Catechism of the Catholic Church

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2103 The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice the evangelical counsels: ²³

Mother Church rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the Savior's self-emptying more closely and show it forth more clearly, by undertaking poverty with the freedom of the children of God, and renouncing their own will: they submit themselves to man for the sake of God, thus going beyond what is of precept in the matter of perfection, so as to conform themselves more fully to the obedient Christ. ²⁴

The Church can, in certain cases and for proportionate reasons, dispense from vows and promises ²⁵

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST

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SECTION TWO: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

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CHAPTER ONE: YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND

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ARTICLE 1: THE FIRST COMMANDMENT I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. 3 It is written: "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." 4

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II. "HIM ONLY SHALL YOU SERVE"

Notes for the above paragraph:

23 Cf. CIC, can. 654.

24 LG 42 § 2.

25 Cf. CIC, cann. 692; 1196-1197.

English Translation of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church for the United States of America © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.

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