoted to you, and please you, so you must
try to please and serve them. Of course we mean
only in good things. We can never help others in evil
things because we sometimes wish others to help us
wickedly. Our Lord did not mean us to judge by our
unlawful desires, but only by our good desires. It
must always be in God and for God.
We are obliged to love our enemies. Love your

enemies, says Christ, do good to them that hate you,
bless them that curse you, and pray for them that
persecute and calumniate you. Luke vi., 27; Matt, v., 44.

This does not mean that we want them to be our
enemies, or that we must love their hatred of us. But
we must love them, at least by not hating them, or
by wishing them harm. We may protect ourselves, or
perhaps even go to law to recover what belongs to
us. But we are thinking then only of our own rights,
not wishing harm to the one who has injured us. If,
afterwards, we could do good to them, we should try
to do so. If they speak evil of us, we must speak well
of them, and bless them. And we must pray for them.
A boy once had a quarrel with another boy, and

told the Priest about it afterwards. The good Priest
told him to make friends again. ‘‘But, Father,” replied
the boy, ‘‘I hate him.’* ‘‘My child,” said the Priest,
‘‘Our Lord forbids you to do so.” ‘‘But I do not wish
him any harm. Father,” the boy replied. ‘‘But that is
not nearly enough,” said the good Priest, “you must
wish him well. Go, and pray sincerely for him, that

66



God may bless him, and see what graces God will
give you. That is the quickest way to overcome un-
kind feelings.”
Now we have finished with the ten commandments.

If you have studied them well you will have noticed
the things they command, and the things they forbid.
When the streets are well lit up at night you can
walk safely along them without falling over stones and
gutters. Your knowledge of the commandments
throws a bright light on the road of life. Be courag-
eous, and determine to do good and avoid evil. Set
your teeth tight, and make a real good try. Love these
laws of God, for they tell you His Holy Will, and they
lead to eternal happiness in Heaven. I do hope and
pray that you will do so, and thus find your way to
Heaven.

67



TABLE OF CONTENTS

. Chapter Page

1 THE COMMANDMENTS 1

2 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT (A) 5
3 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT (B) 10
4 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT (C) 13
5 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT (D) 20
6 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT (A) 25
7 THE SECOND COMMANDMENT (B) 30
8 THE THIRD COMMANDMENT 31

9 THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT 36
10 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 42
11 THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT 45
12 THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT .50
13 THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT 56
14 THE NINTH and TENTH COMMANDMENTS 61

68



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