Saints LightConscience: Forming It and Following It
Conscience is God's voice within, and we must follow it, but we must also form it carefully through Scripture, prayer and Church teaching, because a conscience can be mistaken.
What this lesson teaches
- Conscience is the inner place where we hear God's law calling us to love good and avoid evil.
- We must always follow a certain conscience, and no one may be forced to act against it.
- Conscience can err, so we have a lifelong duty to form it by Scripture, prayer and Church teaching.
- Ignorance we could not avoid lessens guilt; ignorance we chose does not.
Catechism paragraphs this lesson cites
- CCC 1776-1782
- CCC 1783-1785
- CCC 1790-1794
CCC means the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Saints Light teaches it in its own words and never quotes it. Look up any paragraph in a printed copy or at vatican.va. See every lesson by paragraph in the Catechism index.
Scripture read in this lesson: Romans 2:14-15; Romans 12:2.
A sample question from this lesson
What does the Church teach about following conscience?
- Conscience should be ignored if it disagrees with others
- We must follow a certain conscience, and we also have a duty to form it well
- Conscience is just personal feeling
- Only priests have a reliable conscience
Show the answer
We must follow a certain conscience, and we also have a duty to form it well. We must obey the certain judgment of conscience (CCC 1790), and its formation is a lifelong task (CCC 1783-1784).
The lesson in the app has three questions, each with an explanation.
Words to know
- Conscience
- The judgment of reason by which a person recognizes the moral quality of an act, hearing God's law within.
- Invincible ignorance
- Ignorance a person could not reasonably have overcome, which removes guilt.
More terms in the Catholic glossary. More passages in the Scripture index.
Read the full lesson in the app
"Conscience: Forming It and Following It" is lesson 5 of Grace, Virtue and Sin. In Saints Light you get the whole teaching, the Scripture quoted in full, all three questions and a step to live it this week.
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Related lessons
- Living as a Christian: Love, Commandments and Virtue (Start Here, free)
- The Daily Examen: How Do You Review a Day with God? (Learning to Pray)