3. What good deeds must you do? The Ten Commandments I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or husband. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

4. What good deeds must you do? The Ten Commandments are also called the Decalogue, or ‘ten words’— a summation of the law of the covenant that God and the Israelites entered into. The Ark of the Covenant was a chest made to carry the tablets of stone which contained the laws of the covenant. The commandments appear in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Long ago these two sources were summarized and appear in their present format for easy comprehension and memorization.

5. What good deeds must you do? St. Augustine noticed: the first three of the Ten Commandments pertain to our love of God the other seven pertain to our love of neighbor and the love of one’s self. Jesus proclaimed, ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you’ (John 15:12). Ultimately, we are to share that love with other people—with all people. The more we obey Jesus’ commandment, the more we will flourish, become fully alive and truly free.

6. ‘I am the Lord your God’ (Exodus 20:2) The Exodus is God’s great liberating action. God made a mutual covenant with his people and brought them into the promised land. The ancient Israelites and the Jewish tradition of today celebrate God’s liberating presence in the Passover. For Christians, these Passover–Exodus events foreshadow the saving events of Christ’s Death and Resurrection.

7. ‘I am the Lord your God’ (Exodus 20:2) At Mount Sinai, God invited the ancient Israelites to enter a life- giving mutual covenant. God revealed the details of the covenant, which tradition summarizes as the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments begin: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of thehouse of slavery’ (Exodus 20:2).

8. ‘I am the Lord your God’ (Exodus 20:2) Every member and the whole community is responsible for living the Covenant by obeying the Commandments. The First Commandment affirms God’s love for his people. The negative commands of the fifth–tenth commandments point to the fundamental acts that undermine God’s plan for goodness, holiness and justice.

9. ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3) Evil is deceptive by presenting itself as ‘good’ for us. Pursuing evil leads us away from goodness and happiness. Obedience to faith is hearing God’s word and resolving to do what God is asking. When we freely know, love and serve God, we can be free and truly alive.

10. ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3) Choosing anything or any person to replace God is idolatry. There are many idols in our midst which can lead us away from the one true God. We can make an idol of Fashion A high-end car A money-making career Excellence in sport, drama, or music A work-out routine

11. ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3) During his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus admonished ‘the tempter’: ‘Away with you Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him”’ (Matthew 4:10). Jesus assures us that when we worship God alone, everything in our life will fall into place. St. Paul taught that ‘all things work together for good for those who love God’ (Romans 8:28).

12. ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3) All four accounts of the Gospel clearly reveal that God the Father was the center and focus of Jesus’ life. Pope Francis shared this wisdom of what it means to follow Jesus: ‘Being a Christian is not just about following commandments: it is about letting Christ take possession of our lives and transform them.’ The challenge to us is to choose to make God the center of our lives.

13. ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3) The Theological Virtues are faith, hope and charity. Faith believes in God and rejects everything that opposes God Hope trustingly awaits the blessed vision of God and his help Charity loves God above all things. We have the responsibility to nourish our faith and to reject everything that might harm or weaken it. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, models for us the abundant life that flows into our existence when we respond to God with faith, hope and love.

14. ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3) God is the source of our life, our freedom and our every blessing. People of God express faith in God through adoration—the acknowledgment of God as creator, savior and master of everything. Religion is the habit of adoring, praying and worshipping God.

15. ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3) From the beginning, many chose to center their lives on other ‘gods’ or ‘no god’. Some examples are: Superstition—to replace God with magic or the occult Atheism—to not perceive God, or deny that God exists Agnosticism—to be indifferent about the existence of God. The ‘nones’ say that they believe in God but do not need to belong to an organized religion.

16. Moses, prophet of freedom and liberator Moses was born during a time of political hostility between the Egyptians and the Israelites, also called the Hebrews. Pharaoh declared that all male Hebrew infants were to be drowned at birth. Moses' mother and sister put him in a basket and placed the basket among the reeds in the Nile river. Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses and raised him in the royal household.

17. Moses, prophet of freedom and liberator As a young man, Moses was outraged at the mistreatment of the enslaved Israelites by the Egyptians. When the Pharaoh ordered Moses killed, he fled into the desert for safety. The Midianites welcomed Moses. He married a Midianite woman, Zipporah, and settled among the Midianites as a shepherd. Near Mount Horeb, Moses heard the voice of God from the midst of a burning bush. The voice, which identified itself as ‘the God of your fathers’, commanded Moses to go back to Egypt.

18. Moses, prophet of freedom and liberator Moses went back to the Pharaoh demanding the Israelites’ freedom from slavery. Over and over again, the Pharaoh rejected the requests for freedom. But after suffering the devastation of the Ten Plagues, Pharaoh freed the Israelites. Moses led the Israelites on their journey to freedom, to the land God promised. Moses climbed Mount Sinai where he prayed and received the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written.