Catechism of the Catholic Church — paragraphs 2001

2001 The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration…
2002 God's free initiative demands man's free response , for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the…
2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit…
2004 Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian…
2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on…
2006 You are glorified in the assembly of your Holy Ones, for in crowning their merits you are crowning your own gifts. 2006 The term "merit"…
2007 With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for…
2008 The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his…
2009 Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice.…
2010 Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the…
2011 The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the…
2012 "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him . . . For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed…
2013 "All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity." All are called…
2014 Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called "mystical" because it participates in the…
2015 The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress…
2016 The children of our holy mother the Church rightly hope for the grace of final perseverance and the recompense of God their Father for the…
2017 The grace of the Holy Spirit confers upon us the righteousness of God. Uniting us by faith and Baptism to the Passion and Resurrection of…
2018 Like conversion, justification has two aspects. Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, and so accepts forgiveness and…
2019 Justification includes the remission of sins, sanctification, and the renewal of the inner man.
2020 Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ. It is granted us through Baptism. It conforms us to the righteousness of…
2021 Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons. It introduces us into the intimacy of the…
2022 The divine initiative in the work of grace precedes, prepares, and elicits the free response of man. Grace responds to the deepest…
2023 Sanctifying grace is the gratuitous gift of his life that God makes to us; it is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin…
2024 Sanctifying grace makes us "pleasing to God." Charisms, special graces of the Holy Spirit, are oriented to sanctifying grace and are…
2025 We can have merit in God's sight only because of God's free plan to associate man with the work of his grace. Merit is to be ascribed in…
2026 The grace of the Holy Spirit can confer true merit on us, by virtue of our adoptive filiation, and in accordance with God's gratuitous…
2027 No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for…
2028 "All Christians . . . are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity" ( LG 40 § 2). "Christian perfection…
2029 "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" ( Mt 16:24).
2030 It is in the Church, in communion with all the baptized, that the Christian fulfills his vocation. From the Church he receives the Word of…
2031 The moral life is spiritual worship . We "present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God," within the Body of…
2032 The Church, the "pillar and bulwark of the truth," "has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving…
2033 The Magisterium of the Pastors of the Church in moral matters is ordinarily exercised in catechesis and preaching, with the help of the…
2034 The Roman Pontiff and the bishops are "authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach the faith to…
2035 The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility . This infallibility extends as…
2036 The authority of the Magisterium extends also to the specific precepts of the natural law , because their observance, demanded by the…
2037 The law of God entrusted to the Church is taught to the faithful as the way of life and truth. The faithful therefore have the right to be…
2038 In the work of teaching and applying Christian morality, the Church needs the dedication of pastors, the knowledge of theologians, and the…
2039 Ministries should be exercised in a spirit of fraternal service and dedication to the Church, in the name of the Lord. At the same time the…
2040 Thus a true filial spirit toward the Church can develop among Christians. It is the normal flowering of the baptismal grace which has…
2041 The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life. The obligatory character of…
2042 The first precept ("You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor") requires the faithful to…
2043 The fourth precept ("You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church") ensures the times of ascesis and…
2044 The fidelity of the baptized is a primordial condition for the proclamation of the Gospel and for the Church's mission in the world . In…
2045 Because they are members of the Body whose Head is Christ, Christians contribute to building up the Church by the constancy of their…
2046 By living with the mind of Christ, Christians hasten the coming of the Reign of God , "a kingdom of justice, love, and peace." They do not,…
2047 The moral life is a spiritual worship. Christian activity finds its nourishment in the liturgy and the celebration of the sacraments.
2048 The precepts of the Church concern the moral and Christian life united with the liturgy and nourished by it.
2049 The Magisterium of the Pastors of the Church in moral matters is ordinarily exercised in catechesis and preaching, on the basis of the…
2050 The Roman Pontiff and the bishops, as authentic teachers, preach to the People of God the faith which is to be believed and applied in…
2051 The infallibility of the Magisterium of the Pastors extends to all the elements of doctrine, including moral doctrine, without which the…
2052 "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" To the young man who asked this question, Jesus answers first by invoking the…
2053 To this first reply Jesus adds a second: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have…
2054 Jesus acknowledged the Ten Commandments, but he also showed the power of the Spirit at work in their letter. He preached a "righteousness…
2055 When someone asks him, "Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?" Jesus replies: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your…
2056 The word "Decalogue" means literally "ten words." God revealed these "ten words" to his people on the holy mountain. They were written…
2057 The Decalogue must first be understood in the context of the Exodus, God's great liberating event at the center of the Old Covenant.…
2058 The "ten words" sum up and proclaim God's law: "These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the…
2059 The "ten words" are pronounced by God in the midst of a theophany ("The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst…
2060 The gift of the commandments and of the Law is part of the covenant God sealed with his own. In Exodus , the revelation of the "ten words"…
2061 The Commandments take on their full meaning within the covenant. According to Scripture, man's moral life has all its meaning in and…
2062 The Commandments properly so-called come in the second place: they express the implications of belonging to God through the establishment…
2063 The covenant and dialogue between God and man are also attested to by the fact that all the obligations are stated in the first person ("I…
2064 In fidelity to Scripture and in conformity with the example of Jesus, the tradition of the Church has acknowledged the primordial…
2065 Ever since St. Augustine, the Ten Commandments have occupied a predominant place in the catechesis of baptismal candidates and the…
2066 The division and numbering of the Commandments have varied in the course of history. The present catechism follows the division of the…
2067 The Ten Commandments state what is required in the love of God and love of neighbor. The first three concern love of God, and the other…
2068 The Council of Trent teaches that the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians and that the justified man is still bound to keep…
2069 The Decalogue forms a coherent whole. Each "word" refers to each of the others and to all of them; they reciprocally condition one another.…
2070 The Ten Commandments belong to God's revelation. At the same time they teach us the true humanity of man. They bring to light the essential…
2071 The commandments of the Decalogue, although accessible to reason alone, have been revealed. To attain a complete and certain understanding…
2072 Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content,…
2073 Obedience to the Commandments also implies obligations in matter which is, in itself, light. Thus abusive language is forbidden by the…
2074 Jesus says: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you…
2075 "What good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" - "If you would enter into life, keep the commandments" ( Mt 19:16-17).
2076 By his life and by his preaching Jesus attested to the permanent validity of the Decalogue.
2077 The gift of the Decalogue is bestowed from within the covenant concluded by God with his people. God's commandments take on their true…
2078 In fidelity to Scripture and in conformity with Jesus' example, the tradition of the Church has always acknowledged the primordial…
2079 The Decalogue forms an organic unity in which each "word" or "commandment" refers to all the others taken together. To transgress one…
2080 The Decalogue contains a privileged expression of the natural law. It is made known to us by divine revelation and by human reason.
2081 The Ten Commandments, in their fundamental content, state grave obligations. However, obedience to these precepts also implies obligations…
2082 What God commands he makes possible by his grace.
2083 Jesus summed up man's duties toward God in this saying: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and…
2084 God makes himself known by recalling his all-powerful loving, and liberating action in the history of the one he addresses: "I brought you…
2085 The one and true God first reveals his glory to Israel. The revelation of the vocation and truth of man is linked to the revelation of God.…
2086 "The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we say 'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same,…
2087 Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith" as our first…
2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to…
2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. " Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of…
2090 When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him…
2091 The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption: By despair , man ceases to hope for his…
2092 There are two kinds of presumption . Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on…
2093 Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. The first commandment enjoins…
2094 One can sin against God's love in various ways: - indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its…
2095 The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity inform and give life to the moral virtues. Thus charity leads us to render to God what…
2096 Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and…
2097 To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the "nothingness of the creature" who would not exist but for God. To…
2098 The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first commandment are accomplished in prayer. Lifting up the mind toward God is an…
2099 It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of adoration and gratitude, supplication and communion: "Every action done so as to cling…
2100 Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit. . . .…

Paragraphs 2001–2100