Precept: from the Latin: præceptum from præcipere, to command hence 'The Precepts of the Church' are also called 'The Commandments of the Church' for they are not merely suggestions or counsels but rather the precepts impose an obligation. (Catholic Encyclopedia). They are six in number:

1. To keep the Sundays and Holy Days, holy, by hearing Mass and resting from servile work.
2. To keep the days of fasting and abstinence appointed by the Church.
3. To go to confession at least once a year.
4. To receive Holy Communion at least once a year and that during Eastertide.
5. To contribute to the support of our pastors.
6. To observe the laws of the Church concerning marriage.

We welcome to Our Lady of Victory Chapel all who wish to adhere faithfully to the sacred traditions of the Roman Catholic Faith and thus to receive the abundant graces from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments administered according to the unchanged and unchangeable rite of the Roman Catholic Church.

It is then obvious that simple justice as well as the fifth precept of the Church dictate that those who benefit from that which is provided have an obligation to contribute to the support of this chapel.

Sadly, there are those who benefit from what is made available but yet fail to help defray the expenses which we must necessarily incur to provide the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments as well as other devotions.

Such miserly individuals place an unfair burden upon those of you who do support this chapel. Those who fail to contribute regularly according to their means shall answer before the judgement seat of Almighty God.

The word 'tithe' comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'teotha '= a tenth.

A tithe is then defined as: "a tenth part of one's annual income contributed or due as a tax, especially for the support of the clergy or church; to contribute or pay a tenth part of one's annual income."

and

"the tenth part of all fruits and profits justly acquired, owed to God in recognition of his supreme dominion over man, and to be paid to the ministers of the church".

According to St. Paul: "Know you not, that they who work in the holy place, eat the things that are of the holy place and they that serve the altar partake with the altar?" ( I Corinthians 9:13)

We read in the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"In the Church, as those who serve the altar should live by the altar, provision of some kind had necessarily to be made for the sacred ministers. In the beginning this was supplied by the spontaneous offerings of the faithful. In the course of time, however, as the Church expanded and various institutions arose, it became necessary to make laws, which would insure the proper and permanent support of the clergy. The payment of tithes was adopted from the Old Law, and early writers speak of it as a divine ordinance and an obligation of conscience. The earliest positive legislation on the subject seems to be contained in the letter of the bishops assembled at Tours in 567 and the canons of the Council of Maçon in 585. In the course of time, we find the payment of tithes made obligatory by ecclesiastical enactments in all the countries of Christendom. The Church looked on this payment as "of divine law, since tithes were instituted not by man but by the Lord Himself" (C. 14, X de decim. III, 30)."

How few there are amongst those who regularly assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at Our Lady of Victory Chapel who benefit from the graces of the sacraments who in fact fulfill the duty in conscience to tithe.

May Almighty God bless those who do and may those who do not repent and make restitution for the tithes which in the past they have failed to render thus unjustly burdening others and shirking their obligations to Almighty God and His Church.