Lessons Fifteen, Sixteen, and Seventeen

Lesson Fifteen
The Two Great Commandments
189. Which are the two great commandments that contain the whole law of God?
...first, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength;
second, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
191.  Which are the chief corporal works of mercy?
The chief corporal works of mercy are seven:

1. To feed the hungry
2. To give drink to the thirsty.
3. To clothe the naked.
4. To visit the imprisoned.
5. To shelter the homeless.
6. To visit the sick.
7. To bury the dead.

192.  Which are the chief spiritual works of mercy?
The chief spiritual works of mercy are seven:

1. To admonish the sinner.
2. To instruct the ignorant.
3. To counsel the doubtful.
4. To comfort the sorrowful.
5. To bear wrongs patiently.
6. To forgive all injuries.
7. To pray for living and the dead.

195.  Which are the commandments of God?
The commandments of god are these ten:

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 thou keep holy the Lord's 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.

The rest of the lesson concerns vocations.  My vocation happens to be my future husband and any children we might have [read will have], so I skipped this section to read later.

This chapter is filled with difficult things.  The corporal works of mercy aren't incredibly difficult; they can be done with small gestures so long as you do them with the correct motivation (Christ).  The spiritual works of mercy are a different story, however.  I'm terrible at admonishing anyone, particularly people I don't know well; I'm too concerned with coming off as arrogant to say anything like, "you know, what you're doing is wrong."  Unless it's something that is terrible.  Comforting the sorrowful is easier when I'm not thinking about how to accomplish it; if someone is crying next to me the best I can choke out is an "are you OK?" and then maybe a hug, but I usually just get really awkward.  Five and six sort of speak for themselves as to why they're difficult.  The easiest one on here is seven; the worst obstacle I have to get around is memory.  Remembering to pray is sometimes difficult for me.

Reviewing the commandments now, and when we went over them in the lesson, it has become apparent to me that American society is failing at them.  I tend to push the notion to the side to be forgotten until it's staring me in the face, and then it's shocking.  Every time.  It shocks me (to varying degrees of severity) to see exactly how misguided people can be.  The commandments are basic rules that everyone should follow.  All of them, without exception, but particularly from four down in our secular society.  One would think these would be common sense (or courtesy at the very least) to people.  I see them broken on an almost daily basis.

I'm becoming a very cynical cynic...or perhaps the correct term is a realist considering in what I'm immersed.

Lesson Sixteen
The First Commandment of God
This lesson is very straightforward.  Love God above all else.  This includes money, science, public opinion, among other things.
Loving God can be difficult as well, sometimes you can end up placing more importance on something else by a sort of accident.  Humans are rather short-sighted most of the time.  We tend to look only at what is immediately before us, sometimes allowing it to consume our thoughts.  I've caught myself doing just that, but it's difficult to realize it while it's happening.  They say hindsight is 20/20, and they're right.  It is always easier to see what you were doing wrong rather than what you are doing wrong.  And it's easier to say, "oh, I let that take over my life," than saying, "this is taking over my life, I should take a step back."  Even if you manage to say the latter, actually taking the step back can prove a daunting task.
Emotions tend to be excellent distractions.

Lesson Seventeen
Honoring the Saints, Relics and Images
This is a 'goes without saying' lesson for me.  We honor the saints by praying to them and imitating their lives.  Why?  Because they lived great lives, and they should be looked up to.
It seems pretty simple.
This also makes me think of my chain mail friend I mentioned earlier; the guy that said Catholics worshiped the saints, and so were polytheistic rather than monotheistic.  It was such a strange argument against the faith it still makes me raise an eyebrow.

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Happy Friday everyone..

I'm very glad this week is over.

Longest four day work week ever.