CHAPTER FIVEConscience Formation

With and Without Conscience

Conscience

A practical judgment of reason that helps a person decide the goodness or sinfulness of an action or attitude. (It is the

subjective norm of morality that we must form properly and then

follow)

What Conscience Is Not:Conscience as majority opinion.

Conscience as a feeling.

Conscience as a superego.

Conscience as gut-instinct.

Conscience as “Jiminy Cricket.”

Conscience as myth.

Definition of Conscience

What Conscience Is:

1. Conscience is awareness of God’s call to be.

2. Conscience is awareness of God’s call to know and do the good, that is, to love.

3. Conscience is a practical judgment of the intellect.

Definition of Conscience

How Conscience Works

virtue

A good habit that empowers us to do good

with ease

vice

A bad habit, that inclines us to choose the

evil rather than the good

Study, Elect, Execute, Review:

How Conscience Works

Elect a course of action

Review the decision

Study the facts

Execute the action

SEER – a person in

tune with truth, a prophet

Study, Elect, Execute, Review

You must always form and keep informing your conscience.

You must follow your conscience.

How Conscience Works

Study, Elect, Execute, Review

1. Study

Gather information about the moral object, the motives, and the circumstances involved in particular decisions.

Review the fundamental principles of morality and consider how best to apply essential moral rules.

How Conscience Works

Study, Elect, Execute, Review

2. Elect

Decision should be based on whether the proposed action is consistent with who you are as God’s creation made in his image.

An essential part of making this decision is to pray.

How Conscience Works

Study, Elect, Execute, Review

3. Execute

This involves responsibility.

You must do what your conscience tells you is right or you sin.

Be an actor, not a reactor. Take control of your own actions and own them.

How Conscience Works

Study, Elect, Execute, Review

4. Review Evaluate and reflect on the actions already

performed.

If we have taken the steps to form a good conscience, then our conscience will be clear.

If we have gone against what we know we should have done and sinned, then our conscience can help us repent and reform.

How Conscience Works

Peer Pressure and Conscience

fortitude “The moral virtue that ensures firmness in

difficulties, and constancy in the

pursuit of the good” (CCC1808).

Peer Pressure and Conscience

martyr

A witness ready to suffer and even die for truth and virtue;

martyrdom is the ultimate act of

fortitude.

Fortitude

How to resist negative peer pressure:

Resolve to be your own person.

Know your own standards.

Use humor and grace to say “no.”

Stay away from situations that might tempt you.

Peer Pressure and Conscience

VocabularyConscienceVirtueViceSeerFortitudeMartyr