Catechist Preparation
Alive in Christ- Chapter 14 pp. 193-202
Bible verses: Psalm 119:17 Luke 10:25-28 Deuteronomy 10:12-13
Objectives:
· Recognize the Ten Commandments as God’s laws to help people love Him & others.
· Appreciate that God created us with free will because He wants us to make good choices.
Lesson Plan: The Ten commandments, Moses, Passover
Welcome / Coloring page of Moses in the basket
Invite
Prayer
Space / Opening Prayer: Psalm 119:9-12
Let Us Pray p 193 God’s Word What do you wonder?
Discover / The Ten Commandments reveal essential truths and guide us toward eternal life. Along life’s journey, people make wrong turns. When you fail, you must be willing to seek forgiveness.
Background to set the stage for the Ten Commandments:
Who was Moses? (The story of Moses in the basket) picture available
God called Moses to lead His people out of slavery (The Burning Bush)
Moses demanded Pharaoh, “Let my people go!” (The 10 Plagues and 1st Passover).
Use the picture book for the 10 Plagues.
The Israelites were wandered in the dessert. (The Ten Commandments).
God gave us 10 important laws. How can we follow the Ten Commandments?
Play “Beach Ball Madness” (3 blown up beach balls/class)
Talk about rules and why they are important.
Play “Thumbs up/Thumbs down” bottom of Catechist Manual p. 195 (His Laws Make Us Free)
Live
Song of Praise / Choices and Consequences and Accountability
TAP = think, ask, pray when you make choices
The ripple effect- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLoSOz8e3qE gorgeous video of a stone being tossed into water at sunset. (Pull up video on own device if possible.)
Some choices are easy and some choices are difficult. All of our choices have consequences. For example:
When you choose to play roughly with a toy… it breaks
When you choose to ignore your parents when they tell you to clean up a mess you made … you lose privileges.
When you choose to eat all of your candy at one time … it is all gone.
Video: Choices, Choices (25min)
People of Faith / St. Frances Cabrini
Sending Forth / Closing prayer: The Lord’s Prayer with signs and/or A Helping Prayer p. 200
Materials: Green = provided by CRE / Blue = on website / Purple = Optional, catechists provide
Please read over the instructions carefully. If you think this game will cause too much activity in your class, or if you have reservations about trying it, you can skip this game.
Beach Ball Madness
Separate the class into circles of 5-6 children.
Give one child in each group a beach ball. Say “OK, we’re ready to play the game. Ready, set, go!”
(Don’t give any further directions). If kids ask, just say “Go.”
After a few moments, say “Stop. It seems like we are missing something. What are we missing?” Let children answer (correct answer: rules for how to play the game).
Say “Oh, rules! Yes, they are very important. Here are the rules: You must toss the ball gently to a person across from you, and he/she will catch it. Keep tossing the ball gently until everyone has had a turn to catch it. Then do it again, in the same order. You must follow the pattern. Keep following the same pattern, remembering who you threw it to.”
After a few minutes, stop the game and discuss:
Why do we need rules? How did it feel when you didn’t have rules? What are some rules we have at school? At home? At church?
God gave us some rules. They are called the Ten Commandments. They tell us how we should live. Let’s look at the Ten Commandments and talk about them…
The Story of Moses- the basket, 10 Plagues & 10 Commandments
Exodus 2-20 (summarized)
Moses in the Basket
Long ago the Hebrew people moved into Egypt and lived among the Egyptians. Then evil Pharaoh made them slaves. He knew the Israelites did not like this and he feared they would rise up and fight back so he ordered his army to kill all the baby boys born to the Hebrew families, but he let the baby girls live.
One Hebrew mother hid her baby from Pharaoh. When the baby grew too big to hide, she placed him in a basket and floated the basket down the Nile River knowing that Pharaoh’s daughter was bathing downstream.
When Pharaoh’s daughter noticed something in the tall grass, she sent her handmaiden to see what it was. It was baby Moses.
Pharaoh’s daughter loved baby Moses. She wanted to keep him, but the baby needed his mother’s milk. Pharaoh’s daughter found the mother and kept her to feed baby.
After pharaoh’s daughter adopted him, Moses was raised in the palace, but he knew he was different. One day he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave and got very angry. He killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the dessert. Moses knew he would be punished for helping the Hebrew and the punishment would be death. Moses fled to the land of Midian and he lived for many years.
A long time passed. The old Pharaoh died, but still the people of Israel suffered as slaves in Egypt. God heard their cries and sent Moses to speak to Pharaoh and lead them out of Egypt.
God appeared to Moses in a flaming bush. It looked like it was on fire, but did not burn up. As Moses drew closer to look at this strange site, God called out to him from within the flaming bush. God told Moses that He had heard the cries of his people and that Moses must go to them and lead them out of Egypt and to a land God had set aside for them.
Moses was overwhelmed. He did not think he could possibly accomplish all that God had set out for him to do. But God assured Moses that He would be with him and that the Israelites would follow him. Moses was very hard to convince about this. So God told Moses to throw down his shepherd’s staff, which he did. The staff changed into a serpent. Then God told Moses to take hold of its tail. And when Moses did, the serpent changed back into his staff.
The Ten Plagues
And so Moses set out for Egypt with his family and his brother Aaron. The Israelites did indeed listen to Moses and Aaron. They were glad that God was going to free them from their slavery.
Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh. Moses said “Let my people go!”, but Pharaoh would not listen. Moses told Pharaoh that God would send down plagues if the Israelites were not allowed to go free. But Pharaoh would not listen.
And so God sent the 1st Plague: the water in the River Nile turned into blood. The fish died. The people could not drink the water. Egypt is a dessert country and water is scarce. This was a great hardship for all the people. But still Pharaoh would not listen.
And so God sent the 2nd Plague: frogs. The river was full of them. Frogs were everywhere: in the streets, in the palace, in the ovens, in the food dishes. It was awful! But still Pharaoh would not listen.
So God sent the 3rd Plague: Gnats- tiny little flying bugs. The dust was turned into gnats and they were everywhere, infected both man beasts. But still Pharaoh would not listen.
And so God sent the 4th Plague: flies. Swarms of flies, the very ground they stood on was covered in flies. But there were no flies where the Israelites lived. But the palace and city were one gigantic swarm of flies. But still Pharaoh would not listen.
And so God sent the 5th Plague: Pestilence- an illness that afflicted all Egyptian animals, but the animals of the Israelites were not made sick. All the livestock of the Egyptians died. But still Pharaoh would not listen.
And so God sent the 6th Plague: boils, horrible open sores that covered every Egyptian and every one of their beasts. But still Pharaoh would not listen.
And so God sent the 7th Plague: Hail. Such fierce hail as had never been seen in Egypt. All the people and animals out in the fields were struck down and died. The crops were ruined. But still Pharaoh would not listen.
And so God sent the 8th Plague: Locust, grasshoppers that covered the earth and ate even the stalks of the crops that had been beaten down by the hail. And still Pharaoh did not listen.
And so God sent the 9th Plague: darkness. The land of Egypt was dark for 3 whole days! But still Pharaoh would not listen.
And so God sent the 10th Plague: the death of the first-born. For this god gave Moses very specific instructions on how to keep the Israelites, safe--- a special dinner, marking their doorways with lamb’s blood and staying indoors during the night. This is the Feast of Passover, when God “passed over” the households of His chosen people.
The First Passover
God told the Israelites they were to select a perfect lamb or kid for each family. This lamb or kid was to be killed, roasted, and eaten all in one night. On this night, the very night after Moses told Pharaoh that all the firstborn would die, they were to daub some of the blood of the lamb or kid on the doorposts and lintel of the houses where they would eat the lamb or kid.
The blood on the doorposts and lintel demonstrated that the people inside were trusting God to pass over them and spare all their firstborn from death; the lamb or kid had been sacrificed for them so that those inside could live.
There were a number of other rules but the main one was that no one could go outside their houses that night - not until morning - for their own protection.
God told Moses, "This is the Lord's Passover…
"On that night I will pass through Egypt... I, and not an angel,
"and strike down every firstborn--both men and animal… I, and not an archangel,
"and I will bring forth judgment on all the demon gods of Egypt… I, and not a messenger,
"I am the Lord… I, myself and none other.
When I see the sign of the blood, I will pass over you and this plague will not destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. In all future generations you will keep this feast forever."
And the people all did as Moses instructed them.
At midnight God did as He said and struck the Egyptians. And the Egyptians wailed loudly over their dead. Everyone was struck, from the house of Pharaoh, to the house of the lowest slave. There wasn't a single Egyptian household where there wasn't at least one dead. Soon a great crying and wailing filled the land.
Pharaoh then set word to Moses, "Get out of Egypt," he ordered. "Go away from my people, all of you. And take your livestock with you. Get out, but bless me."
God had instructed the people not to go out of their houses until dawn. So they stayed inside getting ready to leave come sunrise. As the sun rose over the land of Egypt the Israelites came out of their houses, packed their things into carts, gathered their flocks and herds together, and assembling for the march out of Egypt.
Moses told the people to hurry and pack and they crossed Egypt to the Red Sea. But Pharaoh became angry and sent his army after them. Moses stood before the Red Sea and lifted his staff. The waters parted and the people walked through. When Pharaoh’s army followed them through the parted waters, the sea crashed in upon them and they were drowned. But the Israelites made it safely through to the other side.
The Ten Commandments
Moses led the people for days and their food and water supplies ran out. The people became angry. They were mad at Moses and they were mad at God for not providing for them. God took pity on them and made a rain of flakes of bread from heaven. This bread was called “Manna”. It was white and looked like coriander seeds, but tasted like wafers made from honey. The Israelites ate Manna for the 40 years that they wandered in the dessert searching for their promised land.
When they could find no water to drink, God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff. When he did, water flowed from the rock.
The Israelites had entered into a land where other people were already living. These other people were not happy to share the land. Water was scarce, food was scarce. And so these other people fought the Israelites. During one battle, The Israelites were losing. God instructed Moses to raise his arms, with his staff. While Moses had his arms raised, the Israelites were winning. When his arms tired and drooped, the other army started winning. Finally, his brother Aaron and his friend Hur held up his arms and the battle went to the Israelites.