Christian Morality

Chapter 5: Conscience Formation

What Conscience is NOT:

 Conscience as ________________________ ________________________:
 Simply doing what the crowd does. If everyone is doing it, then it must be
okay.
 Conscience as a ________________________:
 “If it feels good, do it.”
 Conscience as ________________________:
 The leftover rules of childhood that we carry around in our subconscious.
 Conscience as __________________-________________________:
 “My hunch tells me I should act this way.”
 Conscience as ________________________ ________________________:
 A cricket whispering what to do or what not to do.
 Conscience as a ____________________:
 Believing conscience is a fake concept, the creation of organized religions
to help control people through guilt.

What Conscience IS:

 Conscience is a ________________________ of ____________________ about
the moral quality of a concrete act.

1. Conscience is awareness of God’s call ________ ________:

 The secret place at the core of our beings where we can be alone with
God.
2. Conscience is awareness of God’s call to know and do good, ______ _______:
 A basic awareness of good and evil.
3. Conscience is a practical __________________ of the __________________:
  VERY __________________; it urges us to do _______________ or
keeps us from _______________, guides us in doing an action, or
_______________ as good or evil acts done.
 These 3 points (of what conscience is) stress the ____________________
nature of conscience; an individual call by God to be a ____________________
person, to search for ____________________ truth, to do __________________
in the __________________ here-and-now situation.
 Many issues of right and wrong involve ________________________
________________________:
 An important element of a Christian’s ________________________ is to
help examine its ________________________ and to judge the morality
of those policies and practices that affect our life together.

How Conscience Works:

 In our daily routine, most of our decisions of conscience are ________________.
 They result from our already acquired ____________________,
____________________, and ____________________.
 Good habits = ____________________
 Bad habits = _____________________
 More ________________________ decisions require more
________________________.

SEER – Study, Elect, Execute, Review

1. STUDY:
 ____________________ _______________________ about the moral
object, the motives, and the circumstances involved in a decision.
2. ELECT:
 Choose the ____________________ course of action.
 An essential part of making this decision is to be in the
____________________ of the _______________ and ______________.
 3. EXECUTE:
 Putting into ____________________ what you have decided in
________________________ is the ________________ course of action.

4. REVIEW:
 Conscience also helps us to ____________________ and
____________________ on actions already performed.

Frequently Asked Questions:

 Must I always follow my conscience?
 _______________. If you go against what your conscience tells you to do,
then you are ignoring the _______________ of _______________. Not
following your conscience makes you guilty of sin.
 Can my conscience be wrong?
 The formation of conscience is a ____________________ task.
Conscience is never ____________________ formed; if is always forming
by staying informed
 What factors contribute to an erroneous conscience?
 One major reason for an erroneous conscience is __________________.
Another is falling into __________ _______________.
 The CCC lists other factors that lead to bad decisions:
 Ignorance of Christ and his Gospels
 Bad example of others
 Enslavement to one’s passions
 False ideas of conscience
 Rejecting Church teaching
 Lack of true repentance
 Lack of love
 Fortitude:
 “The moral virtue that ensures ____________________ in difficulties and
________________________ in the pursuit of the good.” (CCC1808)
 The virtue of fortitude steers between fearful ____________________ and
foolish ____________________ caused by misdirected anger or a false sense of
bravery.
 Martyr:
 A ____________________ ready to suffer and even die for
_______________ and ____________________; the ultimate act of
fortitude.
 We are a kind of martyr when we stand up to evil and injustice.