I once had the opportunity through a grant to the Archdiocese of St. Louis to meet with an executive business coach on a couple of occasions.  There were many important lessons about management that I learned from my coach but probably the most important thing he taught me was the importance of expectations.  It was his belief and mine now that most of the problems in parish life as well as in business come from a lack of clear expectations.   

1.            You shall attend Mass on Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation and rest from servile labor.
 I don’t think that I could explain this one better than Archbishop Fulton Sheen in his book Calvary and the Mass: “If then Death was the supreme moment for which Christ lived, it was therefore the one thing He wished to have remembered.  He did not ask that men should write down His Words into a Scripture; He did not ask that His kindness to the poor should be recorded in history; but He did ask that men remember his Death.  And in order that its memory might not be any haphazard narrative on the part of men, He himself instituted the precise way it should be recalled.”
  
 2.            You shall confess your (serious) sins at least once a year.
 I feel that there are three good reasons for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  The first is that we learn through our senses so by hearing the words of the priest speak the prayer of absolution we can know that God forgives our sins.  The second is that our sins do not only hurt us but they hurt God and others and so therefore we need to apologize to the representative that God and the Church has set up for this reason.  The third reason is that the devil likes to work in secret and the best way to defeat the devil and temptation is to bring it to the light.  It is kind of like the wisdom of Alcoholics Anonymous “the first step is to admit that you have a problem.”
  
 3.            You shall receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter Season.
 This precept guarantees as a minimum reception of the Eucharist during the Paschal Feasts (Ash Wednesday through the feast of the Holy Trinity because it is the center and origin of the Christian liturgical life.  We should not be looking for a minimum though and rather we should ask ourselves "How do we return God’s love for us?".
  
 4.            You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church
 As a coach asks an athlete under his or her tutelage to give up certain things and to perform certain tasks in order to improve one’s skills so the Church asks us to perform certain spiritual exercises so that we can come to a self-mastery and control over ourselves.  
 
 Here are seven reasons why Catholics fast…
 1) From the beginning, God commanded some fasting, and sin entered into the world because Adam and Eve broke the fast.
  2) For the Christian, fasting is ultimately about fasting from sin.
  3) Fasting reveals our dependence on God and not the resources of this world.
  4) Fasting is an ancient way of preparing for the Eucharist—the truest of foods.
  5) Fasting is preparation for baptism (and all the sacraments)—for the reception of grace.
  6) Fasting is a means of saving resources to give to the poor.
  7) Fasting is a means of self-discipline, chastity, and the restraining of the appetites.
  
 5.            You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church 
 The last precept of the Church means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.  We Catholics like to use the word “steward” because we consider everything we have as a gift from God and we believe that God wants us to use these gifts to bring about His kingdom.  Archbishop Carlson’s stewardship prayer might summarize this precept: “Lord, what do You want me to do with all the gifts you have given me – including my time, my talents and my material things? Lord, how would You like me to become more fully involved in the life of Your Church? Lord, how would you like me to payback all the gifts You have given me? Lord, what do You want me to do with all the gifts You have given me?”

1.            Always to be ready to obey with mind and heart, setting aside all judgment of one's own, the true spouse of Jesus Christ, our holy mother, our infallible and orthodox mistress, the Catholic Church, whose authority is exercised over us by the hierarchy.  
 2.            To commend the confession of sins to a priest as it is practiced in the Church; the reception of the Holy Eucharist once a year, or better still every week, or at least every month, with the necessary preparation.
  
 3.            To commend to the faithful frequent and devout assistance at the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the ecclesiastical hymns, the divine office, and in general the prayers and devotions practiced at stated times, whether in public in the churches or in private.
  
 4.            To have a great esteem for the religious orders, and to give the preference to celibacy or virginity over the married state.
  
 5.            To approve of the religious vows of chastity, poverty, perpetual obedience, as well as to the other works of perfection and supererogation. Let us remark in passing, that we must never engage by vow to take a state (such e.g. as marriage) that would be an impediment to one more perfect…
  
 6.            To praise relics, the veneration and invocation of Saints: also the stations, and pious pilgrimages, indulgences, jubilees, the custom of lighting candles in the churches, and other such aids to piety and devotion.
  
 7.            To praise the use of abstinence and fasts as those of Lent, of Ember Days, of Vigils, of Friday, Saturday, and of others undertaken out of pure devotion: also voluntary mortifications, which we call penances, not merely interior, but exterior also.
  
 8.            To commend moreover the construction of churches, and ornaments; also images, to be venerated with the fullest right, for the sake of what they represent.
  
 9.            To uphold especially all the precepts of the Church, and not censure them in any manner; but, on the contrary, to defend them promptly, with reasons drawn from all sources, against those who criticize them.
  
 10.          To be eager to commend the decrees, mandates, traditions, rites and customs of the Fathers in the Faith or our superiors. As to their conduct; although there may not always be the uprightness of conduct that there ought to be, yet to attack or revile them in private or in public tends to scandal and disorder. Such attacks set the people against their princes and pastors; we must avoid such reproaches and never attack superiors before inferiors. The best course is to make private approach to those who have power to remedy the evil.
  
 11.          To value most highly the sacred teaching, both the Positive and the Scholastic, as they are commonly called…
  
 12.          It is a thing to be blamed and avoided to compare men who are living on the earth (however worthy of praise) with the Saints and Blessed, saying: This man is more learned than St. Augustine, etc…
  
 13.          That we may be altogether of the same mind and in conformity with the Church herself, if she shall have defined anything to be black which to our eyes appears to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black. For we must undoubtedly believe, that the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of the Orthodox Church His Spouse, by which Spirit we are governed and directed to Salvation, is the same;…
  
 14.          It must also be borne in mind, that although it be most true, that no one is saved but he that is predestinated, yet we must speak with circumspection concerning this matter, lest perchance, stressing too much the grace or predestination of God, we should seem to wish to shut out the force of free will and the merits of good works; or on the other hand, attributing to these latter more than belongs to them, we derogate meanwhile from the power of grace.
  
 15.          For the like reason we should not speak on the subject of predestination frequently; if by chance we do so speak, we ought so to temper what we say as to give the people who hear no occasion of erring and saying, 'If my salvation or damnation is already decreed, my good or evil actions are predetermined'; whence many are wont to neglect good works, and the means of salvation.
  
 16.          It also happens not unfrequently, that from immoderate, preaching and praise of faith, without distinction or explanation added, the people seize a pretext for being lazy with regard to any good works, which precede faith, or follow it when it has been formed by the bond of charity.
  
 17.          Not any more must we push to such a point when the preaching and inculcating of the grace of God, as that there may creep thence into the minds of the hearers the deadly error of denying our faculty of free will. We must speak of it as the glory of God requires… that we may not raise doubts as to liberty and the efficacy of good works.
  
 18.          Although it is very praiseworthy and useful to serve God through the motive of pure charity, yet we must also recommend the fear of God; and not only filial fear, but servile fear, which is very useful and often even necessary to raise man from sin… Once risen from the state, and free from the affection of mortal sin, we may then speak of that filial fear which is truly worthy of God, and which gives and preserves the union of pure love.

“The community of the saints is not an "ideal" community consisting of perfect and sinless men and women, where there is no need of further repentance. No, it is a community which proves that it is worthy of the gospel of forgiveness by constantly and sincerely proclaiming God's forgiveness...Sanctification means driving out the world from the Church as well as separating the Church from the world. But the purpose of such discipline is not to establish a community of the perfect, but a community consisting of men who really live under the forgiving mercy of God.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

A story is told about Rabbi Joseph Schneerson, a Hasidic leader during the early days of Russian Communism. The rabbi spent much time in jail, persecuted for his faith.

One morning in 1927, as he prayed in a Leningrad synagogue, secret police rushed in and arrested him. They took him to a police station and worked him over, demanding that he give up his religious activities. He refused. The interrogator brandished a gun in his face and said, "This little toy has made many a man change his mind."

Rabbi Schneerson answered, "This little toy can intimidate only that kind of man who has many gods and but one world. Because I have only one God and two worlds, I am
not impressed by this little toy."