by M Garcia

Created on: December 23, 2009

The Five Precepts of Catholicism

or Am I A Bad Catholic?

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, the Precepts of the Church:

1.  You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation, and rest from servile labor
2.  You shall confess your sins at least once a year
3.  You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season

4.  You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church
5.  You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church

I came upon these Precepts quite by accident one March.  A co-worker wanted to know when Lent officially ended because she had given up buying craft supplies for Lent and the local craft store was having a big sale on craft supplies the day before Easter.  So, with a little digging, I discovered for her that Lent officially ended on Holy Thursday before the Mass of the Last Supper.  And off she went to the craft sale, happy as could be.

As is usually the case when I do an Internet search, one discovery leads to another discovery and soon, I had left the pages on Lent and Lenten observances and moved on to catechism.  And that's when I found the Five Precepts of Catholicism or, as they are correctly called, the Precepts of the Church.  One would think that with all the years of Catholic school and all the religion classes I've attended, that I would know these Precepts by heart, that they would be indelibly burned into my brain.  But try as I might, I could not recall ever learning the Five Precepts.  Perhaps it's because I learned them by doing so they just became ingrained in my psyche and I didn't recognize them by their formal name - the Precepts of the Church.

Growing up, I did everything that the Precepts required.  We attended Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation.  There were periods in my life where I went to Mass two or three times a week and even daily!  Resting from servile labor is a questionable point.  As a child, I thought that washing dishes was a terrible chore so I always argued that I couldn't do the dishes on Sunday, not if I was to keep the Sabbath day holy.  Unfortunately, my parents didn't buy into that so chores were done, even on Sunday.  We went to confession weekly, if not before Mass with my parents, then at school with my classmates.  Receiving Communion was a given if you went to Mass so I received the sacrament of the

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