The five precepts (CCC 2041-2043) of the Church require Catholics to:
- Attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
- Confess sins at least once a year.
- Receive holy Communion at least once (during the Easter season).
- Observe days of prescribed fasting and abstinence.
- Provide for the material needs of the Church according to one’s abilities.
These precepts are minimum requirements for life as a Catholic. The Church, a wise mother, gives us these precepts, which can sanctify us and draw us closer to Christ, much as an earthly mother tells her children to eat their vegetables in order to stay healthy and strong. Pope Benedict XVI put it well at a 2008 audience: “We are only Christians if we encounter Christ. Of course, he does not show himself to us in this overwhelming, luminous way, as he did to Paul to make him the apostle to all peoples. But we too can encounter Christ in reading sacred Scripture, in prayer, in the liturgical life of the Church. We can touch Christ’s heart and feel Him touching ours. Only in this personal relationship with Christ, only in this encounter with the Risen One do we truly become Christians.”