Exploring Catholic Social Teaching

LESSON PLAN
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
C. Distribute to each student one of the Ten Commandments Cards. (Some students will have the
same cards.) Then have your students read their assigned commandment and write on the line
what it teaches us about loving God or others. Circulate around the room to assist as needed,
particularly with concepts students may not understand. (Explain to students who have the
Sixth Commandment that adultery refers to being faithful to one’s spouse and respecting our
bodies. Explain to students who have the Ninth and Tenth Commandments that coveting refers
to wanting something that someone else has, to the point of being jealous of what they have.
Note: The Ninth and Tenth Commandments have been combined onto one card for the sake of
simplicity.)
D. After your students have completed their activity, go through each of the Ten Commandments
and call on students who were assigned to each commandment to share and discuss what they
wrote. Emphasize during this time that the Ten Commandments were laws that God gave to us
to teach us how to love.
Activity and Formative Assessment
A. Explain to your students that Jesus gave us one of His most well-known teachings when He
was challenged by a Pharisee. The Pharisees were religious leaders in Jesus’ time, and many
of them were enemies of Jesus. This Pharisee hoped to catch Jesus saying something that was
against the Law of Moses. Then he could have had Jesus arrested for blasphemy. Blasphemy
was a religious crime that involved insulting God or the things of God, or saying or teaching
things that went against God’s Law. In response to the Pharisee, Jesus gave us two special
commandments.
B. Distribute copies of Handout A: The Great Commandments to your students and have them
follow along as you read aloud. Then discuss the focus questions.
C. Emphasize that the two Great Commandments Jesus gave are in fact a summary of all the Ten
Commandments. The first three of the Ten Commandments teach us how to love God, which is
the first of Jesus’ Great Commandments. The other seven of the Ten Commandments teach us
how to love our neighbor, or each other, which is the second of Jesus’ Great Commandments.
Formative Assessment
A. Distribute a copy of Handout B: Loving God and Loving Our Neighbor. Have students read
each statement and decide whether it is an example of loving God or loving our neighbor.
Then have them write or say two of their own examples of loving God and two examples of
loving our neighbor.
B. When they have finished, call on students to share and discuss their answers.
EXPLORING CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING, lesson 2 17